Reviews of Gates timing belt

I have worked on some where the belt itself snapped in under 10-15k miles, others where the bearings fell apart in the 40-50k mile range. I no longer use them and refuse to install them on customer vehicles.

My preference over the past 25 years is ALWAYS OEM/Genuine whenever possible:

BMW - Continental

Ford/Domestic - ACDelco, Continental

I have had repeated problems with GATES fitment, stiffness, and longevity. 7 of the last 10 snapped timing belts I've pulled from cars have been GATES.

Timing belts arnt as bad as people say. Just pay attention to detail. I’d just say, make sure you do all the tensioners and everything else that connects to it, there should be a full kit of all the parts.

The common complaint of gates timing belts is that they're loud.

Go with Gates, it’s the OEM and you won’t find anything better than that for those parts

Thats a gates replacement,done at the required distance.,100k

That's a gates timing belt which is a high quality aftermarket belt. It is not OEM and has been replaced. It looks like it was replaced at around 100k miles which is spot on.

You could use a Gates timing belt, they're great quality.

Fitted new gates belt

Was able to get the new belt installed with a little less tension but still less than 90* of flex. It till popped a tiny bit during crank rotation, but I decided to go with it, have driven it for about an hour or so, put it through a couple heat cycles all while checking it every 15 ish minutes. First couple times I checked it, it was kinda tight, last couple times I checked it, it felt ok, so idk.