Timing belt AISIN or Gates

I had the belt service done on my 2015 last year at a shop in my area and it was about $900 parts & labor using Aisin brand belt & accessories as I specified. Consensus on the Pilot owners' forum is to use either Honda OEM or Aisin brand parts only.

I just had my timing belt and water pump replaced as well, but I bought the Aisin kit myself off of Rockauto.com for around $270.

I have always had good luck with gates belts and they have always looked good when I replaced them too. 70-80k belts looking almost new.

I have had good luck with them for years.

Gates makes good belts.

I’ve done them on Toyotas with more miles than this and they weren’t even starting to crack.

Gates is fine. If you find the gates racing belt it's better. But they are super rare these days. Stay away from any Amazon or ebay crap.

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

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.