Paid $500 to a trusted mechanic. Ordered an AISIN timing belt kit and a Bando drive belt for around $250 (including tax and shipping).
Get the Aisin (OEM supplier) Timing belt and water pump w/ hydraulic tensioner kit (TKT021) from RockAuto (good price, authentic Aisin).
My friend has a 2.0 mk6 Jetta and it’s been the most reliable car he’s ever owned. It’s only needed a timing belt and basic maintenance items and he’s had it for almost 3 years and around 100,000 km added. It’s seen multiple cross border road trips without skipping a beat, and It’ll likely outlive him
I used to be a Toyota parts guy, we used aisin kits for all our timing belt jobs on all the UZ V8s, all of them are the same layout.
AISIN TKT-021 kit has everything you need for timing belt/water pump. The water pump is driven by the timing belt, so always replace it when doing the belt.
Re the timing belt, if that has not been done I would get to that immediately. At 350K km it is a ticking time bomb. Use, specify, or supply the Aisin TKH-002 timing belt kit. It is OEM quality
I’ve used dozens of the Aisin TKH002 kits- they come with koyo bearings, a decent tensioner, and a Mitsuboshi timing belt, all very similar to the oem Honda parts. I think the only major difference is the Honda water pumps are usually made by Yamada and the aisin ones are made by aisin… I can’t say I’ve ever had failures with them
Aisin timing belt kit is a few hundred bucks and very nice quality parts.
After sending the car for service to change the timing belt, tensioner, and the water pump on my VW Fox 2014 (brazilian model, EA111 1.6 8V), I got this noise for the first 5min the car is on, then the motor heats up a little and its gone, no performance issues so far.
The timing belt failed kindly early 65k later, so could have been bogus Aisin parts.
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If choosing timing belt across many manufacturers, check the part ranking. If your choice is down to two brands, the PartReview part comparisons help.
We compare timing belt across these categories:
In March 2026 on PartReview, timing belt AISIN were overall better than OEM Volkswagen.
In March 2026 on PartReview, timing belt OEM Volkswagen were overall more popular than OEM Volkswagen.
By vote balance, timing belt AISIN surpassed OEM Volkswagen:
By number of reviews, the manufacturers are equal:
In March 2026, according to PartReview, timing belt OEM Volkswagen led more car-specific ratings than AISIN:
OEM Volkswagen are chosen by owners of cars such as: Volkswagen Golf, Volkswagen Jetta, and others.
AISIN are chosen by owners of cars such as: Subaru Legacy, and others.
If this comparison didn’t fully answer your question, there are many others on PartReview.
For example, comparisons of timing belt AISIN with: Gates, OEM Honda, OEM Toyota, Continental, OEM FORD, Mitsuboshi, Contitech, OEM Subaru, DAYCO, OEM Volvo.
Also available: comparisons of timing belt OEM Volkswagen with: Gates, OEM Honda, OEM Toyota, Continental, OEM FORD, Mitsuboshi, Contitech, OEM Subaru, DAYCO, OEM Volvo.
You can also see who is better among other timing belt manufacturers: AISIN or Gates, Gates or OEM Volkswagen, Gates or OEM Honda, OEM Toyota or Gates, Continental or Gates.
