Timing belt AISIN or OEM Volkswagen

I changed the original timing belt on my 2011 TDI Golf at 192,000 miles and the belt still looked good.

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.

They recommend 10 years or 120k miles I pushed mine till 11years and 160k miles but when I removed my original belt it had a significant crack in it from dry rotting

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

I just did the timing belt in my new to me 2004 limited and bought the aisin timing belt kit (tkt-021) with water pump. I bought it from summit racing for $183 had it overnighted to me for additional $33 and still cheaper than any parts store near me by $70.

That being said the Aisin timing belt kits are the only ones I use at my shop.

Located in AZ. I called multiple places and the average was around $1,500 for both water pump and timing belt (dealership was over $3,000 which is insane).

I got lucky as one shop was doing a special for timing belt changes and I got both serviced for $950.

Recently replaced my 2004 UL timing belt at 100k and it came out looking like new with no real evidence of wear. Worth doing though, for peace of mind. Highly recommend the Aisin kit.

It's ezier to do AWD if the tranny is pointed towards the rear wheels than if its set crosswise in the car...so the "pro" is EZ AWD..the con...its a betch to work on the nose of the engine (timing belt, waterpump etc are much more labor intense than on a transverse VW).