Timing belt Gates or OEM Volkswagen

So, a bit more longevity that actually holds up to the OE change interval with the conti belts is a plus.

Well guys.... Heres a little update. It was a bad water pump. Real bad. The car just rolled over on 145k. The original owner never had the original timing belt and water pump replaced. After taking everything apart, I realized how lucky I was that the pump was the only thing to go. The belt was severely cracking.

It is still a really great product that will last longer than an ordinary belt.

Never heard of them before, but I just installed a Gates Racing (blue) timing belt on my 2.8L Passat.

Well to clarify. I just bought a belt from the dealer and it is a gates. So if your belt looks pretty beat up then its stock. I would change it asap as others sugested. Its cheaper in the long run.

They haven't been out long enough to give concrete evidence. I will say that RAI's clearly reselling a belt made elsewhere so who knows what you're getting and Gates has a long track record for selling pretty tough belts.

All done! Timing belt, TB tensioner, idler, water pump and expansion tank are changed and coolant flushed. I forgot to do thermostat, but it was not necessity but rather preventive.

Just changed mine on saturday.. Car has 65k , although the tensioner and rollers seemed prefectly fine i could tell the belt was stretched.. Car runs smoother/ quieter after install and i have peace of mind that it will last another 65k.

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).

i'm running a gates kevlar timing belt on my car with integrated's mechanical tensioner kit and there's a section of the belt that seems to be shredded off about a quarter of the width of the teeth.. the belt seems to ride closer to the engine so maybe that is why this happened? should i replace the belt with a new one? it only has about 6k on it.. shredded teeth..