Idler/Tensioner Pulleys

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Update Continental. They were bought by Schaeffler Technologies AG who also own INA, F.A.G. and LUK and are opening or have opened a factory in China and Russia.
Its possible the Conti pulley is using a INA bearing Made in their own Chinese factory if so that's fine but I suspect these will be more common in the European market.

The ones I have seen are not actually produced by Conti but the same company making them for other brands. Buying parts is a never ending research project to figure out if the part has changed since the last time you bought it or if its even still produced by the same company and not just a name.

Aisin is 30% owned by Toyota and OE on many Japanese cars, they have high quality and a stellar reputation. Conti and Gates may be an OE supplier but for the aftermarket they have a second quality line where Aisin does not.
I have bought new Aisin pumps that have had the Toyota or other manufacturers casting mark cleanly ground off. My opinion is if its not a brand name bearing or uses less bearings than OE in the the case of timing belt idlers (some aftermarket use single cage low quality bearings instead of double cage premium bearings) go with OE.
 
Interesting. From what I read Canada gets more European made products than the US, is that true?
We see a lot of that over the last 15 years or so even with German OE parts as these companies opened plants in the former Eastern block countries especially the Czech Republic. They make some good products, pre war Czechoslovakia made some good cars and were big in the auto industry.
 
Personally I went conti elite on my saab. Tensioners were dayco, belt was goodyear gatorback. I wont put gates tensioners or pulleys on they fail early. So oe or dayco would be my reccomendation.
 
Originally Posted By: Garak
Trav, last Conti assembly I saw, a couple months back, for a Mercedes, was marked as made in Romania.


I didn't look too carefully when I put it in. They were starting to go bad after 60k so that doesn't really say much about MB OEM quality, at least when it comes to pulleys/tensioners, those seemed like common failure items. Guess I'll have to keep an eye on them to see how long the Conti's last. On the last Ford I had, OEM pulleys and tensioners lasted over 200k, never changed them.
 
You used to be able to buy from any of those brands and expect a good result. I've used timing belts from Gates, Dayco, and Continental and they all seemed legit.

I'd be more concerned about the pulley and tensioner than the belt. Unless the company now makes different "grades" of timing belts now and started cheaping out on the belts. Gates started ticking people off when it cheaped out on the pulley and tensioner in their kit, belt good other parts bad, and so then they still sold that kit but then also started selling a more expensive kit with the better parts in it.

As with various parts suppliers now, Continental now sells different "grades" of serpentine belt. I just bought the top-grade one yesterday. It was on a good sale, and comments for it say it doesn't squeal like multiple other belts the people tried did. Without searching for the info at the moment, I think it's that Continental makes the lower line of belt, and the OE version, and then the top version is actually OE but with design improvements. So "OE" isn't necessarily the best part available.

Goodyear and Continental belts are merged now.
Bando tends to have good prices on belts and lots of good things said about them.
 
Originally Posted By: Trav
Interesting. From what I read Canada gets more European made products than the US, is that true?

I think we're just lucky that a couple big online parts places here go through WorldPac, which provides better pricing than Altrom, so there's less temptation to buy jobber parts or even mainstream aftermarket names normally familiar in North America. The OEM type products through WorldPac here tend to be a very good price, often even cheaper than items from Wix, Moog, or the other "big names" in aftermarket parts. When I had the old Audi, I could routinely get Mann, Mahle and the like for cheaper than Fram or Wix (oil filters for less than half price), and that applied to a lot of things like suspension components, pulleys, belts, gaskets, and so forth, where the OE suppliers were cheaper than the brands we'd normally consider if buying things for a domestic car.

When I had the old Audi, the only things I bought that weren't from OE suppliers were a coupe Wix oil filters and a Wix fuel filter. It was hard to argue with a Victor Reinz valve cover gasket for $1.48 and under $10 for an OE steering rack sealing kit.

Wolf359: Her tensioner wasn't terribly old, either, just a bit higher in mileage than yours. Her failure point was actually one of the guide pulleys. So, it's "early," but I reminded her that she could have been around in the V-belt days and serviced the taxis instead.
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The kit was simply the most cost effective way to get the parts needed, and the tensioner replacement was precautionary, and worthwhile when doing the job.
 
a long time ago when i started having some one do my mech work. i would never seen the good side. i picked a very good shop. the service righter had been a mech. the advantage was hes saw diff brands of new parts. and know which ones to use and which ones to not use. that way i didnt have to do the bata testing of the chineszem parts company.
 
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