Which serpentine belt brand?
- Thread starter MAG00
- Start date
Bando
Originally Posted by MAG00
Originally Posted by Bottom_Feeder
As long as the bearings aren't made in China you should be fine. But even a new Chinese-made bearing is lots better than a worn one, obviously.
Thanks. The idler pulleys are coming direct from Jeep. I am looking for feedback on the belt.
Oops, you did mention that. Sorry, read it too quickly.
Originally Posted by Bottom_Feeder
As long as the bearings aren't made in China you should be fine. But even a new Chinese-made bearing is lots better than a worn one, obviously.
Thanks. The idler pulleys are coming direct from Jeep. I am looking for feedback on the belt.
Oops, you did mention that. Sorry, read it too quickly.
Originally Posted by Bottom_Feeder
Originally Posted by MAG00
Originally Posted by Bottom_Feeder
As long as the bearings aren't made in China you should be fine. But even a new Chinese-made bearing is lots better than a worn one, obviously.
Thanks. The idler pulleys are coming direct from Jeep. I am looking for feedback on the belt.
Oops, you did mention that. Sorry, read it too quickly.
No worries. Thanks.
Originally Posted by MAG00
Originally Posted by Bottom_Feeder
As long as the bearings aren't made in China you should be fine. But even a new Chinese-made bearing is lots better than a worn one, obviously.
Thanks. The idler pulleys are coming direct from Jeep. I am looking for feedback on the belt.
Oops, you did mention that. Sorry, read it too quickly.
No worries. Thanks.
Originally Posted by MAG00
Any thoughts/opinions on the Continental brand? I can't find the site or link now, but I found where they stated they were phasing out the gator back style belt.
I hope that isn't true. I've always had great results from those belts when other belts were noisy.
Any thoughts/opinions on the Continental brand? I can't find the site or link now, but I found where they stated they were phasing out the gator back style belt.
I hope that isn't true. I've always had great results from those belts when other belts were noisy.
Originally Posted by zrxkawboy
Originally Posted by MAG00
Any thoughts/opinions on the Continental brand? I can't find the site or link now, but I found where they stated they were phasing out the gator back style belt.
I hope that isn't true. I've always had great results from those belts when other belts were noisy.
I finally found where I read it. Link: Phasing out Continental Elite (gator back) Belts Bulletin
Originally Posted by MAG00
Any thoughts/opinions on the Continental brand? I can't find the site or link now, but I found where they stated they were phasing out the gator back style belt.
I hope that isn't true. I've always had great results from those belts when other belts were noisy.
I finally found where I read it. Link: Phasing out Continental Elite (gator back) Belts Bulletin
On my Mazda3 (2007), I used a Gates belt (serpentine), it was OK at beginning, but not long after that I'd get a squeal on a cold start, esp when it's raining or damp. It'd be quite after car warms up. I investigated a few times on quite a few things. The eventual cause was that the belt was stretched rather quickly after installation. The tensioner has three marks, a center one which when belt is installed it should line up to, and a min and max so to speak. The belt was stretched beyond the max (less tension) mark. the distance from center mark to max mark is about 5mm. The belt was barely worn, but I had to replace it. New one is OE, and it sat at the center mark. External circumference of the gates belt and the OE are the same, but thickness is not. You can say it's the finicky tensioner that has such a narrow range, but the aftermarket belt often have a somewhat "average" length so the belt would fit many models.
Mazda later on changed the tensioner design with a cartridge type, but I heard it's not quite reliable.
I have used gatorback on other cars, no issues at all, but I replace them at a certain interval.
Toyota OE is from Bando, at least for my 2013 Camry.
Mazda later on changed the tensioner design with a cartridge type, but I heard it's not quite reliable.
I have used gatorback on other cars, no issues at all, but I replace them at a certain interval.
Toyota OE is from Bando, at least for my 2013 Camry.
I don't know if the belt supplier is the same across the entire Mopar fleet for all part numbers, but I think the OEM Mopar belt on my 2019 Charger 5.7 is made by Bando. If you look closely, next to the Mopar part number printed on the belt, is "6PK 2080" which happens to be the equivalent Bando part number for the same application. Rock Auto sells the Bando belt for $13.82 while the Mopar one is $35.99. I'm betting that they are the exact same belt. With the later, they are probably taking the Bando belt and just stamping a Mopar badge and part number on it. Then they put it in Mopar packaging and sell it for more than double the price.
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I only went for either OE, Continental or Gates and never made any bad experience. OE has been Gates most often anyway.
Ran Dayco with the OE tensioner/pulley on my liberty for like 70-80k, no issues, then at like 170k had the tensioner go bad, put on a Gates belt and tensioner, been solid another 40k. I'd just make sure you get the same length. With the liberty, there's two different sized pulleys on the tensioners so you just have to make sure you get the belt matched for that tensioner.
6PK 2080 is not a Bando part number, it's a standardized industry PK number for the kind of belt it is.
6 - indicates it's a 6 row belt
PK - P for metric, and K for automotive belt
2080 - length in mm
Any of the large belt manufacturers can offer a 6PK 2080 belt, if you google that number the first result you get is a Continental belt. But you're right that FCA buys a 6PK 2080 belt from Bando, Gates, Continental, Dayco, etc and has them label it Mopar and sells it for a premium.
I have used at least one belt from each of the following major brands, they all held up well and worked great:
Bando
Dayco
Gates
Continental
Goodyear
Bando
Dayco
Gates
Continental
Goodyear
The non-grooved side of the belt looks like Continental. I've seen Conti aftermarket belts look just like that, and they do make a lot of belts in Mexico.
Too bad the Mopar belt doesn;t have the supplier's name on it. Most OE belts have the supplier's name on it.
I’ve used Gates, Conti, Goodyear(now Conti) and Bando all to good results. I’m leery of Dayco due to the fact parts stores sold them in years past.
I've seen quality all over the place, I used to think Mitsuboshi was the best then they start selling stuff that doesn't look like OEM, I heard Gates weren't great then they becomes OEM. I'd look at the old vs new one and find one that looks like they are really OEM in disguise. If it is too much work just get OEM.
Good to know. Thanks for the information.
