Are they any good as ECP dont have any Bosch belts in at the mo? Febi Tensioners? Opinions... Edited by: G60Dub
The ABF is prone to breaking cambelts. Personally I wouldn't consider anything other than genuine - 15+vat from VW stealer a couple of weeks ago. Do I take it the ABF engine is in the Vento? If so that makes it me + one other in the country with this combo... Cheers Martyn '94 Vento 16v
Ah bless... Nice wun! I always wondered why they never made any RHD Vento valvers & plenty in Euprope I believe. My Vento was an chooned 8V but I was looking to drop an ABF or 1.8T b4 I decided to have a very up close and personal look at a crash barrier but yeah just b4 I killed her she probably as fast as a std MKII valver! 8.25 to 60 (Quaiffe) and 140 flat out (technically 136) I recently bought a valver but I'm not updating my sig until the Golf is a bit tidier and back on std 15s. I dont want to pay stealer prices as they were looking at 75 + VAT for a belt and a tensioner. So anyone have the lowdown on who is selling decent valver belts and tensioners at the mo? Edited by: G60Dub
Gates timing belt should be fine, they have a very good reputation. Unipart belts are made by gates, the GTB??? part number is a bit of a giveaway. Paid 15 when I put one on the ABF. I have never heard of a tensioner fail so as long as it's quiet and the bearing feels smooth i don't tend to bother changing it. Having said that I have a LUK one on my 1.8 Mk3 and I've done about 30k on it with no problems.
VW belts I've fitted were made by Gates anyway - All they do is print Gates for VW on them and double the price Dayco belts are ok - OEM on some cars.
yep, concur with gvk&motorhead, dayco belts are fine ive fitted them for years on psa engines, where like gary said, theyre a oem part.
Thank you all I can do my timing belt now; first time doing an ABF but it looks much easier than an 8v - Touch wood
Nowt wrong wi Febi tensioners AFAIK I've fitted one to my Driver and one to my GTI, both were fine and havent given up yet. I've heard of LUK ones whining when fitted new though
is there such a thing as a bad timing belt?ive proberly fitted hundreds over the years of all different brands without any comebacks
Never seen a "bad" one - the consequences for the manufacturer would be huge. Halford's own (if they still do them) are very good - thicker than normal to allow for ham-fisted home mechanics bending them too much when fitting them. They're exactly the same item as the "performance" belts that Kent and Piper sell you - I've been round the factory!
you do get bad belts like you get bad timing chains, KS made replacement timing chains for the Mercs and then found they stretched and wore out after about 10k or less before the exhaust valves started to clip the valves, loads of warranty claims, I put a claim in for 650 and got paid out (took 8 or 9 months)because I found out they had a problem. To start with they denied there was a problem until I told them I was aware of others having the same problem ......w@nkes I avoid FAI belts although some are good quality belts that are named brands, not one manufacturer supplies FAI and they have had to withdraw some belts because of premature failure, like some of there glow plugs, 1.8D camshafts because the vac pump lobe wasnt hardened, the 1.9D pug head gaskets, some Isuzu diesel head gaskets etc etc....best to just stay away from FAI altogether
