MarcoLGT Posted February 7, 2018 Share Posted February 7, 2018 I'm collecting parts now for the timing belt job now. Found Aisin TKF 004TBHTIK. It doesn't come with a water pump, but I don't think Aisin makes one for our cars. Belt is a Mitsuboshi which is an OE supplier for many belts, just not ours. All other idler and tensioners should be exact OE replacements. That kit plus an OEM water pump, thermostat and necessary gaskets should take care of it and be much cheaper then going full OEM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdelker Posted February 7, 2018 Share Posted February 7, 2018 As was mentioned in other threads, I got the gates 328N kit from rock auto. All parts were NTN bearings including tensioner. Just installed it this weekend. THere was a sheet in there talking about recent Gates timing kit failures, where they traced them down to bad install (not properly gapping the belt guides) and they stressed how to fix that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
08SpecB_DE Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 That's bogus. Some issues may have been bad installs but that doesn't change the fact that they switched to an inferior and faulty tensioner. I've personally seen them defective out of the box. I also don't recall automatics having guides but I'm not 100% sure about that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeuEmMaiMai Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 IF you are worried about parts failure because made in China... don't be as long as they come from a quality company. I did my t-belt on my 2003 Subaru at 61K in 2014 (sans water pump) miles and now at 120K I had to do my water pump and the hydraulic tensioner that I replaced with my timing belt actually FAILED AGAIN. this was a OEM Subaru part that did not even last 60K Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcoLGT Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 From what I've read online people were ordering the Gates kit ending with an "N" and still potentially getting the cheaper bearings. So failures or not, I'm still not sure what bearings the kit will come with. Where as the Aisin kit should be a NTN tension, NTN idler, 2 Koyo idlers and a NSK geared idler. These are supposed to be the exact same parts you get from Subaru. Won't know for sure until I get the kit and install. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdelker Posted February 10, 2018 Share Posted February 10, 2018 From what I've read online people were ordering the Gates kit ending with an "N" and still potentially getting the cheaper bearings. So failures or not, I'm still not sure what bearings the kit will come with. Where as the Aisin kit should be a NTN tension, NTN idler, 2 Koyo idlers and a NSK geared idler. These are supposed to be the exact same parts you get from Subaru. Won't know for sure until I get the kit and install. My gates N kit had exactly this in it. Data point of 1, but for me, that's the only one that counted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcoLGT Posted February 10, 2018 Share Posted February 10, 2018 IF you are worried about parts failure because made in China... don't be as long as they come from a quality company. I did my t-belt on my 2003 Subaru at 61K in 2014 (sans water pump) miles and now at 120K I had to do my water pump and the hydraulic tensioner that I replaced with my timing belt actually FAILED AGAIN. this was a OEM Subaru part that did not even last 60K Funny you say that cause I'm replacing what I assume is the original tensioner at about 57k miles. Started making a knock type noise from the passenger head, luckily not fast enough to make me think rod knock. So I pulled the drivers cover to check it out and saw the belt showed accelerated wear on half of it. Noise was no longer at the passenger side either. My gates N kit had exactly this in it. Data point of 1, but for me, that's the only one that counted. Good to hear the kits are still coming with OE quality parts. Price wise both kits are right around $190, although the Gates kits seems more readily available. Always good to have options. Here's to hoping this tensioner lasts more than 60k! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLlegacy Posted February 10, 2018 Share Posted February 10, 2018 I was able to find new in box Subaru parts for my idlers and tensioners here on the marketplace in the 4th or 3rd gen section. Lets not forget how long these parts have actually been produced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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