Is this Timing belt kit overkill??

[Herm99]

Do i really need all this stuff listed in this kit? $266 seems a bit much for a TB kit for this car no? Where does everyone get their TB kits from??
TIA

http://catalog.autohausaz.com/autohausa ... Belt%20Kit

[93forestpearl]

That kit has all the idler/tensioner bearings. That's a pretty decent price, actually. The belt itself should be around $60ish.

[Herm99]

That kit has all the idler/tensioner bearings. That's a pretty decent price, actually. The belt itself should be around $60ish.

ya they typically have some of the best prices on the net, but i was curious if i really need all that stuff for the tb job?

Didn't think the TB would be so spendy for this car, considering how cheap everything else is for it. I can get a full TB kit for my 00 Audi S4 for $335, and it includes the water pump and all tensioner/rollers etc.

[RJ93SS]

dont forget cam and crank seals

[Herm99]

dont forget cam and crank seals

already got them.

[ChesterKV]

Do i really need all this stuff listed in this kit? $266 seems a bit much for a TB kit for this car no? Where does everyone get their TB kits from??
TIA

http://catalog.autohausaz.com/autohausa ... Belt%20Kit

Hey Dude,

Unfortunately, you don't want to buy this kit because the two smooth green idlers are GMB brand SINGLE-bearing. The original EJ22 motors utilized two double-bearing idlers and later switched to one single and one double-bearing.

Autohausaz will claim the GMB bearings are double-bearings because that's the information they received from the importer many years ago. In fact, if you look at other websites selling GMB brand smooth idlers they all say the same cut-and-paste text.

They are all incorrect.

I know this from a conversion project I did a year ago installing a '92 EJ22 into a 1984 Vanagon. What you want to buy is Subaru OEM. In this case the double-bearing idlers are KOYO brand and the belt is Bando. Yes, people use Gates with no issues.

I contacted GMB North America and an engineer on site confirmed that the GMB bearings sold by Autohausaz are NOT double-bearing idlers. They are single-bearing. He then told me that GMB does not sell ANY double-bearing idlers for any make of car anywhere in North America.

You risk a higher chance of a seized idler if you install two single-bearing smooth idlers. Remember, Subaru never did it this way.

- Chester

[Matt Monson]

To answer the first question about whether or not it's a good idea to replace all the idlers, and the tensioner on a timing belt job, I would say that yes it is. Think about the service interval. We are talking about a job you do every 100k mi. If you figure your cost per mile, we're talking less than 3 tenths of a cent per mile. Or if you want to do it by year, figure it costs you $17.65 a year. Now does that really seem that expensive when you look at the big picture and consider it's a service that you will likely do once?

As for the GMB versus Koyo, single row versus double row claims? I've seem people talk about it for a number of years now. I've seen a lot of fear but I've never once seen someone step up and say that they have actually experienced a premature failure with one of these GMB idlers. Saying that it's the way Subaru did it doesn't mean that you had to do it that way.

Subaru is in the business of building cars. They build very good cars. But this does not make them bearing experts. GMB is in the business of building bearings. They are bearing experts. Subaru in all likelihood used the design of bearing that was handed to them by Koyo when they told Koyo what they wanted. They listened to what one expert told them. Who is to say that that expert didn't tell them to use a product that was way overkill for the job it was designed to do because it made that expert more money? I'm not saying that this is the case. I am just saying that I see no reason to avoid GMB idlers.

[Arctic Assassian]

subaru quit making the double-bearing. It's now a green single bearing. I noticed this three days ago.

[Herm99]

To answer the first question about whether or not it's a good idea to replace all the idlers, and the tensioner on a timing belt job, I would say that yes it is. Think about the service interval. We are talking about a job you do every 100k mi. If you figure your cost per mile, we're talking less than 3 tenths of a cent per mile. Or if you want to do it by year, figure it costs you $17.65 a year. Now does that really seem that expensive when you look at the big picture and consider it's a service that you will likely do once?

As for the GMB versus Koyo, single row versus double row claims? I've seem people talk about it for a number of years now. I've seen a lot of fear but I've never once seen someone step up and say that they have actually experienced a premature failure with one of these GMB idlers. Saying that it's the way Subaru did it doesn't mean that you had to do it that way.

Subaru is in the business of building cars. They build very good cars. But this does not make them bearing experts. GMB is in the business of building bearings. They are bearing experts. Subaru in all likelihood used the design of bearing that was handed to them by Koyo when they told Koyo what they wanted. They listened to what one expert told them. Who is to say that that expert didn't tell them to use a product that was way overkill for the job it was designed to do because it made that expert more money? I'm not saying that this is the case. I am just saying that I see no reason to avoid GMB idlers.

good info, thank you!