Subaru gates timing belt kit-made in China?! Disappointed.

Gates Subaru timing belt pulley box incorrectly labeled bad customer service gates no longer worth it pulleys not NSK

[Garage]

The Gates water pumps have changed now too, so go with AISIN apparently which are actually OEM!

[ForeignerPhan]

I just had to replace the POS Gates WP in my '05 Pilot which started to fail at the 40, 000 mile/2 1/2 year mark. In my case, the rest of the Gates TB kit were high quality components(Koyo for example) but the WP is garbage. I swapped it with an Aisin unit and all is quiet in my engine bay again. The next time I'll probably just go with the Aisin kit(which is only another $40 at RA) and save myself the aggravation of tearing into my vehicle twice in 2 1/2 years. I gotta say this video is more than a little troubling. Thanks for sharing.

[thomasbartlett]

Thank you for posting this video. When I received the 2016 RockAuto timing belt kit for my 2006 Outback 2.5i, I felt the same way initially as you, betrayed! Then, after surfing the web on the NTN, NSK and the Chinese connection, behold they have plants in China too. I have over 10K miles on these components and the car runs beautifully. There was a learning curve for the Japanese parts as well when they entered the auto industry. So, "OEM" may also be coming from China.

[Projects]

Any idea when they made the switch to China? I bought my gates kit November 2014. I haven't had issues with it but I've only put about 1k miles on the car since.

[mikewasowski]

That sucks! I was about to get a Gates kit for my Subie and luckily saw this. I'm not familiar with consumer rights where you are from, but here in Australia, I'm quite certain the watchdog would crack down on this type of false advertising. Issues is, they'd go after the retailer/importer and not the manufacturer. Gates really need a visit from a lawyer, better still a changing of the guard in upper management who allow this type of shit.

[MikeSmith-yboq]

did you find another timing belt kit that uses nkg....what about continental with japan and German parts?

[raefjay]

what a dilemma looking at getting a kit in the UK. There is one seller that sells kit for around £45 more and he states that all pulleys are Japanese made but now not sure if the Japanese are nsk. it seems as though unbranded Japanese are the same as Chinese pulleys.

[MegaChickenPunch]

2022 and same shit on my Gates belt tensioner...

[Garage]

I was pretty disappointed in this as well. Best bet now is to get the idler kits on eBay and buy the timing belt separate like Mitsuboshi.

[scottfirman]

Yup Gates lies. I am going with Subaru, so what the parts cost more, at least you get Japan parts.

[JaYzWrExX]

Has anyone been able to find an alternative to gates? Please post links if possible.

[anthonyr]

The pulley is fine it’s koyo which is equivalent

[scottfeldman]

I had the same experience with Aisin timing belt kit. Three pieces made in China

[Elyyfz]

Thanks for the info. This is not good. I took my subaru apart and the factory timing belt is made in Thailand. Is that ok?

[jabirdvlogs]

While it is absolutely false that those parts are made in Japan, it’s important to note that NTN and industries alike do have plants in China, I would have to assume they are made to meet the same standards, still however this doesn’t excuse the manner in which they advertise and label these updated timing kits.. it’s misleading, and like you stated it’s not ideal to go installing parts onto a Subaru if you’re unsure about their quality control and true origin.

[cleavland]

Modern business practices in the time of the internet 1) Fierce competetion based upon price point 2) Higher ups at companies are protected by a firewall of grunts who answer angry phone calls and are poorly paid. 3) the bottom line for the executives is how much money are they bringing in.

We as consumers, also known as humans, can choose to buy (vote) for cheap quantity or quality. Some people are seriously struggling to get their car to work so they can barely make rent and food for the kids. If you can afford it get the stuff that cost more because of quality!

In this age of globalization people are loosing out to large business practices. For this 1 Gates issue you can multiply that exponentially in other fields of business such as appliances, clothing, ect. Its not about people when its cheap. Its about getting people to beleive that the company is about people enough to let them maintain their toxic business practices.
Those "firewall" customer service operators often take the brunt for frustrated customers. Our vehicles break down because a part is cheap and cost the company next to nothing to replace it while we may have lost a day of work to get another part. This is a new way of doing business. How much do we want to spend in order to get it cheap?

[jonyoung]

just got a kit, came with a "Made in China " water pump.

[marcelinhostarwars]

Guys!!! Somebody put this kit with chinese bearings? I almost buy one! Thanks for the advised!

[izcoronel]

gates does not realized the power of free media now a days after i watch your unpleasant experience i will not even bother to buy any of their products i hope a lot of guys out-there see your video.as for gates reps too bad man your going to loose a lot of business.what you should have done is correct the issue.

[shiftyshamsk]

They sell millions of these kits world wide. They'd have a massive law suite against them if they were rubbish. When you took your car to a dealer in the past for a belt kit did you ask if it had Chinese parts? No.
These kits come with a two year warranty. You have to ask yourself why your so worried about it, when there so many other parts that maybe fitted to your car by a previous owner using cheap brand parts?? Even a belt kit already on it. Chinese brand tyres? Loads of people buy those. Fitter usually just says you need tyres so you buy a mid priced tyre and off you go.