Timing belt pulley upgrade

[TK22]

I'm not sure how many people know about the steel pulley upgrade for the timing belt I spent a few weeks looking for something better then the plastic pulleys when I found a place on eBay that sells both pulleys in steel with a new belt.

It's more about piece of mind knowing that nothing can really go wrong with the timing belt any more they should last the car the rest of it's life but the belt and water pump will still have to be changed.




Timing Belt KIT Chev Aveo AVEO5 04 08 L4 1 6L Heavy Duty Iron Pulley Tensioner | eBay

[avguy]

... nothing can really go wrong with the timing belt any more they should last the car the rest of it's life ....

Sorry, but that's not correct. As with the water pump, there are bearings in both of the pulleys, and either of them could wear out over time and fail, with the same disasterous outcome. How likely are those bearings to fail? Who knows, but they must have a limited life expectancy, and IMO should be changed out along with the other components.

[TK22]

I would think if they would seize in the steel pulley the belt can still run on a seized pulley but it will cause it to smoke should give enough time to pull over and shut the engine off or at least the driver should be able to smell the rubber from the belt.

I still personally feel steel pulley is better then plastic ones I'm sure it will fail at some point everything dose but I still feel that I could get away with changing the timing belt and water pump and leave the pulleys rather then replace them every time as long as they get checked to make sure they still function ok then I see no problem using them.

I changed a timing belt on my friends '96 dodge neon in October 2015 for the first time in the cars life it got a new water pump and timing belt and the steel tensioners where still working perfect so they were reused and the timing belt never even stretched the only reason why it was even changed was the water pump was leaking.

He's had the car since new and has done virtually no maintenance on it what's so ever it's still running with the original spark plugs and wires there's not much left of the electrode any more but it still runs and drives.

[avguy]

Your vehicle, your call.

[TurboElk]

Tell us what it looked like when you received it... so more people can get one.

[06T200]

This ought to be interesting, judging by the negative feedback for the seller the quality of the parts would be suspect.

Be sure to make note if the bearings are NTN/NSK or some china stuff. When it comes to wheel bearings (on cars OR bikes) and timing components I want the best quality parts I can find. Keep us posted.

[TurboElk]

I haven't looked at the idlers yet but would it be easy to swap out the cheap bearings for god quality ones, or swap out the plastic rollers for metal ones?

[jep23ing]

Hi there,

I think that the best call is replacing the timing belt and pulley every 50k km instead of 100k. I know that the plastic pulleys fail way under the 100k km, which is what the owners's manual states as service interval but for sure they should last at least 50k. On the other hand, the water pump should last more than that.

[lyoung2]

I like the idea. My son has a 2011 Aveo and the idler there has been upgraded to steel. The only thing bothers me is that in looking at the parts displayed on your reference website for the kit, the bearings are made in Taiwan, and I'm not sure if I could trust the quality.

[EyeintheSky]

Please let us know how it holds up and how the install goes. This seller could make a fortune if it works better than the plastic one.