Timing belt pulley upgrade

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

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Originally Posted by TK22

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

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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.

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.

Your vehicle, your call.

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

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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Originally Posted by jep23ing

... I know that the plastic pulleys fail way under the 100k km, ....

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Wow, thanks I wasn't aware of that. So we must be driving around in 2 time bombs ready to explode. I'm going out right now and replace both of the plastic pulleys I installed in our Aveos with those metal ones that the OP of this thread said never fail!

I've been kicking around an idea for awhile to make pulleys from aluminum. I'm a machinist and have access to cnc lathes. I've been thinking about turning some out and using my car as a ginea pig. I feel aluminum would work much better than steel, with it being much lighter and better heat dissipation properties. Right now it's just an idea tho. I have my old plastic pulleys in the shop to use for measurements.

What kind of cost would it be for one I would definitely be interested in one maybe even 2 since already looking into buying another Aveo.

Not sure I haven't calculated the total cost. Right now it's just on the drawing board.

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Originally Posted by Prozack

I've been kicking around an idea for awhile to make pulleys from aluminum. I'm a machinist and have access to cnc lathes. I've been thinking about turning some out and using my car as a ginea pig. I feel aluminum would work much better than steel, with it being much lighter and better heat dissipation properties. Right now it's just an idea tho. I have my old plastic pulleys in the shop to use for measurements.

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Hey, I like your innovative thinking. Maybe Teflon treat the rolling surface to wear on the belt a bit better? On some race application's I have seen timing belt idlers that I would swear were just a skateboard wheel machined down to fit. Good quality aluminum should wear on these belts fine IMO. I know the Opel engines in Europe these engines are copies of do have metal idlers in production, not sure why Korea went with the plastic stuff, other than to shave cost.

I don't understand why you want to keep the pulleys. You have to remove the pulleys anyway to get to the water pump, so why not just change them while you're in there? I'd rather bet on a brand new plastic pulley with fresh bearings, than a steel pulley with tens of thousands of miles of known bearing wear.

I'm getting ready to change my timing belt again. I put in a ContiTech kit at 50K miles, and I'm now at 130K, so I'll just get the same thing again.

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Originally Posted by zchandran

I don't understand why you want to keep the pulleys. You have to remove the pulleys anyway to get to the water pump, so why not just change them while you're in there? I'd rather bet on a brand new plastic pulley with fresh bearings, than a steel pulley with tens of thousands of miles of known bearing wear.

I'm getting ready to change my timing belt again. I put in a ContiTech kit at 50K miles, and I'm now at 130K, so I'll just get the same thing again.

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I think that you and I are the only ones around here who aren't caught up in the metal pulley mania, and feel ok about the plastic pulleys. I suspect the others in this thread would say that getting 80K out of your replacement plastic pulleys is nothing short of a miracle, and that going with plastic again will result in certain disaster. Well, I've used plastic pulleys 3 times in the past, would always do so again, and have never lost a minuter of sleep over that choice. But for the rest of you who believe all of this stuff about metal versus plastic pulleys, carry on!

And just an unrelated comment for you Z, that MANY of us have used your timing belt DIY, which was one of the first, and probably the best of the bunch.
So on behalf of everyone who benefited from your helpful work, THANK YOU :occasion5:

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Originally Posted by zchandran

I don't understand why you want to keep the pulleys. You have to remove the pulleys anyway to get to the water pump, so why not just change them while you're in there? I'd rather bet on a brand new plastic pulley with fresh bearings, than a steel pulley with tens of thousands of miles of known bearing wear.I'm getting ready to change my timing belt again. I put in a ContiTech kit at 50K miles, and I'm now at 130K, so I'll just get the same thing again.

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The reason I would like to replace he plastic pulleys is because I have seen multiple stories of aveo owners losing an engine because the plastic pulleys failed. Not the belt itself. Plastic is just not a good choice for this application. With all of the intense heat and stress from the belt tension, I'm suprised they don't fail sooner.

We just did a warranty replacement timing belt on an '06 Aveo. Car came in with a driveabilty issue and my tech found a defective cam sensor. While he had the cover off he found an idler with less than 10,000 km on it with a bad bearing. Luckily, it was only growling badly and had not seized yet. Yes, it was a plastic idler. No, the plastic had not failed - the bearing did. The same bearing in a metal pulley would have had the same results. We had used a quality belt and w/p kit in the original install and the manufacturer warranted the part, but any manufacturer can have a bad bearing slip through. The point? The quality of the bearings not the material the pulley is made from is more important. A failed bearing will also destroy a plastic pulley making it look like the plastic, not the bearing failed.

the first mod i did was the drive pulley (80% lighter,perfect balance) and it made such a noticeable difference, someone should make a pulley set, i have the older aveo unfortunately without air-conditioning, so thats a toughie set but a lightweight pulley set for all Aveos would be nice and lightweight rims.. big difference from stock for sure on the rotating mass.

I think if someone was to make metal idlers with the best bearing you could find (maybe ceramic) quite a few people would buy them.... gives me a few ideas.

You can find more information about this from the Stock Drive Products Sterling Instrument. This is what they say "We supply hobbyists, students, distributors and a wide variety of OEMs with high-quality machined timing belt pulleys and molded pulleys at affordable prices.

SDP/SI offers a broad range of off-the-shelf inch and metric timing belt pulleys. Aluminum, steel or plastic pulleys are available with or without metal inserts, metal hubs, set screws or Fairloc® hubs.

As a complete source for small power transmission components, our pulleys are offered in the same profiles as our timing belt selection: 40 D.P., miniature FHT® 1, 2, & 3 mm, Gates PowerGrip GT®2, Gates PowerGrip GT®3, Gates HTD, L, MXL, T, and XL."

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Agree with Kevins. Check them out they've got some really great stuff there.

How did the steel pulleys for the Aveo timing belt work out for you?