Luis de Prat

Is an OE timing or balance belt from Porsche equal in quality to a timing or balance belt from an aftermarket OEM supplier, even if it's the same manufacturer?

It's my understanding that the general consensus of the forum is NO. A Continental or Gates belt from Porsche is made to higher standards of quality than a comparable aftermarket belt from the same suppliers.

True?

Jfrahm

How would we know?

Luis de Prat

In another thread someone mentioned that the OE Porsche and OEM belts from Gates were visibly different.

How many of the people here reporting broken belts or shorn teeth were using OEM belts instead of Porsche OE? Just the other day someone had the timing belt break on their S2. Was it a Porsche belt or aftermarket?

Mike C.

I've been using aftermarket belts for many years (various brands) and have never had any problems. I change them at the 30K interval.

alordofchaos

Luis, it was Paragon's OE belt - he posted the answer just before you asked.

Luis de Prat

Thanks. So, do you think that was a Gates or a Continental? Says "Made in United Kingdom."

Can't remember who it was, but someone in Australia compared the OE Gates with the aftermarket Gates and said they were visibly different. I wonder if this applies to the Continental as well?

Bottom line question is: are the belt failures we're hearing about more prevalent with aftermarket belts than with OE from Porsche?

Darwantae951

I'm very interested in this thread. I have a Conti belt waiting to go on and now I'm not so sure...

-Darwin

Tom R.

My guess would be user error in installation or that another part should have been replaced with the belt.

Rip It

I just looked at my oem belts and at 30 k miles they look like new.

Luis de Prat

Unfortunately, you can't tell much about their reliability from how they look.