SeanR

Any belt that I have installed in the past 3 years, I've not got the call that the belt tension warning is coming on due to the belt. Granted, I make it a habit of installing only the Gates on the interference engines and on the early 16v cars, it's pretty much up to what they want. Now that the Gates is $10.00 cheaper than the Conti, I rarely install a Conti.

I have had a Gates come back in for a warning, and that was due to the tensioner warning system being stupid on my part. The wires were not connected as solid as I thought they were. Sucked getting that tested out but that was my own issue, not with the belt.

*****ensure that the warning system is clean, the wires are in good shape, and the ground points are good.

Now, I've got a Conti belt on my car, have had for 4 years, also got a lot of Conti belt S4's running out there that I replaced 3-4 years ago and have had no issues with them. The Conti belt was the cheaper option 4 years ago, and I doubt that the quality has gone to **** since then, but since I deal with Roger daily, and know he deals with Gates directly, I know those are the ways to go now.

I have run the **** out of my Conti belt with a cheap reman water pump on my S4 for 4.5 years now, and I mean I have run the **** out of it. It goes good, but in 6 months, I will be going new Laso pump, Gates Belt and will still have the confidence I had before.

This does not mean I know anything about the Gates Racing belt, I've only felt those in my hands.

Landseer

Thanks for that.

I'll run the conti belts for a while longer.

SeanR

Landseer, don't worry about it. There is a huge deal with people going OMFGMY****GOINGTOBLOWUP, make sure all of your stuff is in good shape, cam gears, oil gear, tensioner bolt............the usual and there won't be an issue.

I used the rebult cheap water pump because there wasn't a better option out there 4 years ago....for me........BUT, I have pulled no less than 6 of those in the past 1.5 years due to failure. I got lucky. And I use one as a demo to customers as to why to not use them. Not worth the chance.

I know you wanted to know more about the belts, but I figured there would be more that searched and wanted pump info. I've not had an issue with the Conti belts, I just perfer to go with what some of the others have said............Besides, Roger has the price of Gates down way low

Bill Ball

I don't care if it's Conti, Gates or your mother's belt, if it loses tension anytime enough to trip the warning and is found to be loose, it's history. It's a bad sign. These belts really are not supposed to stretch.

Landseer

Bill, thanks for the data points on your belt experience, as they are particularly revealing plus consistent with my 32 V experiences.

Truth is that that I want to switch-out the belts (and several rebuilt pumps).
Its not possible for me at the moment to do so. Maybe in Feb/Mar.
When it is, I will go with Gates and new Lasso.