Blauparts basic timing belt kit review

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Here's a quick review of the Blauparts' basic timing belt kit. It includes hardware for upper, lower roller, and tensioner; a belt, the two rollers and the tensioner. Very basic and for the price of 200 bills. "The timing belt and tensioner components are the same brands as those provided to VAG, and fitted on your car from the factory." is what they tout and there is some truth to that.

A run-by of visual comparisons and a few notes. I previously changed the belt alone and left everything else to the suggested interval from Audi. So you'll get to see how things stood up.

Their tbelt is INA brand. It didn't feel as sturdy as the Dayco. Wasn't into keeping an eye on who made the parts then, just cared that they were Audi brand. INA's weave pattern is a little different. I would've liked to have taken a micrometer to them, but didn't. The Dayco held up superb, I didn't notice any signs of weakness at all. It could probably go for another twenty k miles at least.



Looks like INA cut costs a bit and went with a thinner housing on the upper roller now. Depending on the bearing application the housing may be stamped one brand and the actual bearing may be made by another. Not to worry INA, Luk, and *** (that's F.A.G. if it gets censored) are all owned by Schaeffler Group. The original lower roller bearing NTN and the blauparts' is INA with a F.A.G bearing.


Here's where It gets a little misleading. The tensioner housing is in fact Litens, but built with a bearing that is made in China....unlike the original equip. The OE version is made by Litens with NTN bearing. This was an upset and hopefully I don't get squeaks down the road. You'll notice on the Blaupart's tensioner, the inner race of the bearing CHINA is clearly stamped. Nothing else or indication of a bearing manufacturer. The original tensioner had no sign of slack and the spring mech seemed tight.


I trust OE so I tried to stay true and put in an Audi water pump. Some say they break and so on, but aftermarket pumps often leak at the bearings and are poorly made. Here's what my original pump looked like...Pretty darn good. *If anyone want's this as a core to buy a rebuilt Audi water pump just pay for the shipping to you, let me know. It's cheaper than buying a brand new one.*


The hardware that comes with the kit.


Used these this time around. Do they make a huge difference when in lock carrier? Not really, but you can not worry about the rad support falling off the snub when your untorqueing those crank bolts. So I do advise using them or something homemade.


TDC and didn't even bother to start her before I put things completely back together.


Finished! Picked the wrong weekend last week to do this, it's in the fifties this Sat. This took so much longer in this winter than it did when I lived down south. Doing this kind of stuff in an unheated garage at 10F kicks my ass.