At the end of the day, You're asking members of a Forum what they recommend and by definition any answers we give you will be as you so eloquently put it 'an opinion'.

If you want hard facts or definitive answers may I suggest you pay for that service at a garage rather than haranguing members here?

You wouldn't ask random people in the street what was in a pork pie would you?

Everyone will have an opinion. A mechanic who has worked with Fords for 40 years will have one. A 20 year old who has had one timing belt changed in their life will have one. Some are useful. Some are simply not.

We're all flawed when it comes to forming an opinion. We're incorrectly biased whether we like it or not.

There have been useful responses on here, as hoped and expected.

I wouldn't agree with your statement that asking members about Ford timing belts would be equivalent to asking random people in the street what was in a pork pie. I wouldn't have asked otherwise.

So whats in a pork pie? .lol

or should thst be a new thread.

So whats in a pork pie? .lol

or should thst be a new thread.

I know this much. You're going to need somebody with pork pie experience. :P

Samworth Brothers, based in Leicestershire, are the largest maker of certified Melton Mowbray pork pies, due to their certification they are not spurious & have a minute failure rate.

It's seam there is some confusion here. There are 3 levels of parts consumer(Cheap) O.E. quality and Ford supplied. Just because ford supply the components does not mean they make them or even would supply it on a new car. Simply means they consider it the correct quality and price for a replacement part.

So you could simply work out which O.E quality parts ford use and purchase those items at a lower price than ford parts. This makes the assumption your get it right. Worst case is you buy the cheapest parts you can find and hope nothing goes wrong.

The safe and best route is get ford parts and be sure they are the correct items and get some support if thing do go wrong.

Pays your money and take your choice.

cept it isn't just the belt, its the tensioners, bolts and water pump, your probably right and its the same gear and possibly even QC'd the same, but probably isn't good enough for the sake of 20 quid.

Ill be having mine done soon and ill be using ford.

Perhaps whats more likely to cause problems is the garage its done it.

It's seam there is some confusion here. There are 3 levels of parts consumer(Cheap) O.E. quality and Ford supplied. Just because ford supply the components does not mean they make them or even would supply it on a new car. Simply means they consider it the correct quality and price for a replacement part.

So you could simply work out which O.E quality parts ford use and purchase those items at a lower price than ford parts. This makes the assumption your get it right. Worst case is you buy the cheapest parts you can find and hope nothing goes wrong.

The safe and best route is get ford parts and be sure they are the correct items and get some support if thing do go wrong.

Pays your money and take your choice.

Agree here fellas.

Its up you yourself at the end of the day but in my own Opinion if a Im ever in doubt over the quality of a part (ie timeing belts, water pumps ect) I just go to ford because the way I see it they built the car so if they think the parts good then so be it.

At the end of the day I think that if you want the best stuff then the guys who built, designed and maintain the cars are the best people to go to and as Darren as said genuine ford parts are not that overall more expensive than cheaper counterparts on most occasions. For example last year when servicing my and my father in laws cars local independent autoshops wanted £68 for the usual service stuff (oil filter, air filter ,pollen filter spark plugs and oil ect).

Now thats ok but when I priced genuine ford parts from local ford (which we went for in the end) it was a total of £83 so all in all we where happy with that and in good mind frame that we have the best stuff we could afford on the cars. Another thing to is that the genuine part from ford will always moire likely be 100% of a fit. examples of this for me are old escort battery boxes which again from local auto shops where a universal type fit so where always off a little but from ford they where a 100% fit and sealed better I have has this experience with a few parts over the years from time to time.

I do believe that all parts from a local autos shop are bound to be checked and probably and have to pass a certain type of safety type test or something before they can sell them so if budget or money is an issue then these parts are 100% but in my eyes if the genuine ford part is only a little bit more expensive then just get it even if its just for a piece of mind.

Now guys this is only my OPINION so please don't jump at me here lol! :)

Cheers guys. Some good reasoning.

I must ring Ford and price up the genuine parts.

in some cases it is better go get aftermarket. for example the water pump ford sell has a plastic impellor which can break off, some aftermarket companies sell metal impellor water pumps which last much longer

however for something such as a timing belt, i would go ford or gates because that's a write off if the belt snaps

just had a gates fitted to mine on a 16 year old focus with the original belt on mine, last owner didn't look after the car, if anything, I would say the gates was a much better build quality, just by looking at the belt, the gates one is a 3 layer belt, the original ford was just one piece rubber, gates kit cost me £48.99, ford kit was £79.99 and id rather have the gates, not just because of the price, ive used gates before on previous cars that ive had for years and never had any problems.

to complicate things a little more, ford motorcraft is technically different to Ford, although also technically the same, ive quizzed ford on these a few times and in their opinion, they are identical, just ones priced more. Its like Tesco everyday and the Tesco finest brands, if you look at the actual contents, they are 100% identical in every aspect, yet one is about 3 times the price.

edit, oops, didn't mean to quote!

interesting about the impellers!

Glad my 1.0 ecoboost doesnt need doing until 150k, that will be ford parts and 7hrs labour.thats if the ecoboost engine lasts that long.