Timing belt Continental or OEM FORD

Continental for timing belt and Geba water pump. Gates is fine for accessories belt not timing due to more recent production issues. I will get a gates for any of our 5 vehicles for an accessories / serpentine belt but not for timing.

it's usually the plan with all my cars until repairs become more expensive than payments. our last car was an 2006 vw jetta tdi. sold it a few years ago (18 years old). it was still running fine-ish but a lot of things were coming up. timing belt and water pump, suspension overhaul, wheel bearings, brakes and caliper rebuild, and it was getting quite a bit of rust all around. it would have lasted and gone for 5+ more years but with 2 young kids getting into sports and stuff and the winter weather we are getting in our new home, it was a smart move to get a truck. with the aluminum body and ease of getting parts for the truck for maintenance as well as the f150 and coyote community, keeping the truck running for a long time should be easy.

Never had a problem with Continental belts in the 15+ years I've done timing belts, at recommended interval replacements as directed.

I have a continental timing belt with 180K km on it. Yes it’s time to change it, but it still looks good. They are good belts, my engines life depends on it.

This Continental Contitech on my VW FOX's EA111 1.6 8v engine is supposedly cracking and dry, according to the shop I sent it. It got only 5000km on it and less than a year.

I have read a lot about the wet timing belt issues, and still went ahead to purchase a 308SW with 85KM...for the 1.2 Puretech, I believe companies like continental contitech have produce a CT1228 belt specifically to tackle oil on the belt, and I believe it's important we use the correct and good quality oil..

Bare in mind that this car uses a "wet belt" timing belt, where the timing belt runs inside the engine within the oil. This means that unless oil changes are carried out frequently, small parts of the belt break off and clock up the oil pickups, starving the engine and killing it.

Regardless of servicing etc, that wet belt is still deteriorating as it is soaked in the hot engine oil.

If it has been done they are actually a good engine when working fine. Plenty of torque and good on fuel. It’s just the reliability of them that’s the major issue. They switched to a timing chain from the wet belt from 2018 for a good reason. The 1.2 turbo engines from PSA are also wet belts and also switched to a chain around 2023. They are a terrible design and simply not going to be economical to maintain properly as the car ages.

Id stay away from that motor. It uses a wet timing belt. Not a great design. Expensive to replace and will only last about 100,000 miles.