Duralast - Dayco made Belts?

[S2500Dog]

Hello guys,

Two weeks ago I replaced all of my original Hyundai OEM Gates acessory belts with Duralast-Dayco made belts sold at Autozone. I brought these belts beacause I was a little short on cash and the Gates belts are hard to find in my local area retailers. My original Gates belts last almost 91,500 miles and where great quality belts. My question is how durable and reliable are the Duralast belts and how do they compare quality wise to other brands. I expect these belts to last for some time since my mechanic took his time to align and tension all belts to proper specifications as required by Hyundai. Vehicle is 2003 Hyundai Elantra GT hatchback.

 

[EricF]

I don't know if they'll go 91,500 miles.. I ran a Dayco in my old Firebird, it lasted almost 48,000 miles and I replaced it with a gatorback, the Dayco went into the storage bin in the hatch so I'd have a backup belt. there was only a few (literally) cracks in it, so it probably had easily another 7000 miles.
I would've gotten another Dayco but none of the local auto parts stores sold Dayco.. it was goodyear or gates, and at the time, gates wasn't exactly too popular with the shops.
before AZ rebranded the belts to duralast, they were made by kelly springfield. they were reasonaly priced and worked pretty well. I of course still used a gatorback. when AZ started to carry the duralast belts the packaging said made in china. they didn't sell to well vs. the goodyear. then goodyears got removed and it was duralast or nothing.
A friend who still works at AZ said the duralast belts seem
fine and nobody's returning them complaining about noise or bad fit.
I'd say go for it.. the Dayco rep commented on every question thrown at him and from what he says I would have no problems using a Dayco product.

 

[Virtuoso]

Dayco's have served us well.

 

[BeltGuy]

Great questions. This past spring Dayco was awarded all the belt and hose business from Autozone (except ValueCraft). Previously, the Duralast belts were made by Goodyear in Mexico. Today, Dayco is supplying AZ with their Duralast brand as well as the Dayco National brand Poly Rib "W" belt. BTW, all made in the USA.
The Duralast belt is an OE quality belt made to standard OE specifications. The branded belts have other features such as improved rib design and Aramid (Kevlar) reinforcements to work best with high mileage vehicles.
The thing is, vehicles with 90K miles are far from perfect. Alignment and contaminations are present when a new vehicle's belt drive is perfect. Aftermarket belts need to contend with a different environment. Always check alignment and contaminations. Hope this helps. Robert christy, Director of Marketing Dayco. My vote is Dayco

 

[Vikas]

Somebody claimed that Drive-Rite from Advanced Auto are also manufactured by Dayco.

- Vikas

 

[The Critic]

Originally Posted By: BeltGuy
Great questions. This past spring Dayco was awarded all the belt and hose business from Autozone (except ValueCraft). Previously, the Duralast belts were made by Goodyear in Mexico. Today, Dayco is supplying AZ with their Duralast brand as well as the Dayco National brand Poly Rib "W" belt. BTW, all made in the USA.
The Duralast belt is an OE quality belt made to standard OE specifications. The branded belts have other features such as improved rib design and Aramid (Kevlar) reinforcements to work best with high mileage vehicles.
The thing is, vehicles with 90K miles are far from perfect. Alignment and contaminations are present when a new vehicle's belt drive is perfect. Aftermarket belts need to contend with a different environment. Always check alignment and contaminations. Hope this helps. Robert christy, Director of Marketing Dayco. My vote is Dayco

Are the Duralast belts also EPDM?

 

[nthach]

Dayco is a OEM for Toyota's US operations. They seem to work OK...

 

[Bgallagher]

I have always used Gates and have had good luck. You change the belt so infrequently that it is worth buying a high quality belt.

 

[cutter]

I get squeal for the first few minutes of startup with any smooth rib serpentine belt when it's cool and humid. Only the 'teethy' gatorback has never given me that problem. This is for a 7th gen celica.

 

[GMBoy]

Dayco is also an OEM supplier of belts so no issue with quality there.

 

[artificialist]

I have seen some premature failures of the Dayco belts that resemble Goodyear Gatorback belts. The other ones seem to work fine.