siliconvalley

Hi, I ordered head gasket, water pump, timing belt and tensioner from a dealer and all parts are marked with "Honda genuine". RockAuto has those for about 1/2 of the price($340 from the dealer, ~$170 from RockAuto). Anyone feel comfortable with them from RA?

Here are part manufacturers from RA:

• water pump: Aisin
• timing belt: Gates
• timing belt tensioner: Beck/Arnley
• head gasket kit: Mahle/Victor Reinz

Wankenstein

All are non-OE/OEM parts. Aisin is a very well made Japanese part and is the the OEM supplier for many modern Japanese vehicles. Beck/Arnely is hit or miss...sometimes their parts are rebranded OEM and other times low-end crap.
I would only use a Honda OE headgasket. Felpro is generally considered the next best option but still not worth the small savings over OE. Not sure about Gates compared to Mitsuboshi or whatever the OE/OEM timing belt is but, still wouldn't risk it.

You made the right move by spending the extra bucks for OE/OEM considering the parts should last 80k miles (5+ years) minimum.

Colin42

I've used RockAuto for several different parts with no complaints, I never go with the cheapest option they list, I'll go for the better quality parts.

However, with critical parts like the head gasket, waterpump, timing belt + tensioner, those are parts I would stick with OEM. People have had issues with the felpro head gaskets, and if the timing belt ever failed, that means your engine is toast.

mikey1

the only two parts i would trust there are the water pump and timing belt....no way i would use that tensioner or head gasket