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Being a new member but an old lurker I finally opted to join and ask for some support. I was gifted an 04 Civic DX VP by my son who was offered a whopping $800.00 in trade in value at the stealership. That's the good. The bad is that while it still runs like a sewing machine it has 120K and is due a front brake pad service and a timing belt service. The brakes I have a handle on.
Being an old school shade tree type mechanic I feel confident in tackling the timing job especially with the excellent video's and posts on this site. I intend to use OEM Honda parts from one of the sources such as Majestic or a complete kit from feebay.

At last the question which I searched diligently for before asking. Some sites offer a complete kit with all Honda parts (ebay). These sites sell a separate or included tensioner OEM 04145-PLC-315 $65-$85 bucks. According to the parts list for an 04 DXVP the correct tensioner is 14520-PLC-335 $107-$121 bucks. I have asked the obvious "whats the difference" question and have received conflicting responses from; they are the same, the 315 includes the spring, the 335 is different, ect..... so I pose the question to the forum.....Whats the Difference????

I note that all all aftermarket kits use the same tensioner for all Gen 7's.

How about some insight???

BR
Butch

 
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Dealer, not fleabay.
If a fleabay seller has parts priced way below what the dealers online are selling for, it's probably not genuine Honda. Most of the online dealers are selling to you at wholesale prices, their cost isn't much below that (I'd guess barely 10% profit margin)...so someone selling dirt cheap on fleabay probably isn't selling genuine Honda parts.


Go to any of the online dealerships parts catalogs, and instead of picking out your car yourself you enter your VIN number and let the system decide what your car is.

The catalog then should only offer the correct part number(s) for your particular car. (most of the time this works as desired LOL)
(I came up with 14520-PLC-335 for a USA 2004)

The dealer tensioner comes with the spring in the kit.

 
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The 335 tensioner is what I came up with as well. Its not that I am afraid of wasting the extra 50 bucks but it just didnt make sense that most kits listed for that model listed the 315. Majestic says there is a difference between the two but did not elaborate. I did not use my VIN just the yr/model. Thanks for the reply.

BR

 
Rep Power: 518

In my parts catalog, there was 3 listings and a VIN break shown for the 2004, but all 3 lines had the same part number. I was using the actual dealer parts catalog too.


In other news.....
14520-PLC-335 fits 04-05 1.7 engines.

04145-PLC-315 fits 01-03 1.7 engines. The prefix number is different, it is not the same as the 14520.

I don't have the kits handy to compare side by side, but I think one kit has a different length bolt than the other. Some people end up stripping out the threads from the block when replacing the tensioner pulley....so be careful and pay attention to torque spec.

 
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Thanks for the information. I will probably go with the Majestic (good rep on here). The ebay seller was Keenan and all the parts were OEM Honda.....no aftermarket stuff. I have read and watched videos on the procedure until I can almost recite them. Good info on here!!! I am old school....if I cant start the threads with my fingers and snug it up then I want to know why.....LOL

Thanks again
BR Butch