serpentine belt and hose replacements

Kayteg1 wrote:
Love the pulley where package says "Made in Canada" and mold on the bearing "CHINA"
Technology change and when some things improve, some go downhill.
I had cars with 200,000 miles and factory serpentine belt and hose.
But idle pulley bearing gave up in the mean time.
Bearings used to be lifetime items on the cars, were they not?
So when it comes to belts and hoses >>> Inspect, Inspect, Inspect.

Back when Timken made the bearings in the USA, you could expect them to last much longer. Now that some manufacturers have replaced them with the cheaper garbage from China, you can expect failure to come sooner. For those with a DP, good luck hearing the bearing starting to fail.
Anyone that believes it is better to spend more money for OEM parts should examine WHY they are replacing the part to begin with. Many aftermarket belts are made with new kevlar cords, etc, that far exceed the OEM specs. Even Dayco sells their standard belts and their improved Poly belts, which they claim will last longer.
When it comes to idler pulleys and tensionors, I bought in to the more expensive OEM ACDelco product after I had a choice of several other less expensive pulleys. They all probably had the same Chinese bearing but they did not try to hide it behind the "Made in Canada" BS to deceive the consumer.
What I do now is to take the bearing out of my old idler pulley and order a new Timken sealed bearing to replace the cheap factory garbage.