My '02 has about 142k miles on it and I bought it used in Oct '10. Not knowing when/if the timing belt has been changed has me worried so in a month I want to replace it.

Rock Auto has a Gates timing belt kit which comes witht the belt, water pump, idler pulley & tensioner for $90. Is this a good set or is there something better I need to look for?

dont know about brands, here we have unfortunately only OEM

BUT

be extra very carefull to buy the right one since the water pump for the 8v fits the 16v and works only that within 10.000 it will "eat" the belt..

that, by the way if it breaks it DOESNT cause valves to hit the pistons..

Gates stuff is pretty good, but do make sure the new pump has the same number of cogs on it, thats the gear, 1 of which has 20 and the other 25, I forget which is which, the both mate up to the block but ARE NOT INTERCHANGABLE, I would pick up a new tensioner spring, it will help if you have a friend to hold the cam gears straight, as the rest of us here know it is a pain 1 man job. because of the mix ups auto stores have had with kia water pumps most buy the oem pump from kia they cost alot of $$$ if I remember right almost the price as that kit for the pump alone

Aftermarket timing belt: No issue. Simply compare the two belts when you pull the old one. I used aftermarket on my Sportage with no issues.

Water pump and tensioner: OEM only. Too many cases documented here where an SOHC water pump was mistakenly supplied and the new timing belt was chewed up and snapped. Yes, you will pay more but you will get the RIGHT part.

dont be afraid to buy aftermarket for any part,a lot of the time the aftermarket supplier is actually the oem provider as well...just always check the part against your old part because you dont know who has had that part before and possibly returned the wrong part in that box...i work in a parts store and have seen lots of mistakes but it usually is on the consumer side, now if its reman it could be wrong from the factory because someone returned the wrong core to begin with.

I'm leaning toward Dayco now. The Gates kit does not includ the spring whereas the Dayco kit does. The Dayco kit does not have the water pump but I'm thinking it might be best o buy the water pump local so I can make sure it has the correct amount of teeth.

you might check continental or contitech...same company but goes by different names for different suppliers... jobber price is about $145 with water pump but we can sell for discount off of that for about $108 to shops and friends...real good kits and haven't seen any problems with misbox or defects <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />