Ann-Marie Dean has now returned to Dayco and is keen to support the company’s valued Irish customers with the products and information they need. One area where she sees huge aftermarket potential is in belt-in-oil timing drive systems. 

Belt-in-oil (BIO) has become popular with car manufacturers because of the emission reduction and fuel saving benefits it offers.  This is good news for the aftermarket as they will become an ever more regular replacement requirement in the long term.

To help ensure the ongoing reliability of these engines, Dayco, the company that pioneered the BIO innovation on behalf of VMs such as Ford, PSA and VW, has for some time been highlighting the importance to workshops of carrying out regular maintenance in line with the VMs scheduled service intervals. This is because, apart from the catastrophic consequences that would result from belt failure, belt degradation can also have serious implications to several other components, such as the oil pump and brake system vacuum pump.

Ann-Marie explains, “We have replacement kits in the Dayco aftermarket range, and this provides for a genuine revenue opportunity, because over the last year, our sales of BIO kits have doubled, which proves there is a growing demand for these parts.” 

Following evolutionary developments at the OE level, Dayco has superseded its original replacement kits for the 1.2 petrol engine used in many PSA applications, such as the C-Elysee, C3, DS3 and Expert, and the 1.2 diesel engine for models including C3, C3 Picasso, C4 Cactus, 208, 2008, 308 and 3008, previously KBIO07 and KBIO08, with KBIO14 and KBIO15 respectively.

Ann-Marie says, “Although independent workshops need to be ready and react to a growing demand for EV specific replacement parts, as the growth in use of BIO systems clearly demonstrates, the reality is that the vast majority of the vehicles that will enter the workshop for the next decade, will have an internal combustion engine, whether petrol or diesel,” 

With the current trend in Ireland of retaining vehicles for longer, higher mileages will mean BOI replacement demand will continue to grow for many years to come. With Dayco, independent garages have a complete replacement range backed by expert technical information and back-up.