SIgnal,

I don't know about the quality of the rubber coated chain guides. MB went away from them, but maybe it was to lower cost.They did other things that lowered their cost but were a decrease in quality. One thing that I can think of was going to plastic fuel lines and braided line on the injector returns that used to be all metal. The plastic/aluminum radiators are another example.

I seem to remember that the rubber, like all rubber, eventually got hard and cracked off the aluminum so at the time I thought the plastic guides were better and I liked the lower price. Now it seems that the plastic guides die of old age too.

P E H