Best belt or kit for 2004 forester x. Only done 17k since last kit ( Gates) but 7 years ago.

Cheers Jim

Gates kits are not great, we don't use them  .
Get the ICP kit which all oem manufacturer parts made in Japan
Link below is for eBay, they do 10% off quite frequent & you may get better price/discount if call them and do order .
Price is proper good for quality you getting .
If want do water pump and it the naturally aspirated engines then the GMB water pumps and an original genuine metal gasket is good quality answer at sensible cost.
Aisin pumps not what use to be unless sourcing from Aisin Japan factory and getting cast impellor versions like RCM stock .
Being ultra fussy on water pumps only really needed for turbo cars, just avoid common 5h1te from ebay eurocarparts and your average motor factors .

ICP do stock the GMB water pump (40quid'ish) and also the OEM metal gasket (7 quid'ish)

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284985258754

Timing belts on the NA Forester X ej201 is super easy pleasant job, even more so when using oem quality parts .

Thanks again MrB.  Same old problem where the miles are low ( 17k ) but the time has past ( 7yrs ). My original handbook quotes 5yrs or 60k.

I done a fair few at 9 to ten years and under 30K and all been surprisingly good, the UK market timing belt service is ridiculously low .
Top quality components last well, the run of the mill aftermarket garbage is biggest culprit towards failure stories with poor fitting methods coming in second .