4000 mile service

[Bob Atkinson]

I have a New 2011 FJR that I Love. So far I have done the 600 mile service. I also changed the Oil & filter at 3000 miles along w/final drive fluid. (Yamalube 10/40 both times) I plan to switch to Yamalube 15/50 @6000 miles. My question, after looking over the maintetenance schedule it looks pretty basic with a fair amont of overkill. I would like to avoid pulling the side planels and fule tank to check the spark plugs. Seems like a waste of time to me. The bike could not run any better! Whats the consensus do I check the plugs or wait till around 12,000 miles ?

Thanks

Bob

 

[SkooterG]

Replacement interval for stock plugs is 8,000 miles. No need to look at them until then. Many of us change to iridium plugs for longer (extended) replacement intervals, and many us just leave the OEM type plugs in there for 15k-30k miles.

Some around here will tell you that new plugs, or iridium plugs will solve all the world's ills - I am not one of them. They are just freaking spark plugs for crying out loud. A cheap part. Yes, they will wear eventually and may give an un-noticeable loss of performance but that will take quite a while.

 

[RossKean]

I have a New 2011 FJR that I Love. So far I have done the 600 mile service. I also changed the Oil & filter at 3000 miles along w/final drive fluid. (Yamalube 10/40 both times) I plan to switch to Yamalube 15/50 @6000 miles. My question, after looking over the maintetenance schedule it looks pretty basic with a fair amont of overkill. I would like to avoid pulling the side planels and fule tank to check the spark plugs. Seems like a waste of time to me. The bike could not run any better! Whats the consensus do I check the plugs or wait till around 12,000 miles ?

Thanks

Bob

You don't have to pull side panels to change plugs. Don't even have to remove the tank. Take off the front seat and the tank trim, remove the two bolts at the front of the tank and loosen the bolt at the back and you can pivot the tank up. Prop it there, remove the electrical connections and remove the heat shield and you can get at the plugs. Takes less than 10 minutes to get there once you have done it once or twice. Blow out the plug wells before removing plugs to keep crap from falling into the engine. Definitely a one beer job including making the plug swap and buttoning it back up. Use anti-seize on the plug threads and a bit of silicone dielectric grease on the plug caps to make future removal easier.

 

[08FJR4ME]

I have a New 2011 FJR that I Love. So far I have done the 600 mile service. I also changed the Oil & filter at 3000 miles along w/final drive fluid. (Yamalube 10/40 both times) I plan to switch to Yamalube 15/50 @6000 miles. My question, after looking over the maintetenance schedule it looks pretty basic with a fair amont of overkill. I would like to avoid pulling the side planels and fule tank to check the spark plugs. Seems like a waste of time to me. The bike could not run any better! Whats the consensus do I check the plugs or wait till around 12,000 miles ?

Thanks

Bob

You don't have to pull side panels to change plugs. Don't even have to remove the tank. Take off the front seat and the tank trim, remove the two bolts at the front of the tank and loosen the bolt at the back and you can pivot the tank up. Prop it there, remove the electrical connections and remove the heat shield and you can get at the plugs. Takes less than 10 minutes to get there once you have done it once or twice. Blow out the plug wells before removing plugs to keep crap from falling into the engine. Definitely a one beer job including making the plug swap and buttoning it back up. Use anti-seize on the plug threads and a bit of silicone dielectric grease on the plug caps to make future removal easier.

+1 on everything said.

My take on this is to change them every spring before serious riding starts. I generally do 12K to 15K a year. I think it runs around $24.00 for all four plugs. cheap enough.

Dave

 

[UHOH]

on my '04

I did first spark plugs at 12,500. They looked good, it ran fine.

Replaced with Iridium plugs, no performance change, and have changed these iridiums out at 25,000 miles intervals. Now 65,000 on bike.

They look good at change, bike runs fine.

I did a thread with photos for last change, you could search if you're interested.

 

[JR'SFJR]

I just changed out the plugs with 27k on them during a valve check. They still looked and ran fine. Installed iridiums this time with no change in performance. I plan to change plugs at each 25k valve check. I ran the first set 8k, another set around 16k and figured I was throwing good plugs away.

 

[ALDAWG]

I just changed the plugs for the first time at 30,000 miles and my mechanic said the plugs looked brand new, and whatever I was doing, "KEEP DOING IT"

 

[Spud]

Not to get a bad rep if I ever plan to sell my bike ( ), because I do take great care of it, but.... for a number of reason's I've waited until this season is over and I'm now going to swap my stock plugs. My bike has somewhere between 2 and 3 x the recommended mileage for the first swap. It's running great.

In fact, I recently did a 2000 mile trip with another FJR rider--same year bike, roughly same weight loaded on the bikes. He's changed plugs, done TBS, all of that, and I haven't. Riding the same pace, we were comparing fuel mileage. Our bikes were taking the same amount of gas each time to top off--within less than 1/10th of a gallon.

So, how bad can it really be running? It's smooth, fast, and getting great mileage.

That said, I'm going to do those things now, but I'm not sorry I waited as it seems to have had no effect so far... Just my personal experience...

 

[HotRodZilla]

On my way back from the Wheaton Applacian Camping trip in NC this year, my bike ran like ****. High vibes and the check engine light came on a couple times. I had skipped the 32000 mile plug change due ti time issues.

At the 36k interval, I changed the plugs. Smoothed out immediately and the check engine light has never come on again. Don't even know if the light was related to the plugs, but they were toast.

 

[UHOH]

on my '04

I did first spark plugs at 12,500. They looked good, it ran fine.

Replaced with Iridium plugs, no performance change, and have changed these iridiums out at 25,000 miles intervals. Now 65,000 on bike.

They look good at change, bike runs fine.

I did a thread with photos for last change, you could search if you're interested.

I see these photo links were sitting in a notepad document:

NGK Iridium spark plugs @ 24,000 miles vs. new one

and

and

... there was text in the thread which is still out there - somewhere.

 

[HawkWing]

I see these photo links were sitting in a notepad document:

NGK Iridium spark plugs @ 24,000 miles vs. new one

and

and

... there was text in the thread which is still out there - somewhere.

Either a design change occurred between the old and new iridium plugs (photo 1), or there's one helluva carbon buildup at the base of the electrode!

 

[TomInPA]

Good deal! I notice d I have 11,000 miles on the bike since I last changed the plugs May 16, 2011. Yep, just five months ago. I will forgo the fun of changing them yet another weekend. I did change the oil however for the second time in that interval. Iridium plugs installed at 14,532, no at 25,517. Aw, what the heck I have a valve check coming up after this weekend. :dribble: That is 21K miles since December 1, 2010 when I bought this bike with only 6477 on the clock.