'Tick' Anxiety

[FJRFan]

Also make sure the idle is at 1100RPM, too low and it'll make all sorts of racket.

+1 on the idle speed. Make sure the engine is at running temp. & idle is adjusted to spec.

Thanks for all the feedback. I took it to the dealer I bought it from. Initially he was like 'Here we go .. hearing things again!'. Outside I pointed out the noise which became louder at around 2500rpm. He took it in the shop and then came out and told me that its probably the cam chain tensioner. Said that they were going to order a new one and fix it at no charge. Now waiting on the part to arrive.

Will keep you posted.

 

[FJRFan]

Also make sure the idle is at 1100RPM, too low and it'll make all sorts of racket.

+1 on the idle speed. Make sure the engine is at running temp. & idle is adjusted to spec.

Thanks for all the feedback. I took it to the dealer I bought it from. Initially he was like 'Here we go .. hearing things again!'. Outside I pointed out the noise which became louder at around 2500rpm. He took it in the shop and then came out and told me that its probably the cam chain tensioner. Said that they were going to order a new one and fix it at no charge. Now waiting on the part to arrive.

Will keep you posted.

So it turns out that I do have a ticker! Called the shop and they confirmed my fear - 'Valve guide wear'. They said it was going to take a few weeks to fix the problem. I am seriously thinking about returning the bike as its under the 30 day warranty from the time I bought it. What do you guys think??

 

[Bounce]

Your call. If they fix it for $0 with current parts it'll never be an issue again.

 

[carlson_mn]

Just tell them to fix it like it was their personal bike. They will either send the head out to be repaired by a specialist, or they can order a whole new head from yamaha. If they do a good job you'll have a great bike with new parts.

 

[FJRFan]

Just tell them to fix it like it was their personal bike. They will either send the head out to be repaired by a specialist, or they can order a whole new head from yamaha. If they do a good job you'll have a great bike with new parts.

Hmm ... I am just concerned that they will only fix the one valve guide and I will then have a problem with other valves down the road ... Hopefully they will do a good job. How have others fixed their valve guide issues .. did you replace the whole head?

 

[Ignacio]

So it turns out that I do have a ticker! Called the shop and they confirmed my fear - 'Valve guide wear'. They said it was going to take a few weeks to fix the problem. I am seriously thinking about returning the bike as its under the 30 day warranty from the time I bought it. What do you guys think??

Well, it seems I and Warchild blew that diagnosis via audio on the Internet. Doh.

Curious if there was excessive oil in the exhaust of any of the cylinders?

 

[FJRFan]

So it turns out that I do have a ticker! Called the shop and they confirmed my fear - 'Valve guide wear'. They said it was going to take a few weeks to fix the problem. I am seriously thinking about returning the bike as its under the 30 day warranty from the time I bought it. What do you guys think??

Well, it seems I and Warchild blew that diagnosis via audio on the Internet. Doh.

Curious if there was excessive oil in the exhaust of any of the cylinders?

No worries .. I prolly didn't post a good sound clip. Yea .. one of the cylinders had more soot in there.. the guy said that the ticking sound was related to misfiring of that cylinder in the exhaust cycle. What do you think .. should I let them repair it at their own cost, or then ask for my money back and look for another FJR?

 

[03HiYoSilver]

So it turns out that I do have a ticker! Called the shop and they confirmed my fear - 'Valve guide wear'. They said it was going to take a few weeks to fix the problem. I am seriously thinking about returning the bike as its under the 30 day warranty from the time I bought it. What do you guys think??

Well, it seems I and Warchild blew that diagnosis via audio on the Internet. Doh.

Curious if there was excessive oil in the exhaust of any of the cylinders?

No worries .. I prolly didn't post a good sound clip. Yea .. one of the cylinders had more soot in there.. the guy said that the ticking sound was related to misfiring of that cylinder in the exhaust cycle. What do you think .. should I let them repair it at their own cost, or then ask for my money back and look for another FJR?

FJR,

I am not sure where you are or what type of Shop made this Call. If this is the case, with this bike and the shop seems they want to do things on the Short End of things... take the Bike back and get another.

I had a Shop, Authorized Yamaha, and they called a Ticker.... and it was NOT!

To do this correctly, they would/should Replace ALL the Exhaust Valve Guides & Valves with the with the Updated Version. If it was me, I would personally pay for the Intake Valves/Guides to be done at the same time.

My similar situation to yours, was NOT a Ticker, but a Bad Throttlebody Assy which was replaced under YES and Fixed the Problem.

Your situation sounds too treacherous/expensive to pursue at least with this Shops recommendations.

Good Luck with your decsion...

P.S. It would also be very helpful if your told us what area you are from other than the USA.

 

[FJRFan]

So it turns out that I do have a ticker! Called the shop and they confirmed my fear - 'Valve guide wear'. They said it was going to take a few weeks to fix the problem. I am seriously thinking about returning the bike as its under the 30 day warranty from the time I bought it. What do you guys think??

Well, it seems I and Warchild blew that diagnosis via audio on the Internet. Doh.

Curious if there was excessive oil in the exhaust of any of the cylinders?

No worries .. I prolly didn't post a good sound clip. Yea .. one of the cylinders had more soot in there.. the guy said that the ticking sound was related to misfiring of that cylinder in the exhaust cycle. What do you think .. should I let them repair it at their own cost, or then ask for my money back and look for another FJR?

FJR,

I am not sure where you are or what type of Shop made this Call. If this is the case, with this bike and the shop seems they want to do things on the Short End of things... take the Bike back and get another.

I had a Shop, Authorized Yamaha, and they called a Ticker.... and it was NOT!

To do this correctly, they would/should Replace ALL the Exhaust Valve Guides & Valves with the with the Updated Version. If it was me, I would personally pay for the Intake Valves/Guides to be done at the same time.

My similar situation to yours, was NOT a Ticker, but a Bad Throttlebody Assy which was replaced under YES and Fixed the Problem.

Your situation sounds too treacherous/expensive to pursue at least with this Shops recommendations.

Good Luck with your decsion...

P.S. It would also be very helpful if your told us what area you are from other than the USA.

That makes sense .. I am going to check back to see what they recommend. If they say they are only fixing one of the guides, I am going to ask for my money back. This is an authorized Yamaha dealer. and yea, I should update my location ... I am near Boston MA.

 

[03HiYoSilver]

That makes sense .. I am going to check back to see what they recommend. If they say they are only fixing one of the guides, I am going to ask for my money back. This is an authorized Yamaha dealer. and yea, I should update my location ... I am near Boston MA.

FJR,

Since they are AUTHORIZED Yamaha, they should KNOW to do the Whole thing and NOT just the one valve... that it what Yamaha did for me EVEN though it was found to be totally unnecesary.

Here's a Repair List from another member: https://www.fjrforum.com/forum//index.php?showtopic=6250&hl=12210-01-00

Here's the View of the Head & Valves at about 35k miles :

https://www.fjrforum.com/forum//index.php?showtopic=23034&st=0&p=271113entry271113

They also, at my request, installed RivNuts at the Headers to Test for the HC & CO Levels to determine part of the cause.

In my case, the HC levels on #4 were 2300 when the other 3 were around the 300 level which is the correct range.

After some Trial & Error, we suggested to try a New Throttlebody Assy and that finally cured the Conditions and Allowed #4 to Stay in Tolerance with NO SOOT. This was a rare situation and unfortunately, these situations don't throw codes.

Good Luck with your decision...

 

[FJRMGM]

To do this correctly, they would/should Replace ALL the Exhaust Valve Guides & Valves AND SEALS with the with the Updated Version. If it was me, I would personally pay for the Intake Valves/Guides to be done at the same time.

fixed this - if they do the authorized Yamaha fix its, exhaust valves, guides and seals. The seals were the root cause of the problem because they didn't allow enough oil to the stems and it eroded the guides.

Had my '05 done at 19k miles and at 82k miles it runs good as new. I paid for new intake valve guides and seals on mine when it was done just for peace of mind.

Good luck.

 

[Fred W]

That makes sense .. I am going to check back to see what they recommend. If they say they are only fixing one of the guides, I am going to ask for my money back. This is an authorized Yamaha dealer. and yea, I should update my location ... I am near Boston MA.

If you want another opinion, there are plenty of 1st gen owners in New England. You can listen to other FJRs and have one of us listen to yours.

I am suspicious because you said the dealership said they found "soot" in the header. If this was a ticker they would have found oil residue in the pipe. It could be that yours is at such an early stage that the small amount of oil leakage is burning off, but it still makes me suspicious.

BTW - what dealership have you been using? You can PM me if you don't feel like revealing that publicly (yet).

 

[FJRFan]

That makes sense .. I am going to check back to see what they recommend. If they say they are only fixing one of the guides, I am going to ask for my money back. This is an authorized Yamaha dealer. and yea, I should update my location ... I am near Boston MA.

If you want another opinion, there are plenty of 1st gen owners in New England. You can listen to other FJRs and have one of us listen to yours.

I am suspicious because you said the dealership said they found "soot" in the header. If this was a ticker they would have found oil residue in the pipe. It could be that yours is at such an early stage that the small amount of oil leakage is burning off, but it still makes me suspicious.

BTW - what dealership have you been using? You can PM me if you don't feel like revealing that publicly (yet).

I think it might be the case of the issue being early stage. I just spoke to the mechanic there and he said that he has a machine shop inspecting the head and he is waiting to hear from them before he has a conversation with Yamaha. He said he would try and get all 16 replaced if Yamaha agrees to do it. If not, he will only be able to do the one thats damaged. I am going to check back on Tuesday.

As for the name of the dealership, I would like to protect their privacy .. at least for now. I sent you a message separately.

 

[ionbeam]

...he said that he has a machine shop inspecting the head...He said he would try and get all 16 replaced...If not, he will only be able to do the one thats damaged...

That is the most idiotic moronic stupid reckless irresponsible imprudent thing I've read in a long time. If the head is off and at the machine shop, have the other 7 done no matter what, and install EIGHT new stem seals. What has been done to the engine and motorcycle is not trivial and for sure something you don't want to have to do again. All valve guides wear over time, by the time that almost any FJR engine is at 75k miles every guide will be worn almost to service limit. If you have an engine that is proven to have stem seals tight enough to create excessive guide wear when the engine is young there is a high probability that other guides will follow suit.

As matter of curiosity and some importance, which cylinder guide is out of spec?

 

[Warchild]

I am with Fred W.... I remain unconvinced this is a ticker. However, one can only discern so much with that audio clip.

The number of 2005 "tickers" is significantly less than the first two model years. Many speculate that it was during this time that Yamaha quietly introduced "the fix" to the assembly line process (the "fix" amounted to a new valve stem seal that allowed the appropriate amount of trace oil to pass through the seal in order to lubricate the valve stem). Too, many folks aren't aware that this 2005 model actually had a production run of two years.... in 2004, and 2005. (Prior to this, Yamaha released the bikes a year "early" i.e.: the initial 2003 model came out in summer of '02, the Cerulean Silver 2004 model came out in July, 2003, and this Cobalt Blue 2005 model came out in summer of 2004, and ran for two years. The first Gen II FJR (2006) came out in 2006.

If your 2005 is among the "2nd run" of 2005 models, my speculation is that you may already have the correct valve seals, and this noise is something else - possibly even valve related - but your sound clip does not suggest a "ticker" in the classic sense. If you have a classic ticker, once the symptoms manifest themselves, you will hear it across the entire RPM range - idle, off-idle, 2500RPM, and on up. It will be a distinctly metallic sound akin to silverware that is tapped against a steel pipe. I did hear what appeared to be some valve clatter when you just came off-idle around the :28 - :35 second mark of the sound clip, but again, if this was a classic ticker, you would be hearing that across all rpm ranges, including idle.

Please keep us posted.....

[EDIT]: D'oh, I just pick up on the fact they already have the cylinder head off.... if this is the case, the discussion is almost moot: you might as well go ahead and have the cylinder head completely refurbished since it's out of the bike already. Then you are assured of have the newer seals in place.

 

[exskibum]

I'd have them fix it on their dime, and MIGHT (only 16K miles) spring for intake valve parts too. IMO, you're considerably better off with the new exhaust valve guides than if it was not diagnosed as a ticker (whether it is or is not really a ticker). At least you'll know you have the newer (corrected) exhaust valve guides and shouldn't have to worry about it becoming a ticker later. Get the new CCT, and see if they might throw in a new cam chain too?

 

[Fred W]

Warchild makes an interesting hypothesis. But how exactly does a Bass Bote Blue FJR owner know if theirs is an original "'05" or an "05.5"? After searching about, that tidbit seems to be rather elusive, and I can't see how to extract the manufacturing date from the VIN or anything else.

I see from my expired YES paperwork that the original warranty start date was 09/2004, suggesting mine is an uber '05. It is also a Model FJR13AT. Does anyone have a known '05.5? Is your Model FJR13AU?

 

[exskibum]

I'm pretty sure mine was of the second run of '05s -- having been one of those that was ordered via a Nevada dealership employee doing the PDP deed to get 3 on the dealership floor. That's where and how I bought mine right after they came in on April 9, 2005.

With 24K miles on it in June 2009, it was diagnosed as a ticker. I then went to CFR 2009 on it, came back about 5K miles later and had it deloused.

 

[TomInPA]

Warchild makes an interesting hypothesis. But how exactly does a Bass Bote Blue FJR owner know if theirs is an original "'05" or an "05.5"? After searching about, that tidbit seems to be rather elusive, and I can't see how to extract the manufacturing date from the VIN or anything else.

I see from my expired YES paperwork that the original warranty start date was 09/2004, suggesting mine is an uber '05. It is also a Model FJR13AT. Does anyone have a known '05.5? Is your Model FJR13AU?

My Bass Boat Blue FJR has a big 8/04 on the VIN. I would presume that to be a manufacture date and would put it in the first batch. I still only have 12,600 on it since buying it in December with 6477 miles.

Where does one find the AT or AU designation?

 

[Fred W]

In your paperwork, is it an FJR13AT or an FJR13AU?

The "Matrix" indicates that the 2005.5's may be AU's