Ticking - in the shop

[FJRMGM]

took my '05 FJR with 18,300 miles into the shop for ticking diagnosis this evening.

I had reported it to the Service Mgr last month, five days before it went out of warranty with 16,400 miles on it. Both the Tech and Mgr agreed it was not a "normal" sound. The ticking has gotten louder and occurs more often than when I first reported it.

So, Yamaha authorized a valve clearance check as first step and all clearances must be logged with clearance amount and if they are all in spec, then they will check the valve guide clearance with a special tool and will determine how to proceed from there.

I should know by Thursday morning how it is going.

 

[Groo]

I thought I saw you driving down Nasa Road 1 around 5:00 PM this evening.... hope everything works out for you Mike.

 

[FJRMGM]

yup, that was me and the support vehicle (gee, I could be a Harley rider) heading over to the shop in the Highlands.

Service mgr says he knows it's not the valve clearance adjustment as it's too loud.

 

[FJRMGM]

CONFIRMATION UPDATE - Friday 12-2-05 1630 hours.

Just got a call from the Service Mgr and the #1 cyclinder exhaust valve guide wear is out of spec.

Specs are .001 - .002 with .004 at replacement level. It was .006 and he said the valve would visibly wobble in the guide.

The intake valve guides are all in spec.

So, all exhaust valves, valve guides and guide seals will be replaced in the Yamaha shop and will reuse the stock head.

Parts are on order and it should be done in 8-10 days. It will be fixed under warranty as I reported it five days before the one-year warranty is up.

 

[rdfrantz]

Would you please post the name of the shop, and the city and state?

Thanks.

 

[MCRIDER007]

Just got a call from the Service Mgr and the #1 cyclinder exhaust valve guide wear is out of spec.
Specs  are .001 - .002 with .004 at replacement level.  It was .006 and he said the valve would visibly wobble in the guide.

The intake valve guides are all in spec.

That is not good news for the rest of the 05 owners. I have 12,500 miles on mine and I thought that if I had a ticker it would have shown up by now. If the problem is the exhaust valve stem seals, I wonder why the problem seems to always occur at the No. 1 cyclinder and why it has never happened to any of the intake valve guides. Are the intake and exhaust stem seals that much different?

 

[radman]

A lot to be said for timing. Good call on your part, though my understanding is Yami has been pretty good on this issue out of warranty.

 

[FJRMGM]

Dealer - Tejas Motorsports, Highlands Texas (on the east edge of Houston), where I bought it on Oct 22nd '04 after PDP'ing it there in April.

This is the first one they have seen with this issue and they commended me for knowing or at least suspecting what the problem is.

MCRider - exhaust valves always run hotter than intake because they don't have a cool intake flow past them to help cool so they would have a tendency to erode the valve guides first.

I don't believe there is any difference in the valve guide seals between intake/exhaust but I could be mistaken.

Before my bike started ticking I noticed a kind of metallic resonation in the engine when under light load between 2500-3000 rpm's in 3rd or 4th gear and it started at about 8,000 miles or so.

The ticking was definitely louder and happening more often in the 2000 miles I rode it after reporting the issue.

 

[Windjammer]

That is not good news for the rest of the 05 owners.

Dealer - Tejas Motorsports, Highlands Texas (on the east edge of Houston), where I bought it on Oct 22nd '04 after PDP'ing it there in April.

Sounds like this ticker is an '04, not an '05, ???

 

[Yambone]

If he ordered it in the USA in April 04, received it in October 04, and its blue, it's an 05. Says so on the title and everthing. The USA models had two production runs of '05 FJRs. With the second, and on 06 orders, Yamaha has balanced the USA books with the rest of the world, henceforth.

 

[velvet fog]

I still contend, they're all gonna tick eventually, and that sucks. The only potential good news is that you will probably be able to get yours fixed regardless of mileage or warranty status as it is becoming pretty clear that this is a chronic problem that is design related.

I'll let you know how the new seals are doing at fixing the problem when i get another 10k miles on mine. I probably have one of the first 05 tickers according to Sunnyside and Yamaha. Started about 7k miles.

 

[MCRIDER007]

I'll let you know how the new seals are doing at fixing the problem when i get another 10k miles on mine. I probably have one of the first 05 tickers according to Sunnyside and Yamaha. Started about 7k miles.

Which valve guides were out of spec on your 05?

 

[velvet fog]

I think 1 and 2. Was making a hell of a racket. All exhaust valves and guides replaced.

 

[FJRMGM]

just to clarify - mine IS one of the faster Galaxy Blue '05 FJRs..

Although right now it ain't so fast...

As I stated above, mine started to make a strange metallice engine resonation sound around 8k mile before I heard the tick sound.

 

[MCRIDER007]

I think 1 and 2.  Was making a hell of a racket.  All exhaust valves and guides replaced.

I assume you mean the 2 valve guides on the No. 1 cyclinder -- which seems to be the norm on the tickers. If the problem is caused by bad valve stem seals, I wonder why the No. 1 cyclinder always seems to get the bad seals....

 

[velvet fog]

No, I mean exhaust in no.1 and no.2 cylinders. Don't know why that side is always affected. Many have speculated on coolant flow patterns, oil flow patterns etc. No way to tell for sure.

 

[MCRIDER007]

No, I mean exhaust in no.1 and no.2 cylinders.  Don't know why that side is always affected.  Many have speculated on coolant flow patterns, oil flow patterns etc.  No way to tell for sure.

Do you know how many of the 4 valve guides on those 2 cyclinders were bad and whether there was any difference in the measurements between the guides that were bad (were the guides on No. 1 worse than the guides on No.2)?

 

[velvet fog]

Sorry guys, not a lot more detail beyond only 1 and 2 exhaust guides were out of spec. No mention of intakes and I didn't think to ask. Was told all exhaust guides and valves were replaced.

I don't think we have seen any instances of bad intake guides based on what has been posted on all the other forums.

 

[FJRMGM]

UPDATE: 12-5-05 AM

New parts on order from Yamaha to replace all exhaust valves, guides and seals.