Valve Checks vs. Adjustment Required Poll

[DennisJ]

Had the 26K miles valve check done a couple of weeks ago. No valves out of spec. Took two attempts to get the O-rings on the coolant pipes to seal correctly. Job took longer than I expected which turned out to be a blessing since traffic volume was down to non-rush hour levels and trip home was only 30 minutes instead of almost two hours the day before. I was happy.

 

[07FJRVegas]

Just had the valves checked on my 2011 @ 43,500 km and all are within tolerances.

 

[SSHANK42]

40,000 miles for 1st check. Everything within spec.

 

[supertankerm60a3]

OK, 44,000 since the last check, where it had 2 out of spec. 139,500 total miles. This time Silver had 5 valves that needed adjustment. Also had them put in new plugs, and a new timing chain. They were all only out by .01 or .02. They also replaced the CCT which was replaced by me at about 61,000 so didn't need it.

 

[Fred W]

Interesting. Were any of the 5 valves ones that had been adjusted the last time?

When my intakes were out of spec (luckily?) all 8 were just below spec, so I adjusted them all at the same time. Might support the idea that once you have to take the cam out, you might as well put them all to the middle (or above) of the spec range.

 

[supertankerm60a3]

I do not know which ones were out last time or this time. I should I guess. Perhaps next time I will do it myself.

I took it for a ride today. I have been on my friends 01 Concours. It was good to have POWER back on tap.

 

[SunRider]

No activity in this thread for a year, yet it looks like the best place to post valve clearance data.

2012

27,850 miles

Intake: 7 6 6 7 7 6 6 6*

Exhaust: 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

The Intake 4-2 would just accept the 0.15mm feeler when the approach was aligned perfect to the gap, and was tight.

And the 0.13mm feeler was very loose. Feelers were micrometer confirmed to their metric labels.

Thanks to the How-to's by Dwayne V. And Fred W.

I do almost all cycle & auto maintenance, yet this is my first valve check.

I do not find it trivial as some suggest.

The amount of dirt and debris in the engine bay makes cleaning so critical.

And the dirt hides on the plastic ledge in front of the valve cover. Check & Clean ....

 

[Bill Lumberg]

I had mine done recently (2014). Only one had to be adjusted.

 

[bigjohnsd]

FJRay did make me at 24,000 no adjustment required

 

[PhilJet09]

I finally had to adjust a few on my fourth inspection at 101,000 miles.

 

[Mr. BR]

I do not find it trivial as some suggest.The amount of dirt and debris in the engine bay makes cleaning so critical.

And the dirt hides on the plastic ledge in front of the valve cover. Check & Clean ....

Agreed...it's an infrequent, but important part of the maintenance schedule.. and never trivial.

When I got my '05 two years ago, it came with some service history but nothing to confirm any valve check... so I did it at ~48K miles and it needed 1 exh and 1 int shim changed... both a little loose.

And the dirt! Mine had tons of road grime, pebbles and dirt around coolant pipes and that plastic shield just in front of the valve cover. The rest of the bike was also dirty and the PO admitted he had never washed it once during his several years of ownership.. fortunately, the bike gave him no trouble and this continues for my daily commuting needs... solid!

Mr. BR

 

[fljab]

I have over 100K miles on my '09A and no adjustments yet. I have done 4 so far - I do valve checks more to my schedule than exactly on the 26K intervals.

I need to do them again before this season just to make sure, and I am expecting to have to adjust maybe 3 of the exhaust valves that were getting close last time (tight).

 

[Fred W]

My MO is that if one valve on a cam needs to be adjusted, might as well do them all and set them to mid-range (or slightly looser). All the work is in getting the cam out and back in without screwing up the timing. By adjusting them all to the 70th percentile of the spec range you will (hopefully) never have to do it again on that engine.

It might be interesting to start another poll to see how many engines ever need a shim adjustment a 2nd time once all are adjusted to mid range.

 

[Pterodactyl]

I just adjusted mind at 33,000 and did what Fred described. Once a cam is loose it's an in for a penny, in for a pound situation. Adjusted eleven valves and now all are in the loose end of the spec.

 

[harper]

I did the valve check on my 2006 today. One exhaust valve was too loose. It was exhaust 1-1. Audiowise was showing me how to do it. He had the full set of shims. We took the 182 shim out of exhaust 1-1 and replaced it with a 185 shim to bring it within spec. All other valves were within spec. My 2006 has 27000 miles and, as third owner, this was the first valve check that I know of.

 

[RaYzerman19]

Valve check #2, 71,500 miles, it would appear no change since the first one.

 

[Jim_McG]

I will be checking the valves on my new to me 2008 with ~26,000 miles (3rd owner). Based on this poll it probably is in spec but will do it anyway to get a baseline as well as I like to tear into new toys to make sure everything is right. It's OK if I have it on my lift table for a few weeks since I have my BMW to ride in the meantime.

 

[wheatonFJR]

That's fine Jim...but just for a few weeks. JSNS

 

[Bounce]

This has been discussed both here and on other sites for decades. I've heard a lot of recommendations not to skip a check and some of them have been well written. When I ran across this response in MCNews while this thread was still active, I thought I'd share it.

 

[Fred W]

Good find there.

One error in his reply though... the shims under the buckets are not hardened. But that is a commonly held misconception since all of the other valve train parts are hardened, and it's not really significant to his point.

The reason that other, more old fashioned valve designs (like rocker arm, desmodromic, etc.) give you a some warning noise when they need adjustment is because the valve train parts are what is wearing the fastest and the clearances are growing. In the case of the shim under bucket design, like our trusty FJRs have, the hardened cam lobe is rubbing (relatively gently) against the hardened bucket top in an area of good oil supply, so the wear of the valve train is minuscule. That means wear is mostly in the actual valve faces and valve seats.

As valve seats wear the clearances decrease. They will actually make less noise as they approach zero clearance. When the clearance goes past zero the valves cease to close fully and you start burning up valves and destroying the head. All without making any noise.