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Routine Valve Inspection


Skids

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2 minutes ago, Cogswell said:

 

At 240,000 miles I replaced the timing belt my Camry's 5S-FE.  I bought the car with with ~100,000 miles on it and I doubt the valves had ever been checked by the P.O. I had to remove the cam cover to service a leaky spark plug tube so decided to check valve clearances while I was in there.  All were within spec.  Regardless of how long I keep this car, I'll never bother looking at them again. 

A lot of cars these days have hydraulic lifters or hydraulic tappets which eliminates the need to adjust valve lash as the lifter/tappet automatically compensates for wear. Unless the Lifter/tappet has gone bad.

 

A lot of motorcycles do not have hydraulic lifters or tappets because it adds complexity to the engine as there now has to be a complex route of oiling channels to provide oil pressure to these components.

 

From what I understand as well, higher RMP engines generally don't use hydraulic lifters do to some issues with supplying proper oil pressures and function properly due to added stresses.

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1 hour ago, TriumphTraitor said:

Taking part in those discussions on industrial consumer products was entertaining, followed by horribly boring statistical calculations padded with safety margins.

 

So I can only imagine that the initial testing efforts for larger products like motorcycles would be awesome! Minus the math

We routinely extend manufacturer recommended time based routine maintenance relying among others on JIT maintenance and value based maintenance. Knowing Honda way would be great. Math is king 🙂

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  • 4 weeks later...

I'm well late to this party. Just checked my owners manual for my 8th Gen VFR800FH 2017 and the valve clearance check line is completely blank. Did we ever establish the Honda approved interval for machines after 2014?

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12 hours ago, Presson said:

I'm well late to this party. Just checked my owners manual for my 8th Gen VFR800FH 2017 and the valve clearance check line is completely blank. Did we ever establish the Honda approved interval for machines after 2014?

Ah ha thats great, no longer required.!!!:fing02:

Rumors going around that the interval has been extended from 16000miles to 24000miles, and there is no doubt plenty of evidence to back up the reasoning for increasing the interval. However its interesting there appears to be no Technical Service Bulletin issued to dealerships to substantiate this and those that I've contacted in Australia are also unaware of any change to the valve inspection interval. Go figure!!!

For info, I've done over 80,000kms and haven't had the valves checked........naughty me! :ohmy:

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1 hour ago, Grum said:

 

For info, I've done over 80,000kms and haven't had the valves checked........naughty me! :ohmy:

I may well follow the wisdom of the crowd here and wait much longer for the valve check than Honda recommend. It still leaves a slightly nagging feeling that the manufacturer knows something we don't; perhaps I'm being naive and they just have a policy of checking everything early to avoid later disappointment. 

 

To try again to pin this down I've contacted Honda UK and also asked specifically from what year of manufacture any change in interval  applies to. Let's see if this can flush out the answer. I'll post when I get their reply.

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And the plot thickens. Just done a recall check on the Honda website against my frame number/VIN and it says there is a recall for an owner's manual printing error.  Another route for a definitive answer perhaps and another excuse for a ride out to the nearest dealer ( obviously the long and winding way round)!

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1 hour ago, Presson said:

And the plot thickens. Just done a recall check on the Honda website against my frame number/VIN and it says there is a recall for an owner's manual printing error.  Another route for a definitive answer perhaps and another excuse for a ride out to the nearest dealer ( obviously the long and winding way round)!

 

Hmmm, just done the same check and there are no recalls due on my 2018 VFR800X.

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The main influences to valve wear & thus adjustment are user use i.e. revs & routine maintenance. If you rev the nuts off the engine & rarely change the oil you will wear the cam lobes & buckets &/or the high revs cause valve hammer which setts the valves back in the head. 
you can tell which is happening by checking the valves. If they get loose you have cam/bucket wear, if they get tight you have valve recession in to the head. 
 

On my 5th gen, #3 cylinder always tightens due to excessive heat due to the rear exhaust run & my revving the crap out of it on track days.

 

Which reminds me I need to adjust that cylinder as it was getting close to minimum at the end of 2019. Only done approx 500 miles since then due to Covid & dislocating my shoulder last year, which I just had operation on to fix the mess it left me with, so no spannering or riding for a couple or three months ☹️

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Just spoke to Honda Letchworth and new Owners Manual on order to clear the recall. Hopefully that's going to have the valve check line complete. Also talked to the tech who said the VFR800F was still 16k miles but the Crossrunner was different although he didn't elaborate. Hoping to get an email from Honda UK/ Europe in response to my earlier query.

 

Thanks for the explanation Mohawk, very clear and helpful. Best wishes for a thoroughly successful recovery; keep up the physio you've hopefully been given to regain full mobility in the shoulder.

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2 hours ago, Presson said:

Just spoke to Honda Letchworth and new Owners Manual on order to clear the recall. Hopefully that's going to have the valve check line complete. Also talked to the tech who said the VFR800F was still 16k miles but the Crossrunner was different although he didn't elaborate. Hoping to get an email from Honda UK/ Europe in response to my earlier query.

 

Thanks for the explanation Mohawk, very clear and helpful. Best wishes for a thoroughly successful recovery; keep up the physio you've hopefully been given to regain full mobility in the shoulder.

Letchworth Honda are my local too 👋 .

 

I called them a few months ago and they told me the X was still 16k miles, despite my Owners Manual stating 24k miles.

 

If anyone has any Honda HQ contacts (national or Japan), perhaps they could request some clarification as this is a very confused issue.

 

 

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4 hours ago, Presson said:

Thanks for the explanation Mohawk, very clear and helpful. Best wishes for a thoroughly successful recovery; keep up the physio you've hopefully been given to regain full mobility in the shoulder.

Thanks another 2 weeks before sling off & then physio 👍

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On 3/26/2021 at 7:23 PM, Presson said:

I'm well late to this party. Just checked my owners manual for my 8th Gen VFR800FH 2017 and the valve clearance check line is completely blank. Did we ever establish the Honda approved interval for machines after 2014?

Manual for my 2017 is the same, it's a printing error. Speaking to my local Honda dealer it's 16,000 miles, they quoted £550 for the full service inc. valve checks.

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30 minutes ago, PedalHead said:

Manual for my 2017 is the same, it's a printing error. Speaking to my local Honda dealer it's 16,000 miles, they quoted £550 for the full service inc. valve checks.

Glad to hear PedalHead it's not just me! Might be worth checking your VIN against the Honda UK recall list ; go to Honda UK/ motorcycles and look in the menu under 'owners'. My 2017 had a recall for the owners manual which is now on order after a telephone call to the local Honda dealership. I asked them to mail it to me but I I'll have to send the old one back so they can prove its been destroyed.

 

As far as the actual valve check goes, £550 to £600 from a honda dealer seems pretty standard. An independent will be less, maybe £400+ or so as the cams gave to come out if the shims need changing and then possibly again after a re-check. 

 

However, the experience of many owners here suggests that us 8th Gen owners are probably safe going well beyond the 16k interval. Personally, I'm thinking in terms of 30k now unless I start detecting a significant drop in performance. Mohawk gave a very helpful explanation a couple of post above about valve wear behaviour. I suspect most of us road riders, even those of us that love to 'haul ass' and do a bit of ' low flying' only hold the engine above the VTEC threshold for a minute or two at a time max. Hence my theory that we would tend to see widening clearance and a longer interval for checking would be safe.

 

Tell me ( I'm sure you will) if I'm outside the curve.

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13 hours ago, Presson said:

Glad to hear PedalHead it's not just me! Might be worth checking your VIN against the Honda UK recall list ; go to Honda UK/ motorcycles and look in the menu under 'owners'. My 2017 had a recall for the owners manual which is now on order after a telephone call to the local Honda dealership. I asked them to mail it to me but I I'll have to send the old one back so they can prove its been destroyed.

 

As far as the actual valve check goes, £550 to £600 from a honda dealer seems pretty standard. An independent will be less, maybe £400+ or so as the cams gave to come out if the shims need changing and then possibly again after a re-check. 

 

However, the experience of many owners here suggests that us 8th Gen owners are probably safe going well beyond the 16k interval. Personally, I'm thinking in terms of 30k now unless I start detecting a significant drop in performance. Mohawk gave a very helpful explanation a couple of post above about valve wear behaviour. I suspect most of us road riders, even those of us that love to 'haul ass' and do a bit of ' low flying' only hold the engine above the VTEC threshold for a minute or two at a time max. Hence my theory that we would tend to see widening clearance and a longer interval for checking would be safe.

 

Tell me ( I'm sure you will) if I'm outside the curve.

I'm planning on having the checks done at 16k. My rational for this is that I will need it doing once during the time I'm likely to own the bike , and in doing it sooner I'll avoid any potential pitfalls and having the service stamp at the recommended interval will remove any excuse an eventual buyer may use to beat the price down. I'll be having the service done sometime in the next couple of months.

 

   

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3 hours ago, PedalHead said:

I'm planning on having the checks done at 16k. My rational for this is that I will need it doing once during the time I'm likely to own the bike , and in doing it sooner I'll avoid any potential pitfalls and having the service stamp at the recommended interval will remove any excuse an eventual buyer may use to beat the price down. I'll be having the service done sometime in the next couple of months.

 

   

Good point about resale value. Do post your results when you've had it done - useful intelligence to know what if anything needed changing. I don't think I'll be selling mine; very happy and CinC Home has given me some very odd looks when I mention the idea of increasing or even changing the stable!

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Just got an email from Honda UK:

HONDA UK Info <info.UK.car@honda-eu.com>

Dear Mr. H,

 

Thank you for contacting Honda UK.

 

Please find a PDF copy of your Honda VRF800F's Owner's Manual, where it is stated that the bike's Valve Clearance should be inspected at 24000 miles.

 

Thank you for contacting Honda. If we can be of any further assistance, please don't hesitate to contact us.

 

Kind Regards,

Rositsa Ruseva

Honda Customer Service

_____________________

Honda Motor Europe Ltd.

Honda UK

 

I've added the PDF here and I'll put a copy in the downloads section. I note the Honda copyright date inside is 2016. Presumably it applies to VFR800F models from 2016 on.

 

It seems the local dealer hasn't got the message as a number of us have been told 16K rather than the wallet friendlier 24K miles specified.

 

 

VFR800.pdf

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Great work m8. :beer:

 

I shall contact them to ask the same question for the VFR800X as we share the same engine and the confusion affects us too.

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Bloody hell, very confusing.

 

I have been sticking to the 24,000 kilometre version of the manual and at 60,000 kms have had the clearance checked twice. No adjustment required either time. So on that basis, 24,000miles seems adequate.

 

I have to say though, Honda is doing a pretty piss poor job of managing their records and technical advice.

 

 

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16 hours ago, Presson said:

Just got an email from Honda UK:

HONDA UK Info <info.UK.car@honda-eu.com>

Dear Mr. H,

 

Thank you for contacting Honda UK.

 

Please find a PDF copy of your Honda VRF800F's Owner's Manual, where it is stated that the bike's Valve Clearance should be inspected at 24000 miles.

 

Thank you for contacting Honda. If we can be of any further assistance, please don't hesitate to contact us.

 

Kind Regards,

Rositsa Ruseva

Honda Customer Service

_____________________

Honda Motor Europe Ltd.

Honda UK

 

I've added the PDF here and I'll put a copy in the downloads section. I note the Honda copyright date inside is 2016. Presumably it applies to VFR800F models from 2016 on.

 

It seems the local dealer hasn't got the message as a number of us have been told 16K rather than the wallet friendlier 24K miles specified.

 

Looks like Russians took over Honda UK.... and message from Kremlin is consistent 24k miles valve service recommendation.

 

On 2/25/2021 at 1:06 AM, flya750 said:

Taken from VFRWORLD..

"Dear Mr. C,

Thank you for contacting Honda UK.

We would like to let you know that we have had a look and can confirm that when it comes to the 2014 VFR800 what we were able to locate on our system is that the valve inspection service has to be done at 24,000 miles.

For any additional information we can recommend discussing things further with your Honda authorized dealership, you can locate your closest Honda dealership here:


https://www.honda.co.uk/motorcycles/dealer-search.html

Thank you for contacting Honda. If we can be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.


Kind Regards,

Alexander Ivanov

Honda Customer Service
"

 

 

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The 1st valve inspection on my 4th gen was at 90,000km.... :tongue:

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Apart from the obvious errors, this email response backs up that at least the 2018+ VFR800X now has 24k MILE valve check.

 

HONDA UK Info <info.UK.car@honda-eu.com>
To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
30/03/21 14:29
1
 
 
 

Dear Mr. xxxxxxxx,

Thank you for contacting Honda (UK).

We have checked and indeed the owner’s manual for the ’18 VRX800s states that the valve clearance check needs to be performed every 24 000 miles. The older VRX800 need the same service every 16 000 miles.

You could check with an alternative dealership, if you are interested. You can find one on: https://www.honda.co.uk/motorcycles/dealer-search.html

Thank you for contacting Honda. If we can be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind Regards,

George  Poptodorov
Honda Customer Service
_____________________
Honda Motor Europe Ltd.
Honda UK

www.honda.co.uk

Please be informed that we have saved your personal data in order to process your query.
For more information please visit http://www.honda.co.uk/cars/useful-links/privacy-policy.html.

If you have any further questions or feedback please complete our feedback form at www.honda.co.uk/cars/contact-us.html or call our Honda (UK) Contact Centre on 0345 200 8000. Option 3.

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19 hours ago, Magneto said:

Looks like Russians took over Honda UK.... and message from Kremlin is consistent 24k miles valve service recommendation.

Hey Magneto think you're correct.

We have, Ruseva, Ivanov and now Poptodorov!!!

Gotta be a KGB infiltration. 😆

Comrades, keep a look out for this years release of the VFRSKI:tour::fing02:

 

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None of this proves that 24,000 miles is correct, or that 24,000 kms is correct. Local Honda dealers or distributors regurgitating handbooks means Jack Shit. It’s obvious that the handbook proof readers don’t even know what Mr Honda recommends. It’s clearly also so “important” that no one at Honda really cares. So now I don’t care and vote that we all adopt a 100,000km check interval.

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