45,000 MILE VALVE CHECK

[ully211]

Is getting the valves checked at 45,000 miles important if bike is running great?  Thanks in advance!

[dirtrider]

45 minutes ago, ully211 said:

Is getting the valves checked at 45,000 miles important if bike is running great?  Thanks in advance!

Morning ully211

 

Maybe important & maybe not. At that mileage they usually quit moving so probably not as important at 45K as it was at 6K.

 

A lot depends on history, if the last check showed no movement then this check probably won't either.  

 

If there was adjustment needed at last check then probably a good idea to have this one done. 

 

 

[Ponch]

I check mine every service, which is every 6k miles. Like DR said, after a while they don't move or hardly at all. I still get them in spec. One thing to check is rocker end play. I had to adjust mine at one point. 

[ully211]

Thanks dirtrider and Ponch.  I'm taking it in Tuesday for my yearly, and adding the valve check is bumping the normal cost up about $250.  I have had all of my servicing done at this same dealer (Adventure BMW in Va Beach), and Sean has been great doing all of my maintenance.

 

I don't think it's been checked since the 6k check, so I'll probably go ahead and do it.

[Rougarou]

My '06 has 140k and I've popped the heads off twice......neither resulted in any adjustments,....I've had the bike since 5800 miles.

[MBrockman5]

What are the signs that the valves need to be adjusted? Is there anything I should be watching out for that would tell me it needs to be done?

[Ponch]

10 minutes ago, MBrockman5 said:

What are the signs that the valves need to be adjusted? Is there anything I should be watching out for that would tell me it needs to be done?

 

By measuring the clearances. 

[MBrockman5]

I figured that... I meant mechanically; Rough idling, poor gas mileage, difficulty starting/running, etc.

[Ponch]

22 minutes ago, MBrockman5 said:

I figured that... I meant mechanically; Rough idling, poor gas mileage, difficulty starting/running, etc.

Just noisier, some say a tick. Mine were a bit out of spec after 30 some odd thousand miles. 

[dirtrider]

8 hours ago, MBrockman5 said:

I figured that... I meant mechanically; Rough idling, poor gas mileage, difficulty starting/running, etc.

Morning  MBrockman5

 

It depends on which way they go out of spec, if a valve goes loose then they run just fine, sometimes even better at lower RPM's. When they get loose enough you can usually hear more valve clatter but it happens so slowly that you lose your baseline so unless one or two valves  are  WAY out of spec most riders don't even notice it.

 

If a valve goes tight that is difficult to tell as they stay quiet, usually run OK right up until the time that you burn a valve.

 

My suggestion is to check the valve adjustment on schedule for the first 2 checks, if the 2nd check shows no movement from the 1st  check/resetting then you can probably go to a an every other service interval check. If the 2nd valve  check still showed some movement then do the 3rd check on time.

 

On my personal 1200 hexheads I use the BMW RT-P valve adjustment setting (that runs the exhaust valves .001" looser than the civilian exhaust valve setting). The extra .001" on the exhaust valves is just a little insurance in case I end up running the engine heavily loaded while extremely hot (ie, high exhaust temperatures).