Hi Foccers,
So my lovely Fazer is approaching her 48,000th mile and as such needs to have her valve clearances checked. Having called a Yamaha dealer yesterday for an idea of cost I was somewhat shocked by the £500 to £600 figure!
Having got over the shock I'm now considering the option of doing it myself. Not sure how many of you know of the Oval Motorcycle centre, but it's ran by a mechanic where you can go, use their tools etc and get help while doing maintenance work. I've been there for work on my exhaust and my first oil change and as the mechanic also has a Fazer I'm thinking it might be worth doing it there.
I guess my question is, how complicated is the work? If you've done it before, what are the concerns/pitfalls I should be aware of.
I don't have a spare £600 for the service so I think DIY is currently the best option to keep her running well, but I also don't want to break her. I've not done much mechanical work,
Thoughts? Comforting words?
HJF
Ok, so the service book says check clearances at 48k....but does it really need it. Is it riding rough, using more fuel, getting hotter - probably not I'd guess. The older style bikes tend to maybe requiring valves clearances adjusted once every 100k miles and won't be far out to affect the bike.
If it were me, I'd pop to your Oval Centre and ask others there what their thoughts are.
Good luck and stop thinking about binning a good bike.
Those are my principles...if you don't like them I have others.
Checking the valve clearances isn't very complicated. I'm sure there will be posts on here with all the details or Haynes or Yamaha workshop manuals will have the details but are not really needed apart from confirming what has to be taken off to allow the cam cover to be removed.
If the clearances are within spec then its just a case of bolting it back together again. If the clearances need adjusted then its a bit more complicated but nothing that should be a problem with advice on hand. No special tools required apart from a torque wrench which is hardly a special tool.
Should only take a couple of hours.
The £500 to £600 quote must include everything for the 48,000 service. I've not checked the schedule but it probably includes taking forks and steering stem off the grease head bearings and swinging arm out to grease swinging arm bearings.
The other option is not to use a main dealer. I had valves done on my Divvy for £200 at Frazers in Gloucester and I'm sure I could have got it cheaper than that.
Malc
Old enough to know better.
Were the clearances done at 24000? if so i wouldn't worry too much if it runs fine. Some bikes can seem to do mega miles without being done at all but some people that check do find a need to adjust them. How hard the bike gets ridden must make a difference, if you are concerned go to OMC as Matt is a top bloke but just bear in mind to give yourself a full day and that if re-shimming needs doing that you have shims to hand otherwise it's a waste of time. Depending on the measurements and required gap it may be possible to swap some of them around.
I checked the valve clearances around the 30,000 mile mark, they were o.k.
Didn't bother after that, and the bikes now done 80,000 and still runs fine.
There's lots of echoing in here- if it starts on the button and sounds OK then forget about it!
Some say...
I had to re-shim mine when I fitted a new head.
Checking them is fairly easy. Changing them is a faff as you have to measure the clearance, if it's out, you have to remove the old shim and get a new one that makes up the difference. I found very few people had them in stock so I had to order them on the internet and wait a few days for them to arrive with the head off my bike. Not great if your paying for workshop space or need your bike everyday.
-suck-squeeze-bang-blow-
They rarely require adjusting & it's only £500-£600 if both cams need to come out & most of the shims need replaced.
Just checking them would be much, much cheaper - only costing you the price of a new gasket & a couple of other bits.
Having some expert at hand to point out any mistooks would be a comfort tho
But you'd also learn a lot which IMO is even more valuable.
As reference, my own's currently on 47000 miles and I'm not even thinking about doing a check for the next 13,000 miles.
(02-07-15, 06:30 PM)Punkstig link Wrote: There's lots of echoing in here- if it starts on the button and sounds OK then forget about it!
So that's about 5 of us saying forget it and save your money fella. Bugger off abroad for a week with the money and start worrying when you've racked up 80k miles AND it starts to play up. Even at 80k if it still runs fine then don't worry about it.
You said you're not that mechanical so if you feck it up...what then, buy another bike I guess.
Leave the bloody thing alone.
Those are my principles...if you don't like them I have others.
I'd just check them for peace of mind. It'd take an afternoon at the most. 500 is crazy even if that's for replacing shims. Taking the cams out isn't that hard
Hi all,
Thanks for the comments, some interesting points and what I've definitely decided is that I'm not using the Yammy man who suggested the £500-600.
Tomorrow I'm going to pop and speak to Matt at OMC and get his thoughts. I'm lucky in that I don't need it for work as I can walk it in 20 mins anyway. I think what I'll end up doing is booking a day to check them as well as do my breaks and some other small stuff. With Matt there hopefully if I need anything he can assist and I'll get to learn stuff.
Hopefully between you peeps here and Matt I'll get it sorted so my money gets spent on petrol and not an expensive dealership.
Cheers
Haydn
