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ed11563


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Valve Clearance Adjustments: Necessary Service or Dealership Scam?
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Valve Clearance Adjustments: Necessary Service or Dealership Scam?

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Tom & Ray

Oct 9, 2014 (Archives)

7 Comments

valves
Dear Tom and Ray:

My 2006 Honda Element has 108,000 miles on it. The dealer recommends a valve clearance adjustment at this time. Is this a service you would recommend, or is it not necessary? Please explain.

-- John

TOM: It's absolutely necessary on this car. Essential, you might even say.

RAY: For some reason, these Honda Elements and Honda CR-Vs all get the worst case of valve-seat recession we've ever seen.

TOM: Worse than the Great Valve Seat Recession of 2008?

RAY: Worse! And we don't see this on other makes of cars. So even repair shops don't always know how important this is for Hondas, especially CR-Vs and Elements.

TOM: The simplest explanation is that because of certain design factors in these engines (which are otherwise very good), the valves slowly go out of adjustment over time.

RAY: If you adjust them before they get too far out of adjustment, it's no big deal. It costs you something like $175, including the new valve cover gasket. And you'll probably have to do it only once in the life of the car.

TOM: But if you wait too long, the valves will get out of adjustment to the point where they won't fully close. That's when the trouble starts. Then the engine starts losing compression and power.

RAY: You might not notice it for a while, because it happens slowly and doesn't make any unusual noises (whereas other types of cars do make noise when their valves need adjusting). But if you drive the car like that, with the valves misadjusted, eventually one of the valves or valve seats will get burned out, and then you're in real trouble.

TOM: At that point, you're looking at a $2,500 valve job that you could have avoided with a simple $175 adjustment.

RAY: You know how the grim-faced surgeons shuffle into the hospital waiting room on TV to give the family the bad news? Well, that's what we look like when we have to tell a CR-V owner he's won himself a valve job.

TOM: Except we usually start laughing, which is probably why we flunked out of medical school.

RAY: Anyway, John, Honda has two recommendations for when you should adjust the valves on Elements and CR-Vs, and we disagree with both of them. On older, pre-2006 models, they recommend a valve adjustment at 110,000 miles. And for newer ones, they recommend just listening for noise and adjusting when necessary. But they don't make noise!

TOM: In fact, as the valves get farther out of adjustment, they often get quieter! So our recommendation is to just do it at 90,000 miles.

RAY: So if any Honda Elements or CR-Vs come in our shop anywhere near the 90,000-mile mark, we recommend to customers that they get the valves adjusted. And we'd strongly recommend the same thing to you. 


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ed11563


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    gearsgood • 2 days ago

    So, I am one of those unhappy 2006 Element owners who was unaware of the valve problem, and was told at 113,000 miles that I needed a valve job. I have a post-valve job question: the car now uses oil; about a quart or so every 1k. The car doesn't emit smoke from the exhaust, there are no drips on the driveway, and the engine doesn't seem to be leaking oil. Do you have any idea what could be going on now?

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      George_San_Jose gearsgood • 2 days ago

      Most of the experts on this site say one quart of oil per 1000 miles is within the normal oil usage range for an econo-box with over 100K on the clock. I suspect this is something you starting noticing after the valve job, simply b/c before then you didn't think very much about the engine, then all of a sudden you got a big expense and didn't have the car to drive for several weeks or months, so your att'n got focused on car maintenance; i.e. I suspect your oil usage is the same now as it was before the valve job. Check with your shop to make sure there are no oil leaks getting on something they shouldn't, like on the drive belts. If not, me, I'd just ignore the oil problem other than keeping an eye on the oil level so it never gets less than 1/2 quart low.

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    DesertRambler • 2 days ago

    Does this apply to 2012 and later models of the CR-V?

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    lotus87 • 2 days ago

    Is this true for Honda Civics & Fits too? What about for 2007 and newer models?

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    slaggs • 2 days ago

    Is it just the next number of miles or could just the age of the car cause this? I have an 04 element with only 40000 miles on it. It seems to sometimes not have the power it should. Could this happen over time or just through wear

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    qwildman • 2 days ago

    I too am a Honda Element 2006 owner who had to get a value job a few years back, around 110,000 miles as I recall. My car now has 167,000 miles. It certainly would have been great wisdom to know to get a valve adjustment at 90,000 miles, but I would not quantify myself as an unhappy owner as the car has been very reliable otherwise. However, I am wondering about the wisdom of only having to do it once for lifetime of the car. I was thinking that using your 90,000 mile watermark, I should get a value adjustment at around 200,000 miles, which would be little less that around 2 years from now based on my current driving patterns. What do you think of this? Seems pretty cheap compared to getting another valve job 20,000 miles later.

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      George_San_Jose qwildman • 2 days ago

      I'm wondering if the repair procedure installs new seats with improved materials? If so, there may not be a need to do another valve clearance procedure. If they use the same materials for the valves and valves seats, then you are probably right, in fact you should get another valve clearance at the next 90K according to T&R's theory, not 100K. To my way of thinking, a valve clearance measurement is a pretty simple and inexpensive thing, and if it has a chance of catching a problem before another valve job is required, so much the better. My suggestion is just keep doing them at 90K intervals. A valve clearance measurement (as opposed to a valve adjustment, which might be necessary depending on the measurement) is something a lot of DIY'ers could do themselves to save money if they were so inclined, esp on 4 cylinder transverse mounted overhead cam engines. I've been doing DIY'er valve clearance measurements on my 90's Corolla and before that on my late 70's VW Rabbit for years. About the same level of difficulty and time as doing an oil & filter change on those cars. I've never in all those measurements found even a valve out of adjustment.



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