Valve Clearance Adjustment


2WheelsRplenty

New Member
Currently have 44,000 km on my 2015 FZ6R. Owners manual states valve clearance adjustment needs to be done at 43,000 km so I called the Yamaha dealer where I live and asked about getting it done. He told me of all the FZ6R bikes they've sold over the years, no one has ever brought one in for a valve clearance adjustment. I was wondering if it's really necessary. The dealer quoted me at $600 for the work. I know of another motorcycle repair shop in the area that will do it for $400. Planning on a 20,000 km summer, including two trips over 8k each. Should I get the valve clearance checked?
 

John3219

New Member
Hi there. First of all, I have never heard of anyone putting that many kilometers on a bike, not too mention on a sport bike. Anyway, I think it can't hurt to do PM since you do a lot of driving for long trips. Just go with a reputable mechanic no matter how much it costs.

JohnnyD
 

vcdstroyr

Member
I put about 60K miles on my old Yamaha Vstar 950 (bought it brand new less than 10 miles on it). It never needed a valve clearance adjustment.
I currently have 39K miles on my FZ6R and haven't done a valve clearance adjustment and it's running great (bought it with 5K miles).

I put a lot of miles on both my Yamaha bikes.

If you keep up with all the other maintenance (spark plugs, oil, air filter, brake fluid, coolant), then probably you're good to go.

If you want to be extra, then try checking it out yourself first. No need to spend money on the adjustment if you don't need it.
 

milepig

Member
I put about 60K miles on my old Yamaha Vstar 950 (bought it brand new less than 10 miles on it). It never needed a valve clearance adjustment.
I currently have 39K miles on my FZ6R and haven't done a valve clearance adjustment and it's running great (bought it with 5K miles).

I put a lot of miles on both my Yamaha bikes.

If you keep up with all the other maintenance (spark plugs, oil, air filter, brake fluid, coolant), then probably you're good to go.

If you want to be extra, then try checking it out yourself first. No need to spend money on the adjustment if you don't need it.
I agree with this. My wife's '09 has 60K plus miles on it with no valve check. The bike runs flawlessly. No intentions of doing a valve check.
 
Last edited:

BluePill

Member
Based on your expected mileage in the near future, it might be smart to have the valves CHECKED. I would advise the mechanic to ADJUST them only if intake is tighter than 0.10 or looser than 0.25 Intake (Spec is 0.13 to 0.20) and tighter than 0.20 or looser than 0.35 Exhaust (Spec. is 0.23 to 0.30).

If they are all within the wider range, no need IMO to spend the extra time and money on an actual adjustment which requires removing the cams.
 
I think it’ll be hard to get a solid answer on this. There just aren’t enough owners with enough miles on their bikes who are active on this forum to be able to obtain any meaningful data. One or two owners saying they’ve surpassed the interval and haven’t had any problems YET really doesn’t mean shit. For those who DO have that many miles and HAVE had their valves checked, it would be great to know whether or not they actually needed adjustment.

If it was me and I was planning to keep this bike for a while (as I am), I would pay to have it done. This thing has cost me very little to keep running over the years and I presume it’s the same for you. So even though the cost of valve service stings, it’s really pretty minor in the big picture. I have some faith that the engineers who specified the adjustment interval had a good reason for making it what they made it.

And, just curious here; if you‘ve already accessed the valves to check clearance, is it really much more time and effort to adjust them? If the FZ6R valves are the sort that need to be shimmed, I guess it probably would be significant.

It’s interesting how different it is from one engine to another. My XT250 requires valve checks every 3000 miles vs 26000 for the FZ6R! Of course it’s pretty simple on the XT250 and I do it myself.
 

Tsaro

New Member
Checked mine last night, didn't need to fully remove the throttle bodies but had to unhook them and lift them back, also remove the breather hose lugs (the ones over the reed valves) and then the cover can rotate out enough counter clockwise to pull out past the throttle bodies. Took a little shuffling but was able to get it out. Exhaust valves were all at the lower edge of spec but in spec, intakes were fine and all were pretty much the same reading to within the accuracy of my feeler gauges. Still have to re-assemble everything starting tonight.
 

milepig

Member
Checked mine last night, didn't need to fully remove the throttle bodies but had to unhook them and lift them back, also remove the breather hose lugs (the ones over the reed valves) and then the cover can rotate out enough counter clockwise to pull out past the throttle bodies. Took a little shuffling but was able to get it out. Exhaust valves were all at the lower edge of spec but in spec, intakes were fine and all were pretty much the same reading to within the accuracy of my feeler gauges. Still have to re-assemble everything starting tonight.
How many miles are on the bike?
 



Top