AC25

I just ask the Honda Dealer mechanic if I need to adjust the vales on my 2005 Honda Pilot with 115000 miles. Because I am having the timing belt replace. The mechanic said NO only until it was making noises that I need to adjust the vales.

Thank you Bob for all your information, for sure I am going to have them adjust.

Alex.

AC25

I just ask the Honda Dealer mechanic if I need to adjust the vales on my 2005 Honda Pilot with 115000 miles. Because I am having the timing belt replace. The mechanic said NO only until it was making noises that I need to adjust the vales.

Thank you Bob for all your information, for sure I am going to have them adjust.

Alex.

Honda_Enjineer

Either your mechanic got it completely wrong or you might have misunderstood him - when the valve gaps finally do disappear there is NO noise (sometimes even when cold). As it progresses this is eventually very damaging to the engine but initially it just shows itself as slightly rough idling. Later the light comes on (see above).

Usually there is some valve "ticking" noise with a cold engine and then that disappears as normal operating temperatures are reached. This is the behavior of a healthy V-Tec engine.

But the valve gaps disappear with wear because the valves recede into the alloy head over time as their soft alloy seats become eroded (the exhaust valves are mainly guilty of this because they get incredibly hot).

Bob

Krator

Just bought a 08 ridgeline guys. Has a V6. It currently has about 90,000 km on it. Just over. Do these vehicles have the same problem? Should I be getting this checked? Picking it up tomorrow. I don't want to have a problem in a month because nothing was done. Help is appreciated.

Honda_Enjineer

Yes - after all it is exactly the same engine! (And...also true in Acura - those are also exactly the same item too but with a pricier badge on their dressed up bodywork).

But (even more so) ALL the VTEC engines have exactly this same issue - you see there is no room there for automatic valve adjusters because of the dual VTEC lifters. So also the 4 cyl. models also have simple old fashioned manual adjusters.

The negative side is that manual adjusters will soon need manual adjustment.

The positive side are all the performance benefits that you get from the VTEC technology.

Bob

Krator

Ok Can you tell me a bit about what is involved in doing this? Do you have to pull the heads off? Or is there an adjustment that can be done on the top of the heads?I just got this truck today and I don't have a service manual for it yet. This thread Kind of scared the **** out of me. There is still about 10K on the power train warentee should I go to the dealer about it?

Krator

Can't access that pdf says I am not authorized to see it guys.

Honda_Enjineer

If you are asking these questions then you probably shouldn't attempt this job yourself. Not to be rude but it is a fairly advanced do it yourself task.

The adjusters are on top of the cylinder heads and the rear ones are quite difficult to access. No need to remove heads - but the spark plugs, coils, valve covers, air plenum and throttle assembly etc... must all be removed to gain access. Also, the engine must be rotated to the correct position to adjust each cylinder. It can get tricky if you don't understand the process.

So, again if you are new to doing this kind of stuff then I recommend that you take it to a garage. The V6 VTEC engine is not the place to be learning about adjusting valves.

Bob

Krator

Ok Thanks appreciate the advice and no I didn't think you where being rude. so there lol.

Dogginator

I am about to order the one upper (17146-RCA-A01) and two lower (17105-RCA-A01) intake plenum gaskets for the J35A6 in the 05 Odyssey.

RodneyHawk

Dang. I seem to be having similar issues. 2006 pilot 80k. Seems like most people get the EGr valve to work. Should I start there then go to valves if CIL returns? I am pretty mechanical and the EGR won't be a problem, but a valve adjust I have never done.

bryse68

recommend replacing sparkplugs @ 105k or earlier. serveral cases of cylinders 2 & 4 backing out on its own.

Dogginator

I did this today on the 05 Odyssey EX that has just under 90k miles. Every exhaust valve was tight. I measured a few at 0.008" where the spec is 0.011-0.013". The intake valves were not bad. They were on the loose side of the 0.008-0.009" spec. I tweaked them towards the 0.008" spec. The exhaust valves were adjusted towards the 0.013" spec.

Overall, it took me about six hours, but I was taking pictures. I may make a write-up for the J35A6 engine.

ashtons300zx

My MDX now has 120k+ miles on it and the only code ive ever had on it was the stupid catalyst inefficent code which has been on since 2 days after I bought it 3 years ago with 55k miles on it.

Ive yet to do the valve lash adjustment but havent had any issues soo far to indicate it needs to be done. I know the usual was at 100k miles but havent gotten to it yet. Ill be doing it when I get back into the states. Its my wifes car and she drives it alot but other than the code for the catalyst its been perfectly fine, starts right up, smooth idle, smooth warm idle, no misfires, good power and has been problem free.

I did all the fluid changes for the p/s, transfer case, trans, and rear dif at 80k miles and then did the spark plugs at 100k miles. Original plugs were still in pretty good shape too.

Next big services when I get back are the timing belt w/ tensioner and idlers, water pump, cooling system drain and refill, and valve lash adjustment. Its on 05 btw and I pulled the cover at 100k miles to check the belt and it still looked great with no cracking or excessive wear. Being i was leaving to Afghanistan I didnt have time to do the change and figured it would be fine for another year and so far its been perfect. No complaints.

hardmat

Hello Valve Adjusters,

Just read this old thread from 2010. I got an 06 Ridgeline in April 2013 and need to do a valve adjustment.

My question is: where do you or the Honda Technicians get their feeler gauges for adjusting the valves. The intake spec with cold engine is .008 - .009. I would assume the feeler gauge to use would be .0085 but I cannot find a set or indivdual guage in this thickness. I asked in another forum about using a .007 and a .0015 together to get the stacked up dimension of .0085. I was told not to do this.

I am hoping to find a Honda Tech or other automotive professional who can tell me where to find a .0085 gauge or to tell me what technique they use to make this valve adjustment.

The Exhaust spec is .011 to .013, so once again, I think the tool to use is something halfway between the min and max spec or in this case .012" This is a common size in most feeler gauge sets.

thanks in advance for any help,
Tim

TackyMonster

I have a question. . . I took my 06 Pilot with almost 150K in because of a rough idle and the check engine light was on with the VTM-4 lit up above it. First time they found a loose vacuum hose. That didn't fix it so next we did an O2 sensor. It's back in again and I'm told that ALL of the valves - both intake and exhaust - are too tight. There is no clearance so it's not breathing blah blah blah.

I had my major service done and had everything that needed to be done taken care of because in my 5 years on the service drive I learned that doing the maintenance makes a huge difference in the long run. So, I did the major service as I was suppose to when recommended by Honda. Ever since my mpg has dropped at least 3 mpg and the idle is rough but I didn't put this all together until today when I got the call about the valves.

My question is does anyone have any ideas of WHY ALL the valves would tighten up? I am of course having the adjustments done as needed since it's necessary but I'm afraid I'm fixing a symptom not the problem - unless it was just adjusted incorrectly at the service.

Mark Petereit

My first guess would be that the service tech DIDN'T do the valve adjustments at the 112K scheduled service. After all, how would the customer possibly know?

The reason all valves tighten up is due to the aluminum heads heating up and the constant slapping of the valves into their seats. The more the valves pound themselves into their seats, the closer the valve stems move toward their rockers, until eventually there is no gap at all. At that point, the valves no longer seat with adequate pressure and you start gradually losing compression.

(By the way, I'm not actually this smart. I learned all this from previous posts in this thread.)

fleabag

Your biggest problem is that you're focusing on just the inches and not the MM. On the feeler gauges, there is an inch measurement and a MM measurement. The service manual and the sticker under the hood specify the in. and MM specification. Take a look at those numbers and you'll hopefully find the answer to your question. When using a feeler gauge, I always look at both the IN. and the MM... MM obviously is more precise though.

fleabag

Well from what I understand, exhaust valves tighten up because valve go up further in their seat due to high heat and wear. As for the intake valves, they usually loosen up due to carbon build up, not letting the valves go into its seat all the way. The only way for the intakes to get tighter is if the valve stem is stretching or if the valve is going deeper into its seat. Make sure the tech is measuring the clearance when the engine is stone cold like you drop off the car at 5pm, the park it in the repair shop and then they start work at 8am the next day w/o ever turning on the engine within that time frame... If they think they can do the valve adjustment with you dropping the car off in the morning and you get the car by mid day or that evening, I'd be very suspect. I used an infrared thermometer and or checked the engine coolant temperature via an OBD-II reader to ensure that the engine was stone cold before doing my valve adjustment. OBD-II coolant temperature reading is pretty good for determining valve head temperature as I have found.

jonshonda

I just got done adjusting the valves on our 06 pilot. I didn't take the time to measure the gaps prior to adjusting, but all of them had SOME gap.

Took me a while, and getting to the back bank of valves is a blast.

bulwnkl

Nevermind; J35 is screw adjuster.

hardmat

Intake valve clearance spec from Service Manual:
.008 - .009 inches or .200 - .240 mm

Dogginator and Honda Enjineer - what feeler gauge blade did you use to set your intake valve clearance?

I have a standard set of feeler guages and have looked at MANY sets on the internet hoping to find an individual blade or a set containing a blade with a
.0085 in. / .2159mm thickness dimension. This is the middle value of the spec shown in the service manual for intake clearance.

I cannot find a blade or set that has anything between the .008in/.203mm and .009in/.229mm. Is there a place you know of where I can order a blade between these two? Is it a "special" tool only availalbe from HONDA? What do the Honda Techs use (dimension) when setting clearance for the intake valves?

fleabag

You're missing the point. It's not just the inches, it's the MM. Yes your .009in feeler gauge says it's in the upper range but if you see, its mm reading says .229mm which is less than .240mm, making it more of a middle value than .203mm for the .008in feeler gauge. Since nobody makes a feeler gauge with something like .0085in, the best thing to do in this case is to choose the .009in because of its mm value. The MM value is obviously more precise than the in value.

94EG8

You don't aim for the middle, anything in that range is fine. If it's something like a CR-V that have a tendency to burn valves I go on the loose side of the spec, so .009 in this case. That said where this is the intake side you're probably quite safe on the tight side of the spec. Go loose on the exhaust side though.

Honda does not have special feeler gauges for this. I used to work at a dealership, they have all kinds of special tools including preset torque wrenches for both the oil filter and drain plug, but no feeler gauges for valve adjustments.

bulwnkl

I don't think you'll find anything _between_ .008 and .009 inches, but Autozone has set(s) with both 8 and 9 thousandths; I just picked a set up the other day.

That's just silly. The conversion between the two units doesn't align nicely, that's all.