i had my engine repaired by acura (good will) after a misshift last year. they told me i blew cylinder 1 and replaced/rebuilt my head. after i got the car back, the car has been running fine but at idle i could hear the valves ticking oftly louder than before and it's quite annoying. when i brought it in to acura to get it inspected, they said they can't tell what's wrong and blamed my mods for it (aem cai, tanabe full cat). i think they just didn't want to take my head apart. however, they did suggest that i could get a valve clearance adjustment which is part of regular scheduled maintainance at 110,000 miles or when engine is NOISY. the dealer didn't guarantee that it would fix the problem but the service would cost me $100.00 + tax.

should i go and get the valve adjustment done and see where i am from there or just deal with the noise? does anybody know if the valve adjustment would make a difference?

 

Well if they supposidly rebuilt the head, the valve adjustment should have been done at that time. Anytime you do headwork, you adjust the valves. Sounds like whoever did it did not adjust them properly. Kinda puts you in a bind because they good willed it for you. I would bring it to there attention that the valves were supposed to be set at the time the headwork was done. Maybe they will take care of it for you. I work for Acura, and all a customer has to do is show there ***. So dont back off of them...

 

i did and they told me that i have to pay the $100.00. they also emphasized that it was a GOOD-WILL repair so i don't know if i should just go and pay it. i'm already scheduled to do it in two weeks. i just want to make sure that it will definitely make the noise go away if i'm going to spend my money on it.

 

so will the valve clearance adjustment definitely make the ticking stop?!

 

Are you sure you're not just paying more attention to the injector ticking after your rebuild? Are you positive it's the valves?

 

when i went to the dealership where i purchased the car, they told me that my valves were ticking and that i should bring it back to the dealership where i got my engine work done. so that's what i did and they told me that it could be my valves, or even my fuel injectors ticking, but i know the ticking is louder than normal b/c my friend has an s with the same setup (aem cai, tanabe exhaust) and his sounds much quiter at idle than mine. i'm willing to pay for the valve adjustment, i just want to make sure it definitely makes the noise go away.

 

keep us updated. some of us in ephatch have similiar ticking and dealers have said it was the injectors. alot of our cars make that ticking, mine included. i'd like to know once and for all if the valve adjustment would take care of it. it gets annoying after a while.

 

back in the day i had a 94 gsr and had some ticking noise going on. i was still within my 4 year 50,000 mile warranty and the dealership did the valve adjustment 3 times and replaced the injectors and i still had the same ticking noise. i complained so much about it that corperate of acura flew in to listen to the car. after all that i could still here the ticking but all of sudden nobody at acura could here it and i was the only one that could here it, besides all my friends and family. good luck and keep us informed.

 

well i guess i'm going to go on and get the valve adjustment done and PAY for it since i'm scheduled for it anyway. hopefully i'll be able to get rid of the noise. unless you guys have any other suggestions.

 

I think you should pay the $100. After all, like you said, they didn't have to rebuild you cylinder head. That was cool of them.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Mac8008 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I think you should pay the $100. After all, like you said, they didn't have to rebuild you cylinder head. That was cool of them. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Well that doesn't really matter. I feel that if they (acura) are going to do something, then they should do it right.

Just because they did it for free doesn't mean they should do a crappy job right? (I'm not saying they did a bad job.)

 

I find the easiest way to see if you need adjusting in your valves is to drive in first gear in a hallway/alley way or next to a wall that will echo the sound of your engine, and keep it at a steady rpm of say 3000 going 10-15mph and if you hear constant LOUD fluttering/ticking, then you could probably use a valve adjustment. If the fluttering/ticking is pretty dampened, then probably not, try changing your oil too

 

how can i hear the ticking if my aem cai is all that i hear from that side?

 

had it done !... save the money for a mod or something ,the sound remains the same!
...mateo

 

very good to know!

 

get a long screw driver & place the tip on the valve cover & then the injector area & place your ear on the handle to see which is ticking more. every honda I have had has had a ticking sound to it.

 

really?! and they didn't refund you for the service or tried to find out what was wrong? did you have your head replaced as well?

 

well just wanted to let you guys know that i got my engine valve adjustment today at acura to get rid of the ticking noise and guess what, THE NOISE IS GONE!! the engine sounds the same as when i bought the car. although i had to pay $111.00 to get this done, atleast my car sounds normal again. the technician even said why i didn't bring them in earlier to get them done.

however, on the invoice, the technician stated:
"performed engine valve adjustment to factory spec's
technician stated that it looks like someone attempted to adjust valves themselves..."

adjust vavles themselves, what is he talking about? the last person to touch my valves was the tech from the same dealership who installed my new head. anyway, just bothered me that they thought i messed with it that's why it was like that. atleast my engines fine again.

 

If i were you, i would talk to Acura about that little statement they made. If you don't clear it, and if something were to happen to your motor down the road, they're going to blame you. And, you'll end up picking up the bill.

"technician stated that it looks like someone attempted to adjust valves themselves..." : That part to me sounds really really bad. Good luck.

Edit: Grammar.

 

I am pretty shure that the ticking isnt anything detrimental to the engine. Because i have heard many honda engines and almost all of them all had the same ticking noise that I also have on my Rsx. But just to make shure can somebody verify that it isnt anything hazardous b/c if it is im going straight to the acura dealership to get it fixed ASAP.

 

the ticking that i had was extremely loud, you could hear it when your about 20-25 feet from the car. now i can't even hear my car idling when im 10-15 feet away.

 

Wow damn that is loud. Mine isnt nearly as lous as yours was. But still does anybody know if its detrimental to my engine?