Valve Adjustment

[rcbimmer]

I have a 1999 Venture with right at 40k miles on her. My valve covers, both of them are leaking like crazy. I'm having the dealer replace them so my question is it to early to have them adjust the valves? I know they are due at 52k but I really do not want to pay twice for them to go in there. Thanks guys.

[twigg]

I have a 1999 Venture with right at 40k miles on her. My valve covers, both of them are leaking like crazy. I'm having the dealer replace them so my question is it to early to have them adjust the valves? I know they are due at 52k but I really do not want to pay twice for them to go in there. Thanks guys.

 

You could have them measure the clearances and report the numbers.

 

Then you can decide if they need doing now.

 

Shouldn't take them hardly any time to get the numbers if the covers are off.

[Freebird]

I'm assuming they have already been checked once? If not, you are actually overdue. If they have already been done once...then it's really somewhat of a dilemma. I would talk to the dealer and find out how much you would save by going ahead and having it done now. I doubt that I would do it but the cost savings could possibly change my mind. In my opinion, since the valve covers will already be off then it shouldn't cost much extra at all to have them checked.

[djh3]

Is it to much to assume that your not into doing the work yourself? If willing to do it there is a member willing to loan his tools and shims out to complete the job. All he asks is you pay the shipping and buy the gaskets from him I think.

[RandyR]

I have a 1999 Venture with right at 40k miles on her. My valve covers, both of them are leaking like crazy. I'm having the dealer replace them so my question is it to early to have them adjust the valves? I know they are due at 52k but I really do not want to pay twice for them to go in there. Thanks guys.

 

replace the covers or replace the gaskets?

[Carbon_One]

replace the covers or replace the gaskets?

 

You only need to replace the rubber gaskets.

 

RC, I would do what Don/Freebird suggests if you don't intend to do anything yourself or better yet see if there's anyone close by you who knows how to do the job. You could save some $$ and gain new riding friends.

Larry

[rcbimmer]

Thanks all for the replies. I'm not going to do the work myself and I'm pretty comfortable with the dealer. They have a good reputation and several dealerships in the area. The valves were done at the 26k mark by the PO. I'm just looking to save some cash if possible. I did mean replace the valve cover gaskets.

[aharbi]

"save some cash" - with a dealer My experience would be he'd charge twice, once for the gasket and again for the valve job even though they have to remove the gaskets to do the valve job. They go by job (hours) as listed in their little "job book". You got it, I don't like dealers, of any kind. The new gotcha is the diagnostic. We have to run a diagnostic for $100 to see whats wrong. Just another way to "pad the bill" for them to just look under the hood/tank. It just cost me over $900 to get my wife's car inspected. Not a dang thing wrong with it but the "service engine soon" light would come on. It really should be called "pay me more money" light. It was a EGR sensor that failed. The EGR was fine, the car was fine, the sensor to warn of a polluting system failed. What a rip.

[muaymendez1]

Ok no need to beat him up for choosing not to di it himself.The job was easy but time consuming.Easy if you are mechanically inclined.

With that said. It should take them 10 minutes to measure.

If not too costly changing the shims to largest tollerance even if within spec may be a good idea.This is what I did.

29k and all within spec but now I won't be afraid if I go over next schedule by a few thousand miles.

[warriorhoneybee]

was supose to do mine last fall but that fell apart ,but hope to do it this year. of course i 'm not doing it alone,i'm going to a closed location were he will attempt to teach me to do this. his has the proper tools to do the job and the know how.he did say it was a long job to do.dont know the exact hours but i'm figureing around 7-9 hours.please, i know someone will tell me how they did it in 4 1/2 hours,so i'll go ahead and tell you now @#%* *@%.lol

[twigg]

Probably just practise.

 

First time I took the carbs off the VR, it took forever.

 

I can probably get them off in about 15 minutes now, going carefully.

[Carbon_One]

Probably just practise.

 

First time I took the carbs off the VR, it took forever.

 

I can probably get them off in about 15 minutes now, going carefully.

 

Yep after doing a few jobs like this it becomes much much easier then the 1st time around. Even then some jobs still require the patience of a saint.

Larry

[djh3]

Aharbi: swing by your local autozone. They have a code reader and can tell you what the code is. I got a ck eng light on on the wifes Durango thats been on for 2yr or more. Its a purge tank issue. Could be a $15 solinoid valve or anywhere in the 58' of vacum hoses that run from the tank to the purge tank to the valve and on and on. It dont affect performance so I aint fixing it. I'm suprised the light still comes on, I would have bet it burned out by now.

[ragtop69gs]

Aharbi: swing by your local autozone. They have a code reader and can tell you what the code is. I got a ck eng light on on the wifes Durango thats been on for 2yr or more. Its a purge tank issue. Could be a $15 solinoid valve or anywhere in the 58' of vacum hoses that run from the tank to the purge tank to the valve and on and on. It dont affect performance so I aint fixing it. I'm suprised the light still comes on, I would have bet it burned out by now.

 

You gotta be careful just buying parts after an Autozone scan. Sometimes it's another underlying issue that causes it to throw a code pointing to something else. Without having the diagnostic skills to interpret all the readings, not just the shown code, you could waste a lot of money before you stumble upon the real problem.

 

That"s my

[aharbi]

Aharbi: swing by your local autozone. They have a code reader and can tell you what the code is. I got a ck eng light on on the wifes Durango thats been on for 2yr or more. Its a purge tank issue. Could be a $15 solinoid valve or anywhere in the 58' of vacum hoses that run from the tank to the purge tank to the valve and on and on. It dont affect performance so I aint fixing it. I'm suprised the light still comes on, I would have bet it burned out by now.

 

Thanks, I found that out later that Autozone does it for free. Truth be told, I think I pi$$ed the dealer off. I know there wasn't a dam thing wrong with the car causing the pay me more money light to come on and figured it was some obscure vacuum leak or dung sniffing sensor. So I did the old VCR flashing date fix, I put a piece of black electrical tape over the light so you couldn't see it. BUSTED! evedently for inspection they check the codes and wouldn't pass it because the false "EGR failure". They found the tape and told me it was illegal to mask (ha ha) falsify emissions reading.

[rcbimmer]

Dealer called me today and said they checked the valve adjustment while they were in that far and all were within specs. He said that I should bring her in at 72k instead of 78k for the next valve adjustment and that should get me back on schedule. Said he was not going to charge me for the extra labor, I thought that was pretty cool. Guess he want to make sure he has a new customer.