RobertJP

Hello all.
I'm new to this site but have loved reading the questions along with all of the helpful answers from other members.
I have an issue related to many of these but is a bit specific to my 2004 S2000. Around 56,000 I brought my newly purchased S2000 in to my local dealer for a valve adjustment. Car sounded much better after the service. 1.5 yrs. and 8,000 mi. later the ticking was back so I returned to the dealer to see what the problem may be. They checked the valves again but discovered that exhaust valves on cyl. 1 and 2 were worn. I need to explain that the first time they adjusted the valves nothing was wrong. I do not drive in the rpm stratosphere. I asked them what may cause this and one answer was over reving. I have had 3 oil changes in that 8,000 miles as well.

They did an additional valve adjustment. Car sounds great. I took it to a family mechanic after the service and explained what the dealer said. His comment was "I expected to hear you coming from a block away with how bad the dealer said it was."

Any ideas on what May have caused these "issues"? Wouldn't you hear some noises if the conditions of those valves were that bad? Could the dealer have done something wrong when they did the first adjustment and caused these issues?

At a loss and need any insight you may have.

Thank you

postman

Pictures of said issues would help a lot.

iDomN8U

If you had over-rev it, the issues would be with he intake valve not exhaust.

Sounds like a bad valve adjustment job

iDomN8U

Where are you located, a local my offer thier help or give you the name of a good mechanic

Billman250

I would ask to see the damage. I find it very hard to believe that you have mushroomed valve stems.

Billman250

Time to learn to pull the valve cover yourself, or find a board member to help out and look things over together.

vtec9

In my mind, mushroomed valve stem means the tip of the stem that pokes up above the retainer has been beat to hell and was misshapen into a 'mushroom' shape. Kind of like this

http://stowell.org/cobra/images/6%20...e%20Damage.jpg

Pull the cover, get a flexible dental mirror (required to see some of the valve stems and retainers), take a look your self or with a friend as suggested above. Take pics and post back if needed. Pulling the valve cover is not difficult.

Slowcrash_101

You know honestly with our mechanical lifters I'm more worried about not hearing the valve train than a little ticking. If your valves are too tight they won't close fully and that causes more problems than valves not opening fully, although that can also cause problems. Most of the time what goes wrong during a valve adjustment is that the locking nut turns the adjustment screw as it's being tightened. The tech being the lazy untrained gorilla that they usually are(not all but a lot) probably didn't do a good job tightening the locking nut. I use the valve adjustment tool to tighten the lock nut and I slide the feeler gauge in the gap to make sure I have the right amount of drag while I'm tightening(to make sure I'm not accidentally turning the adjustment screw), then I use a 1/4" drive tq wrench to make my final tightening. Personally I feel a 3/8" drive tq wrench is overkill for anything under 16 ft lbs.

Car Analogy

...and then I recheck when I'm done tightening lock nut to make sure gap is still where its supposed to be, and readjust if its not.

I think your dealer is blowing smoke. Trying to rip you off. Take it to a local shop, and see if they agree. Also, like was suggested, ask dealer to show you the damage. Ask to see what they saw to make that diagnosis.

If they reply with anything like 'we'd need to do the work and remove the parts to be able to show you', then you know they are BS'ing (if you can't see the damage without removing the parts how did they see the damage?)

Stop going to dealer for service.

RobertJP