10,000 valve clearance check

Yes, JoeSmoe, I have searched the forums. The answer may be there but I couldn't find it after digging through numerous threads. I did find one promising comment, though.

I have just over 10,000 miles on my 2015 R3T. I was getting ready to check the valve clearances but thought I'd ask others here who have checked them at 10,000 miles if they found out-of-spec clearances.

While searching for info about that here, I found one comment that said that Triumph no longer recommends checking valve clearances at 10,000 miles. Does anyone know if that's true? I also seem to remember reading a post by someone somewhere that a Triumph mechanic had told him that they rarely found the clearances on R3s to be out-of-spec.

So, if you checked your valve clearances at about 10,000 miles, what did you find?

If it turns out that people are finding them still in spec and Triumph no longer recommends checking them at 10,000, I'll consider it a temporary reprieve from a job I wasn't particularly looking forward to.

Yes I memory serves me right Triumph figured out it was a waste of time at 10,000 . Heck mine had tbe originals at 48,000 when I switched to under the bucket style shims.

I've read of people who barely needed adjustment after 50-100k miles, and people who needed to adjust several valves at 10k. It seems pretty random. But it also seems like most need very little or no adjusting, and Triumph's extended interval makes sense.

I'd just hate to have the rare one that needed several valves adjusted at 10 and not check them until 30. If you wait you'll probably be just fine. It comes down to how paranoid you are in your maintenance.

I thought the interval was 20k my R3 has just turned 21k I'm not looking forward to it either ( but I don't want to pay someone for a job I could do myself)

I'm thinking this is pretty much a car engine and I'm sure there isn't a current car engine in the world that needs clearance checked a 10,20,30,40 or even 50k

thinking of putting it off to the autumn / winter now when I won't be using it

so if anyone has answer from Triumph or solid advice on this it would helpful

RacerX74 said:

so if anyone has answer from Triumph or solid advice on this it would helpful

Click to expand...

I don't think there is any solid advice to be had. We know adjustments may or may not be needed anywhere from 10k to 100k, and there's no way to know without checking. In this case I think any interval from Triumph would be as arbitrary as what any of us would come up with. The need for adjustment is so wildly variable from bike to bike, it's a judgement call of cost/risk over thousands of bikes.

I agree I wouldn't do it until the season is over. Since there's no consistently predictable interval when damage starts to occur, if you weren't worried about getting it done two months ago, I wouldn't worry about suddenly doing it now because the odometer clicked over an arbitrary number. If you're not hunting down any problems with the motor, let it go until the weather turns.

But, I'm no engineer! Just some thoughts from a random guy on the internet.

I had contacted triumph a while back with the same question and was told that the 10,000 Check was no longer required and had it in the form of a chat session, I printed it out and do you think I can find it...

Here is the other half of the story, just before I took it in for the 32,000 km service which includes the valve check my valve cover gasket bulged out near the front right side. It started to leak and figured i got off lucky because it was due for service.

The dealer requested warranty on the gasket as it is a known issue and I was asked if I took it in for the 10,000mile valve check. Obously the answer was no so they didn't cover the repair. Because I couldn't find the copy of the chat I was out of luck.

I would send a quick note asking triumph, if they say no then do a better job of keeping a copy of the response than I did...

BTW... gasket is popping out again...

Okay. I am going to throw my two cents out. Did the valve check at 10,000 miles and everything was fine. Checked with truimph and called them at the factory. They sent me a memo stated that the 10,000 mile check was history. Service update sent to all truimph dealerships. At 25,000 miles valve cover started to leak. Checked valve clearance and had seven valves slightly out of adjustment. Very long and in detailed post in reinstalling valve cover. Last time was not so careful reinstalling valve cover and gasket. This time different story. Would I take my bike to a dealership after this round of Maintenance work? $ell no. The Valve cover and gasket is not hard to get on right but it takes a bit of time. Just got the throttle bodys back on today. Getting ready to install Ramair this afternoon. You can not judge a valve check by noise alone, a loose valve will make noise a tight valve probably not . My bike was making just a slight noise cold but once warmed up it was fine. Valves shims replaced at one size up for six and and one down for one. Now we are riding at 12MM to 14mm on intake and 17MM to 19MM on exhaust. I am not very socially inclined but do have a rather high comprehension level so reading a manual and understanding what i have read is not a problem. From what I have seen of most motorcycle shops tribal knowledge rules. Detail and close attention pays off. Tribal knowledge Not so much. You end up with gaskets that leak after only a couple of thousand miles.

Thanks, folks. Good info.

And, yes, I know that every bike is different and there's no way of knowing if my particular bike's clearances may be out of spec at 10,000 but what I was trying to do was get an idea of what others found when they did a 10,000 check. Also, as I said, I had heard that Triumph no longer recommends the 10,000 valve clearance check and thanks to those who confirmed that here. I did email Triumph America about this and I will post their response here if I get one.

I do maintain all my machines very well and usually at shorter intervals than recommended. So there is a little paranoia if I don't check valve clearances at the recommended interval. But, from what I'm hearing, Triumph no longer recommends the 10,000 valve clearance check. As someone else said, there's almost no vehicle that needs valve clearances checked/ adjusted at such a short interval. It sounds like Triumph just pulled a mileage out of the air when the Rocket was first introduced and changed their recommendation based on experience.

I think I'll let the valve clearance check go until this fall when I put the bike up for the winter. The bike is running beautifully and I have no unusual valve noise (from too much clearance) and no signs that the valves aren't closing from too little clearance (that's the worst condition).

Thanks again, folks! You answered my question. If anyone else checked their own valve clearances at 10,000 miles, I'd like to hear what you found just out of curiosity.