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How can someone mess up a valve adjustment???

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Old 15-Aug-2003, 04:41 PM
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How can someone mess up a valve adjustment???

Well I picked up my car right before the shop closed this afternoon, and on the way home, the valves are ticking even louder, and when I stop at a light with the clutch pushed in, the revs go all the way down to basically 0, the shifter shakes and the car vibrates.

The ticking is loud while driving, and everytime the car stops, the revs drop down to almost 0, for 3 seconds, then it starts to idle normally.

The shop is closed now, so I can't go back and raise some hell. But does this seem like a totally fucked up valve adjustment? Could they have fucked up something else as well? I do not want to go back there to get this fixed, and I'm going to try calling the dealer in the morning, to reschedule a new valve adjustment.

What would you do if this happened to you? It took me awhile to calm down, espically because I know the owner of this shop.

This is the last time I'm every going there.

Any help would be appreciated. I'm in hamilton if anyone knows of a quality place for me to get a new valve adjustment.

THanks
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Old 15-Aug-2003, 04:57 PM
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well if the valves are not tighten to the right amount... or not adjusted to the right height.... i'm sure there are more ways of screwing it up

honda is probably one of the best places to go cause they know there ****.... $110 though
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Old 15-Aug-2003, 06:02 PM
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$110 for vavle adj, thats alot , my opinion , sounds like a vacumm leak , and i think they loosened them not tightened the gaps, don't drive the car too hard in this case ,

check around engine bay, make sure all plugs are plugged in etc..

engine light on ?
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Old 15-Aug-2003, 06:24 PM
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nope no CE light.

Like its ticking loud, and I'm really pissed because I'm dropping it off for a repaint this sunday, and expected this to be fixed. I'm going to try to get it into Acura tomorrow morning, they're open from 9am-2pm.

I won't be driving it until tomorrow morning.
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Old 15-Aug-2003, 06:25 PM
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did they change or do anything else while it was in??
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Old 15-Aug-2003, 08:06 PM
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Nope
I said valve adjustment and change oil.

I brought the synthetic oil, they always charge me $10 to change that and the filter, and they said 79.99 for the valve adjustment.

I know the owner, and head mechanic. And my problem now is that I won an ebay auction for the owner's son for a GSXR ******* shock, and if I tell them I'm not paying for they're fuckup, I might be fucked $71.25 USD.

So I'm asking you guys how I should handle this?
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Old 15-Aug-2003, 08:16 PM
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If you have a relationship take it back..

Take the owner/head mechanic for a short drive.

Let them listen..

If he says no shove the shock up his ***..

Take business elsewhere..

I suspect he will come around after a listen, unless he is a *****..
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Old 15-Aug-2003, 11:23 PM
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Thanks, thats exactly what I'm going to do tomorrow morning.

I'm going to ask for the owner, and be polite and tell him up front.

I'll post up what happens for those of you who care.
Night
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Old 16-Aug-2003, 02:05 AM
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Good Luck
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Old 16-Aug-2003, 02:13 AM
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good luck
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Old 16-Aug-2003, 12:37 PM
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okay

he redid the valve adjustment in front of me. Now the only ticking I hear are the injectors. Great. Now the idle problem.

When I give it gas then let off, the idle falls to 500, car stumbles, then idle comes back to 850. He tried adjusting it, but it still happens. He said he retarded timing 1 degree as well. Now that idle problem still happens. He said it could be the throttle body plate and may need cleaning, but I doubt that. Also, this is probably due to the retarding timing, but when I'm at 100, and I let completely off the gas, I hear, puff, puff, puff, puff, like tiny farts coming from the exhaust for a few seconds, then it goes away.

So does anyone have any suggestions as what I should do? It's being dropped off tomorrow morning for a paint job, and should be back in 1 week.

Thanks
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Old 16-Aug-2003, 04:02 PM
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there a 3 bolt that hold the distributor, i think they are 12mm.....
loosen them a little , start the car , and slowly move the distributor , see what happens , the idle may go down or up

then tighten and test drive

Might help

Good luck
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Old 16-Aug-2003, 06:58 PM
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if you look where the distributor is now... get a black marker and put a line across where the top bolt blk93si was talking about... and you want to move it like 1mm or slightly more towards the front of the car....

that will advance the timing... thats what i did to my car and it seems better.... but i also put in that distributor in the first place so it may not have been in the right place anyways
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Old 16-Aug-2003, 08:28 PM
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Originally posted by blk93si
there a 3 bolt that hold the distributor, i think they are 12mm.....
loosen them a little , start the car , and slowly move the distributor , see what happens , the idle may go down or up

then tighten and test drive

Might help

Good luck
Paul,
Thats the 1st thing we did. Still no dice. We retarded the timing by 1 degree, adjusted the throttle cable, and still it does the same thing. I'm going to the movies tonight to see SWAT with the girlfriend, and we'll see if it'll do anymore funky things.

Again, if anyone knows of a shop that knows a lot about Hondas and swapped cars, please PM me or email me. I really want this to be fixed before Sept. Thanks a lot!
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Old 18-Aug-2003, 10:42 PM
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I have the same problem as you, **** went to hell after i got a valve adjustment. I did it once and the valves were too tight, so car wouldn't idle too well when it warmed up. Did it a second time and too loose, idle problem seem to go away. Got my boss to do it again and it was perfect didn't notice idle problem, until a few weeks later. Now i know valves are good, compression is good, did a leak down test and no leaks, no vacum leaks everything is working fine. Can't figure out what the problem is. I hear that it may be possible that you can burn your valves if the adjustment was too tight, also heard that you could **** up your cam/cams if valves are too tight. But since you brought it back the next day i don't think that those are possibilites for you. I am going to get my head re-conditioned so hopefully that fixes the problem. Check your primary o2 sensor, becauses if that's fucked up then it can cause what you are describing as well. If you find a solution let me know. I'll keep you posted if i figure out what is wrong with it. I got 3 opinions from other mechanics, and they all say that it's most likely my valves. So maybe re-con the head will fix it.
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Old 19-Aug-2003, 08:40 AM
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did he do the valves when the engine was cold?

Im pretty sure you need to wait untill the engine is completely cold and hasn't been run for like a day or so, if you said he did the valves in front of you when you got there that could be the prob.
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Old 19-Aug-2003, 08:43 AM
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We waited until the car was cold, it wasn't done right away.
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Old 19-Aug-2003, 08:49 AM
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Well its weird, the car pulls nice, its just the idling thats weird.

Someone emailed me regarding a good shop in Markham, so I'll make the hike next week when I get my car back. Hopefully it can be fixed that same day. Someone also recommended the TPS, but I think its the valve adjustment. **** I should have left it alone.
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Old 19-Aug-2003, 09:05 AM
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The problem a lot of the time is that ppl just don't know how to find TDC on #1, then rotate the engine 360 degrees... that's all it takes...
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Old 19-Aug-2003, 10:29 AM
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Think its worth while just getting it redone at the dealer?
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