Stealership wants $1K for a valve adjustment on my S/C'd CLS-6. The service writer told me it was more because of the de and reinstallation of the blower etc; which I expected

I have 65K on the car, 20K on the blower. So, I thought I would do it myself. I de & re-installed the S/C unit once already when the altenator died about 15,000 miles ago, so pulling the blower is old hat.

Looked over the Helms procedure and it does not look real complicated. Something certianly within my mechanical range and I would like the challenge. I have the tools and the space to perform the operation but just need to coordinate the time.

Does anyone who has performed a valve adjustment on the CL have any advice (like tools ect) that would make the job a little more easier/efficient, which was only realized after performing the initial process, that they could comment on?? Any insight would be helpful.

Thanks.

 

My dealership only upcharged me an hour's worth of labor to deal with the blower when I had my rear main changed out. $1k sounds awfully high. Does that price include a timing belt or any other services?

I'm curious to hear how difficult the valve adjust is on our cars. I haven't even looked at the procedure in Helms yet so no help here.

 

it looks like a cakewalk in the manual. Just have to pull off the intake manifold, and the valve covers, then turn the timing belt to each cylinder and adjust the intake and exhaust valves. Very easy, but very time consuming since there are 4 valves per cylinder that's 24 valves.

 

good work, Pythagoras

 

At what mileage is a valve adjustment recommended?

 

is this really even necessary on our cars? does our cars require a valve service at some pre determined mileage?

just want to know.

 

 

There's no set service limit. They should not need to be adjusted for the life of the car. However some cars need it more then others. Why I don't know. My old car had it done 2 times in under 30K miles. Both times under warranty. The new used 6mt with almost 50K miles doesn't.

Now that I have taken the upper IM, off I'm confindent I could adjust the valves myself if it needs it.

zeta:
BTW what dealer was this?

 

Just wondering what symptoms do you notice when the valves need adjusting? Can you hear them?

 

 

Thanks for all of the responses .

ghost_masterCL sums it up pretty much in regards to the process outlined in the manual. It looks very doable, just alot of time involved for a first timer.

In a nut shell, I had a case of bent valves on the #1 cylinder; back in 2003. They fixed it under warranty because it was related to the TSB for the Timing belt tensioner. Now I occasionally hear a slight tapping from the rear valve cover area and just thought I would try to perform an exploratory examination to readjust valves that need attention, if any.

The logic is, at 65K miles, if I do this and remove the blower and such, I want to check as many things as possible (front & rear plugs; front & rear header bolts etc) before reassembly.

The dealership that services my car is located in Sunrise, FL for those familiar with the area, and believe me, when a modded car pulls up for a consult, all they see is dollar signs, that's why I want to try and attempt this on my own as a challange.

Thanks again for the input.

 

I recently went through mine and know what you mean. I pulled my blower to replace a battery and while I had the SC off, I also changed my plugs, installed the Thermoblok spacer, changed out my Cusco strut bar for a Comptech one, replaced the blower belt. I didn't do the valves but may check them on the next pass. Forgot to check the torque on the headers - wish I would have thought to do so.

I'll post pics this weekend of my Battery mod as I squeezed in an Odyssey PC1200MJT by modifying the battery tray.
http://www.odysseybatteries.com/battery/pc1200mjt.htm

Tight squeeze and some fab work but it seems to be working fine.

Sorry for the Hijack
Good luck with the valve adjust and take some pics of the process for us.

 

this is something im very interested in as well, i have almost 80K On my car, i have had the upper intake manifold off numerous times, so im not scared at all. if i end up doing it myself, ill let everyone know.

thats a badass battery but seems pretty heavy nearly 40 lbs, im in the market for a light one.

 

Ahh Rick Case....They used to be so good. Now they hate to work on modded cars, & blame everything on mods. They suck ass.

Palm Beach Acura is good. They don't complain. I drive the 30min to them for work.

 

i had a 290 CCA tractor battery in my car from homedepot for 2 years w/o one issue it weighed 20lbs compared to the stockers 40+

 

ever since doug SynCivic left

 

I have an Optima Yellow top 51R currently installed and have had pretty good luck with it so far. Smitty posted a thread awhile back explaining, with a few tricky manuvers, how to de & reinstall a battery for a blown CLS without having to remove the S/C unit; however, I believe it was in regards to the 51R size cell. I'm hoping to get some good life out of this yellow top though, we'll see.

Going to try the valve adjustment process hopefully in a few weeks, so I'll post a short commentary on the whole experience then.

 

According to this, only when noisy (except for the 105K service):

http://john-perry.com/acurazine/docu...aintenance.pdf

 

or if you replace the cams for any reason.

I'm putting CLS cams in my 3.0CL as soon as I find some time, and afterwards I'll do the valve adjustment, so if it's any time soon I'll give suggestions on DIYing it.

 

I only got 14 months out of my Optima Yellow Top and have seen similar experiences from others. When mine went, it was cranking just fine and then it was like a fuse popped. Would not accept a charge and only 4 of the 6 cells were online. I think there's a weak spot in those things that shorts and causes an open. If you're not into modifying, I would suggest going with the Odyssey 925.