speedytypes

This is my first Honda car and it being a luxury car, im kinda surprised by the amount of noise the motor makes while sitting idle, the best i could explain it would be valve train noise. Is there anything that needs to be adjusted on these cars like the valve clearance or something? I figured that should be done automatically right? My last car that required this type of adjustment was my 1991 Isuzu impulse RS

Majofo

Need more details about the TL, miles, number of previous owners, maintenance history.. etc.

You shouldn't be hearing much noise at all.

blkaspec

Is it only when cold, or all the time? These cars do idle a little rough when cold in order to heat the system up quicker, but its more of a rough feel than it is a louder sound.

WRXtranceformed

Honda motors are noisier than a lot of others. A little bit of valvetrain noise is generally ok.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

x2

at idle I hear lots of chatter when standing outside of the car.

I hate cars

They do require valve adjustments around 105K.

When I ran it without the plastic engine covers, it was noticably louder. Do you have the covers on?

Mine had a combo of valvetrain and injector noise since new. After switching to Redline 5w-30 oil it has absolutely no valvetrain noise. Just a barely audible injector tick.

blkaspec

is this common on many cars? its the first time i have heard of a car needing this, but this is also first car i have really cared about so its not unusual that i dont know something

i know some have mentioned doing this on their own, but is this something most mechanics could do?

VQPower37

its common on most newer hondas at 105k

I hate cars

It's not very common outside of a race car these days. You can get slightly better high rpm power at the expense of additional maintenence. It was fairly common in the '60s.

Most mechanics can do this, it's pretty simple. The only thing I would worry about is even an experienced mechanic may never have had to do it before.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

Saw my neighbor do it on a 87 monte carlo ss.
when he took the valve covers off, it sounded like my car...tickticktickticktick

I hate cars

Those weren't supposed to need adjusting but they did come with an adjustment at the rocker arm. My father's GN needs adjusting every 5,000 miles due to the very large solid cam but that's more than 5 years away. I prefer regular hydraulic cams for 7,000rpm and below with somewhat sane spring pressures. I'm honestly not sure if vtec could function reliably with a traditional hydraulic system to take up the slack. Maybe someone more into Hondas could answer that.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

Yes i believe he adjusted it via the rocker arm.
If i take off the TL valve covers , will I see the same general set up? or is there more involved?

I hate cars

TL will be much easier. I always hated the Chevy style rocker arm adjustments with the adjustment on the pivot point. It usually involved setting them, rotating the engine and re-checking and setting again.

The TL uses an adjustment screw on the end of the rocker with a set nut to lock it into place. Should be able to get it dead on, on the first try.

blkaspec

good info, thanks!