8000 mile service

[Windmill John]

Loose tappets - loss of power and noisy
Tight tappets - Possibly leading to b*ggered valves and seats.
Two of my inlets were tight.
Now that I 've done them, I happy to leave them to at least around the 20k mark next time.

With Oggy on oil, change it regularly and your bike will love you.

[Farky]

Just under £275 in Norwich with loan bike.

Last valve check I will ask for til 24k min.


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[Grey alp]

You can win at least one houre (and a half!) by taking the side panels ,undercowl and if you have them the crashbars off before.
Some dealers my not like this ,i always give "a good oppertunity to clean the underside" as excuse.

Out of warranty since last may and going to a indeppent now.
Change of sprockets and chain (at 32.600km) payed less than my dealer sold these parts in his shop.

Will be going there futher on for the major works like valve check and so on. I can watch ,help and so learn ,something dealers not like or allow.

Enjoy

[ABC]

Its all in the labour. Newbury (Berks I assume) is not exactly the most cost effective place in which to reside, so a labour rate of circa £50/hr would not be unrealistic for that neck of the woods.

If tappets are done and fluids changed, then that is a good morning's work. Say 5 hours. As previously mentioned, bodywork removal simply to get at them is an utter pain and time is money.

Add on parts - say oil/filter/brake fluid etc for £60., then add the dreaded VAT and your are up to £350+

Arguments abound whether tappets actually require adjustment at 8000. Personally I am of the if it ain't broke don't fix it brigade on tappets, but oil and filter and other consumables I change even more than advised.

There is no argument about whether the valve clearances or anything else require checking at 8,000m. They do, it says so in the owner's manual where the exact service schedule is shown. Anyone suggesting this is not needed is plain wrong, at least in terms of Honda's service spec.

On the other Alp forum, a reader said that the valve clearances can actually be checked by the electronic analyser that official dealers have. If so, then no dismantling would be required, saving a lot of work. Great if this is true but of course if the analysis showed that adjustment was required, then the necessary time consuming work would be needed.

I agree with you, judging by the schedule requirements, that £350 (London area) or a bit more is not excessive for all the work required by the 8,000m. And on a bill of £350, about £52 would be VAT (even more from January 2011) so the dealer's receives only £298 of that, a part of which would be for materials.

People complain about service charges with some even regarding them as a rip-off but provided - and it's not always the case as we all know - that the work is done properly then that is not true. The dealer is not making an unreasonable profit at all. For those of us not able or willing to DIY, I don't find service costs a rip-off. Expensive yes but I'm not being cheated if they do the work correctly, just a necessary a cost of owning the bike which I knew about when buying.

[StumpyFingers]

The only time to worry about service costs is when the dealer charges for things they have not done.
I had my Yamaha Serviced at a local shop close to where I work they charged for new Spark plugs but when the bike broke down it was obvious they had not changed them.

[Fruit Loop]

I paid £318 last month in Norwich for a 24k miles service (including loan bike), which I believe is same as 8k service (i.e. includes valves) plus a change of coolant.

The dealer did say they normally delay checking valves until the following winter. They are so busy in the summer they prefer not to do them then and say they are never far out. They would fix the price in advance (I think it was £99) for doing the valves next winter.

I was reluctant to do that as my bike was already up to 28k (the servicing had got out of phase because it had an extra one when I bought it). They went ahead and did the valves and said they were spot on and needed no adjustment. So if, having heard the various views on here, you might consider delaying doing the valves, there would be a possibility of significantly reducing your cost now and not missing out the valves altogether, but doing them separately later.

[piguglyshandydrinker]

There is no argument about whether the valve clearances or anything else require checking at 8,000m. They do, it says so in the owner's manual where the exact service schedule is shown. Anyone suggesting this is not needed is plain wrong, at least in terms of Honda's service spec.

On the other Alp forum, a reader said that the valve clearances can actually be checked by the electronic analyser that official dealers have. If so, then no dismantling would be required, saving a lot of work. Great if this is true but of course if the analysis showed that adjustment was required, then the necessary time consuming work would be needed.

On your first point; YES, Honda do state 8000 mile services but from personal experience ((4 Alps & over 100,000 miles on them) and comments from others), once initially checked (for peace of mind) the valves need very little adjustment & I'm now more than happy to check them at around 20,000 mile intervals. Some leave it longer.

Having said that I don't believe the comment about the 28,000 mile that had the valves checked & "they were all spot on", there is always the odd one that needs a little tweak.

As for an electronic gizmo. What a load of bull, a cheap excuse for not actually checking them!
But I'm happy to be corrected if such a machine actually exists. And works!

Phil

[T ALP]

[QUOTE=piguglyshandydrinker;
As for an electronic gizmo. What a load of bull, a cheap excuse for not actually checking them!
But I'm happy to be corrected if such a machine actually exists. And works!

Phil[/QUOTE]

Don't think you'll need correcting LOL

Chris

[StumpyFingers]

I did mine at 23900 miles as it was close to the 24000 miles and it was a nice day.
I had one very loose and two tight, the rest were in spec. The service did include changing everything but since then it has just had oil and filter and new chain and sprockets.
I check the bike regularly for other items such as levels and smoothness of cable operation, the rest is done as and when required.

[Windmill John]

I never hear much talk of people replacing their coolant.
It says 2 years or 20 odd K.
Mine's a 2006, so it's a job I've booked myself to do next year; yes I know that's not 2 years
My bike has only done 12,000 miles.
It had 6000 on it when I bought it in April.