BlakeJenn

I'm preparing to sell my 2002 AP1 with 20k miles, but want to make sure I've taken care of every maintenance item it might require. Only item left on my list is valve adjustment. My problem is that I can't tell if it's been done. The car was serviced at our local Honda dealer it's entire life at precisely correct maintenance intervals. But the original owner did not keep his invoices and, unfortunately, our dealer switched computer systems about 10 years ago, and at that time purged all details of past maintenance work. So I have a list showing the date and mileage for all services before 2010 and 13k miles.

Here's the question in 2 parts:
(1) would a valve adjustment have been done as part of normal Honda OEM dealership care in the first 8 years / 13k miles? In other words, should I assume that since this was a dealer-cared-for car, that a valve adjustment was done?
(2) if the answer is "no" to the above, is this worth doing at the 20k mile mark? The engine sounds perfect at both ideal and high rpm. The valve train isn't silent (which would be a bad sign - too tight), but it's also not like a tractor. I'm happy to open it up and check, but have always been taught not to open engines up if there's no need as you just increase the possibility of leakage and contamination. Advice appreciated!

Thanks!

Slowcrash_101

Considering valve adjustments aren't scheduled until 100k miles im going to go with 'hell no they haven't'

As for doing one, it never hurts to check. Well maybe a few scratches, and a slightly sore back from bending over.

BlakeJenn

100k? I found a Honda European maintenance schedule online and it showed 35k miles and 3 years - whichever comes first for the valve adjustment. I figured the 3yr mark would be why they would have done it. However, I guess European and US recommendations are way off. Wonder why there's such a difference.

cosmomiller

Is the schedule you mention, for DBW S2000s?
Apparently the drive by wire cars have the main issues with valves going out of adjustment, especially the exhaust.

BlakeJenn

It does not specify. Here it is. I'm reading up on the DBW valve adjustment issues Billman spoke of. Good to know. Mine obviously isn't DBW, but still good to know. Seems like the need for adjustment is much, much lower on my AP1 since it's only got 20k miles, but I may check it out anyways if the garage warms up a bit :-)

zeroptzero

the valve adjustment is based on mileage, not age, so I'd be confident that it was not done in the past, and still not really needed unless you really want to do it. I'd sell the car the way it is if it was me.

Chuck S

Ya got an owners manual with your 2002 car? Consult it. The 2006+ DBW cars are an exception to the 105,000 mile adjustment based on experience here and noted by Billman. If your car has 20,000 miles it's fine. Consensus here is for a new owner to do a complete fluid change to set a baseline. You doing this won't get you any more in the sale price so let the next guy do it.

No doubt the UK cars will get back to the 105,000 mile adjust schedule rather than the EU imposed more frequent schedule in April, after Brexit. And only the EC cars will need their timing belt changed. (Good luck finding a timing belt on our cars.)

-- Chuck

darcyw

I can recall my Civic SiR had a valve service which went something like this- "listen to running engine and adjust valves if noisy." That's it.
Well, I took it in to Honda, they said it was fine. I decided at about 10K miles later to check them myself and found nearly all the valves were out of spec.
Do your car a favour and check the valves/retainers and adjust clearance accordingly. Take photos of the valve retainers for the next owner.

darcy

rpg51

Yea, if its me I just want to get the most performance and so I want the valves adjusted correctly as a baseline. The crazy thing is the dangerously out of adjustment valves are tight, not loose, they are quiet, not noisy. The loose noisy valves aren't going to burn.

DanielB

I'll add two thoughts:

1. Regardless of Honda's recommendation, I've seen many on this board check valves far before 100k and found some were too tight. When I bought my MY00 with 58k miles, most were tight.
2. If you plan to sell it on something like Bring A Trailer, then it might be worth getting it done. Typically, the closer low mileage cars are to "like new" with all preventative maintenance done, the higher the sale price they bring. For sale to a local party, not sure it would matter. For me, as I prefer to do things myself, I'd rather it wasn't done so I could do it and not have to compensate the seller with a higher price. So you might want to think about who your target customer is.