Valve Lash!!!!

Ok, my head's ticking really bad, so obviously I need to adjust my valve lash. Could this be making my car not as fast as it used to be? Cuz sometimes when i shift i feel hesitation. Also, it takes a while to start up after it's sat for a few hours. Also, how hard is this to do? The honda dealer wants $75 to do it.

Let them do it if you are unsure, I feel that it requires a skill level of 2 on a scale of 1-10. But some people just can't seem to do it. I had a roomate that tried it on his civic about 20 times and every time I woul dhave to redo it b/c it was totally jacked up. So if in doubt take it to the dealer $75 is not that bad IMO.

another way to look at it if u'r kinda unsure, is the cost to fix it, or the cost to fix wut u might mess up. not saying u can't do it, but it does take a little more than common knowledge. but if u'r willing to learn, u could go to the parts store and buy a repair manual for u'r car (about $20). read the procedure enough so u have it memorized. if u come across any topics or terms u'r unfamiliar w/, look those up too. make sure the book has lots of good detailed pics in it too, because, as they say, a pic is worth a 1000 words.

to me its not really hard but you're(whtteg) right, people seem to mess up somehow. i let a classmate adjust my valves, i supervised him and when i took the car for a drive it ran like shit. after that i inspected his work and found out some were lashed too tight and some too lose :shrug:

So the bad valve lash could be making it not as fast as it should be? Could it also be making it start up slow?

to me its not really hard but you're(whtteg) right, people seem to mess up somehow. i let a classmate adjust my valves, i supervised him and when i took the car for a drive it ran like shit. after that i inspected his work and found out some were lashed too tight and some too lose :shrug:


I think what happens to them is they don't hold the screwdriver tightly while locking the jam nut, thus the valve gets tighter. It could also be the lack of experience with a feeler gauge, a slight drag might be hard to determine by some people. I think that a hands on approach is the only way I will feel comfortable telling someone how to do it. But even at that like you said they can still manage to get it wrong. Probably the best thing to do would be adjust one valve and then let them feel the drag of the feeler gauge, that way they can try to match it as close as they can. Just my :2cents: though.





mikester_91, if you feel 100% sure that you can perform this task then I will link you to a "How To". But I just want you to understand that the possibility of something going wrong if apparent. But I don't know how much experience you have with feeler gauges and fine tuning really, because that is kind of what this is like, a slight turn will change the setting a decent amount. It is very precise.

So would bad valve lash be makin my car run crappy?

So would bad valve lash be makin my car run crappy?

Absolutely, if it was done wrong the it could make the car run like complete crap.

Could it also be makin it start hard, like take a few seconds for it to fire?

I don't know about that, but it can affect the way the car runs. I don't think it would have too much effect on starting though.

when mine had bad valve adjustment, it started fine with the fast idle on, but on the road it was dying. i had to keep pressing the gas to keep it alive.

it could affect startup too, since the car will most likely be getting the wrong amounts of air/fuel and not exhuming the gases properly it could take a few extra clicks before the car can adjust to fire the mixture.

Sorry I took this out from the closet. Mine ticks around 3K RPM mostly when going up hill and the car needs alittle more gas to make it. Is this valve lash? The power on the car seems fine though.

Does it only do it when going up a hill and not all the time? Does the sound speed up with the rpm of the motor? If not and it only does it up hill it sounds like ping, you need to check you ignition timing and/or use a higher grade gas.