REVscene - Vancouver Automotive Forum

46_valentinor · 06-06-2014, 10:46 PM

Not going to mention the name of the shop, but I dropped off my car today for a valve adjustment. Car was left to cool down for 1.5 hours until work began and upon completion, the car kept stalling when the rpm was dropped to idle upon throttle release. During this phase the car was turned on with mixed idle warming and driving for 6 minutes. After the car was brought back in to the garage due to it stalling, the car was left to cool down for only 12 minutes with the hood closed before the shop started to remove the valve cover to readjust the valves.
My main concern is that the second valve adjustment was not done properly because the engine was still hot. The owner told me that they left the engine to cool down properly the second time and had a fan at the engine, but that is totally not the case when I was reviewing the dashcam footages. The owner even admitted (not to me), that the valves will not be accurate since the engine is already warmed.

I'm not sure if there will be any long term effects because of this. Just wondering if I should confront the shop regarding this issue. Also there were oil stains all over my fender, my power cable that runs across the engine bay was left tangling on top of my valve cover and the hard plastic cover that protects it from heat was completely destroyed; which would have been extremely dangerous since the valve cover is extremely hot and could probably melt the power cord if unnoticed...

This is pretty much the sequence and timing for the second adjustment:
1) 6 minutes - idle/driving
2) 12 minutes cool down with hood closed
3) 6 minutes - removing valve cover
4) immediately began adjusting valves.

Do you guys think I should go back to the shop and ask them to redo the valve adjustment?

godwin · 06-06-2014, 11:51 PM

I don't know what car you have, but I find valve adjustment on my S54 engines not that hard to do. If you are particular about your car, DIY.

While we want to have perfect job done to our car all the time, I don't think it is realistic. Also depends on the shop size, these days shops are so small, they can't fit in more than 1 or 2 cars. It depends on how much the shop charged you for the job (/hour? or /job?).

If you do bring it up with the shop, do make sure you document EVERYTHING. Including printing things out and make a good presentation.

I would say bring it in again if it is stuttering but learn your lesson and move on.

theSpeedSyndicate · 06-07-2014, 11:33 AM

get them to redo it. the car should of been left to cool a minimum of 12 hours.

hud 91gt · 06-07-2014, 11:43 AM

If the car's valves should be adjusted when cool a redo is required. On my vehicle, it can be done while cooled, but it is best to do when hot (With different clearances required).

Phil@rise · 06-09-2014, 08:01 PM

most any engine with solid lifters or tappets that require adjustment have two measurements to go off of when adjusting. A hot tolerance and a cold one. the cold tolerance is higher to allow for expansion. The hot tolerance is tighter due to expansion.

fliptuner · 06-09-2014, 08:17 PM

When people ask for advice, is it really too much to ask to post the vehicle it's regarding?

you! · 06-10-2014, 10:31 AM

soooo... which shop was this so others can be aware of this shitty practices?
pls share

valve adjustments are so easy to do, u should have walked away when they said they were gonna do it after 1.5hrs of cooldown... if the shop really cared about doing a good job they would have advised you that you would need to leave the car there overnight to cool down for the job to be done right

so yeh whats this shops name?

DJ Milk · 06-10-2014, 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by you!

if the shop really cared about doing a good job they would have advised you that you would need to leave the car there overnight to cool down for the job to be done right

When I got my done, that's exactly what the shop to me to do.

bcrdukes · 06-10-2014, 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ICE BOY

When people ask for advice, is it really too much to ask to post the vehicle it's regarding?

I was almost certain it was a Corolla.

fliptuner · 06-10-2014, 01:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bcrdukes

I was almost certain it was a Corolla.

With a timing belt.

46_valentinor · 06-10-2014, 07:59 PM

I called AJ racing the following day to discuss the issues and they complied by telling me to bring it back to them. I dropped the keys off to the owner this morning and picked it back up at 5 in the afternoon, hopefully they gave it enough time for it to cool down. Im going to check my dashcam footages to see if they actually did what they were suppose to do.

so they gave it about 2 hours to cool down, 45 minutes with the valve cover off. I guess its better than before.

The reason why I brought it to a shop was because I was also replacing my intake retainers with ones from a newer generation as the original ones were prone to crack.