600 mile service
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I just recently turned over 600 miles on my 2002 Bandit. How important is it to have the valves checke\adjusted for the 600 mile service. The Dealership wants $135 + parts to do the service and I'm low on cash. How long can I wait to get this done.
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Igo2slo
(4/22/03 1:36 am)
Re: 600 mile service
I consider 135 cheap. Make sure that they are doing a valve adjust then. I know with my 600 mile service, I don't believe they did the valves, and in my manual it didn't call for the first valve adjst till 1000 miles. My bike is an 01, but i don't know if they really changed that much from 01 to 02. I plan on buying a shop manual on my bike and starting to do all the valve adjustments myself. best i have been able to find for a valve adjust is 230 around here. good luck with it bro. if you don't take it in, at least change the oil.
matt
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B12Teuton
(4/22/03 8:15 am)
Re: 600 mile service
$135 sounds way too cheap to include valves.
If I were you, I would do an oil change, adjust and lube the chain, make sure all the motor mount bolts are tight, etc.
Hard to say how the valves look, but all it takes is one to be too tight and you could destroy the motor. I would NOT ignore them and just keep riding. You'll be out A LOT more than a few hundred bucks.
You didn't mention how mechanical you are, but I think the valve job is a DIY type of project if you have the manual. I spent a total of about $65 for a manual, feeler gage, and the suzuki valve adjuster tool. I'm coming up on 15K miles on my '01 and I'll be doing another valve check soon.
The only reason the Valve job at the dealer is so expensive is that it takes a LONG time to get to the valves! It's just stupid labor cost. Once you are in there, it'll only take ten minutes to check and adjust all 16 valves!
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ctunkey
(4/22/03 9:31 am)
Re: 600 mile service
I agree with the others, 135 is too cheap and I don't think valves are touched until about 7K. Personally I too just past 600miles on an 02 picked up in december. But I changed the oil/filter myself and tried to check all the bolts and nuts I could. Total cost of my 600mile service ~50 I had to get and oil pan... filter wrench... whatever, the next oilchange will cost more like 20. Thats going to mean by the time we both hit 3k and you've gone to the dealer twice I am up on you something like 400 bucks, which is a very nice new leather for me. My opinion: these guys at the dealer are not going to spend a whole lot of time going over a Japanese bike with 600K. I had a new suzuki bike all last year picked it up in oct01 and payed ~240 three times over the course of 2002 and told myself with this bandit I was going to do it myself and the bike is running like a top today. soooooo: my own service plan can't be that bad, I'll let you know if this comes back to haunt me but I'll have 400 bucks in a month or two says it won't! Do it yourself, you'll be ok, it's not rocket science.
cdt
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B12Teuton
(4/22/03 9:47 am)
Re: 600 mile service
I forgot to mention that my valves at the 600 mile service (done at about 1000 miles) were all over the place. Some loose, some tight, but 14 out of 16 needed to be addjusted a little. None were WAY out.
At the 7500 miles service (done at 8300 miles) only one intake valve on pot #3 was tight. The rest stayed.
Point is, by my experiance, the first one is a "must do". The later ones are less likely to show the valves being out.
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Red01SuziB12S
(4/22/03 10:08 am)
Re: 600 mile service
The valves are supposed to be checked at the first service, but most dealers don't do it unless you make them. If you can't be there to watch them, put a "witness mark" of paint or nail polish on a hard to reach valve cover bolt or two. If the stripe is unbroken you'll know the valve cover never came off and they could not have checked your valves. Of course, this isn't totally foolproof, they could just hunt for witness marks and crack those bolts loose so it looked like they were in there, but most aren't going to go to that kind of trouble because most customers don't witness mark hardware. $135 does sound cheap (my dealer wanted ~$180 - and several have reported their dealers charging even more), but it sounds high for just an oil & filter change and a quick once over for bolt security.
Paul W
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Red01SuziB12S
(4/22/03 10:16 am)
Re: 600 mile service
If you have any mechanical ability at all, doing routine service work on your is easy. Invest in a service manual and any tools you don't already have to do the routine stuff and save . The Suzuki valve adjust tool is ~$5, or you can make one from a #2 square drive cabinet screw driven into a dowel or other homebrewed handle (use a short screw and a short handle, work space can be tight), a set of feeler gauges and common metric wrenches & allens are all it takes. In fact, once you have the feeler gauges and adjustment tool, I'm pretty sure the OEM tool kit has the basic tools you need to do the job.
Paul W
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the USDA
(4/22/03 10:37 pm)
valves
Just got my 600 its 600 mile service myself... came out to about 230$. I've got to get that manual and get wise to the whole DIY angle. The shop guy told me he doesn't do his own valves at the regular service intervals; that he can hear them being out of whack or something. Anybody subscribe to this or should I be checking them every 6,000 miles?
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Red01SuziB12S
(4/23/03 2:31 am)
Re: valves
Going by the ear method only works when the valves get loose... B6 & B12 motors, especially when breaking in, tend to get tighter, so the valve train doesn't get noisier. The valves get tighter from the valves sinking into their seats, they get looser when cams, rockers and/or valve stem tips wear. Bandits are so easy to check and adjust, it's worth it to check them on a regular basis... you can stretch the interval a little bit, especially as the motor racks up the miles and things don't move around as much. I do mine at 10K intervals now and I've heard of high mile (>100,000 miles) B12's going 25K between checks.
Paul W
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B12Teuton
(4/23/03 8:41 am)
Re: valves
Yeah, Paul is 100% right. If you think about it, when the gap between the rocker and valve gets loose, they effectively "slap" back together when the cam lobe comes around and pivots the rocker. That's what you can hear. When it's too tight, it may get to the point where the valve dose not fully close, and the comnbustion blows by the valve and valve seat. No good at all. And you can't hear that.
You can buy a service manual on amazon.com (where I got mine). $60 I think.
It is GREAT to have. Makes you feel like there is nothing at all you can't do.
Then all you need is a feeler gage (<$10) and the valve tool from a dealer for $5. You can rig something or do it some other way, but for 5 bucks, it's worth it IMO.
I'd say the hardest part was getting the valve cover off/on because you have to slide it out the side of the bike, but clear the timing chain at the same time. Hard to explain, but you'll see. It isn't really difficult, it just takes some messing around.
Happy wrenching
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Topic: 600 mile service (Read 8898 times)