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Engine & DrivetrainDiscussions about the engine and drivetrain of your vehicle.
This is a discussion thread titled "Tundra valve clearance inspection / adjustment?", within the Engine & Drivetrain forum, part of the Technical & Vehicle Assistance Forums category.
The manual for the 4.7 V8 Tundra specifies that the valve clearance should be checked, and if necessary, adjusted after every 60k miles. This seems like a real lot of maintenance for every 60k miles!
I went through this procedure on my Honda CBR900RR motorcycle (shim under bucket valve train-similar to the Tundra) and it was a nightmare to do. I wanted to avoid taking it to the dealer for this job for 2 reasons:
1) this would cost an aweful lot in labor
2) And more importantly, I was told by a friend who was a motorcycle mechanic, that quite often the dealer just says they performed the adjustment when they actually didn't, how would you really know? It runs the same before and after, and you still pay a fortune and it could be for nothing!
My motorcycle wasn't my daily transportation, so I worked on the valve clearance check over the winter in the garage for weeks part time, on the weekends and some week nights (I'm not an auto or motorcycle mechanic, just somewhat mechanically inclined). The check revealed that no valve clearances were out of spec. although some were at the limit, so I decided that's what limits are for and didn't go any further. If I had to remove the cams and begin exchanging shims this procedure would have taken much longer.
Now the Tundra has twice as many valves and I assume would be at least twice as long to perform. Again, the same as motorcycle dealers, it would cost a fortune at $80.00 per hour, and how would you know they actually did it!
I'd like to know what other Tundra owners experiences are with this maintenance procedure. It looks very involved and time consuming, and I need to use my truck every day, I don't have the luxury I did with my motorcycle when performing this procedure, and even if I did, this looks like a really big operation. Thanks in advance for any input any Tundra owners can provide to me..
I had to educate my dealer that these 4.7's needed valve clearance checks every 60k! They were like, "What?"
I think Toyota's biggest issue these days are the lousy dealerships that sell their products. They are uninformed and pathetic. Case in point: EVERY TSB I needed for my vehicle I had to bring them a copy of it from this site, EVEN after they claimed to look them up but couldn't find them. I used to think that it was just this particular dealership but it's obviously a larger problem...
I too work on my own motorcycles and check the clearance's annually or so and they are a pain. I'd figure that a V-8 is like doing two 4 cylinder bikes...major PITA.
Why would a major auto engine maker not use hydraulic adjusters in the 21st century? It's not like this engine turns any higher RPM's than any other V8 out there. Blows my mind.
__________________ 2003 Tundra SR5 Access Cab 4X4 Stepside V8
Only additions: Waterproof seat covers, Westin nerf bars, Colgan sport bra
REMOVED: Formfit hood deflector. Loved the look but a clip went missing. Can't find one for sale without the $45 hardware kit!
Mods: 12V outlet relay "fix" to have power when ignition switch is off.
Gripes: Weak leaf springs that Toyota doesn't want to warranty, paper-thin paint, interference design motor, crappy rear mud guards that cost $78 each (local dealer wanted $100) and only last 25k miles. Front mudguards built differently! (better)
My brother-in-laws Honda CRV calls for the same thing but he never did it. At around 100k he started having idle problems, driveability, mileage, power etc. Did all the "normal" fixes (plugs, filters, TB clean, BG 44K, and a couple others) no improvement. Had to go to dealer for something else and inquired, they asked if valve adjustment was ever done. Don't remember the price but it was only there a couple hours. Night and Day on how it ran, corrected all his problems.
If you're good about changing your oil and don't beat the crap out of the truck you shouldn't need to touch the valvetrain - I had several vehicles with non-hydraulic valvetrain setups and never had to do any adjustments after checking everything. One of these was a twincam 16 valve honda (B16B) that I regularly revved to 8000 rpm - never had to adjust valves. If the engine is quiet, I wouldn't touch it!
__________________
2007 Tundra 5.7 4x2 RCSB slate metallic
2005 Corolla - all stock, cause it's the wifes
1986 Mustang GT - the stereo is under the hood
1990 Corolla - cause it was really cheap
Thanks for your input. I think I'll wait till sometime after 60k miles (which I'm almost up to) and unfortunately I'll have to take some vacation time (probably in the summer) and try and attempt the valve clearance inspection myself. Hopefully everything will be in spec. and if I don't screw anything up I'll have the truck back together in a couple of days. I dread thinking about what a pain in the *** this valve check will be.
I'd go with the Thumbster - if they are quiet - don't bother. If you checked, you'd probably find everything is within specs if you changed the oil a couple times. I'd spend my money at 100K or so on a timing belt change and forget about the valves.
I checked my valve clearances at about 70k. It took about 2 1/2 hours. The valve covers come off easily. All of the valve clearances were in the middle of the inspection range. Expect them to get tighter over time as the valve seats wear.
Curious... Are the valve cover gaskets reusable? If I had to adjust them I'd probably take it in since they have the shims at the dealership, but if they're all in spec it would be nice to not have to buy new ones for that.
My valvetrain sounds like it's clicking, so I want to check these and make sure everything is as it should be.
The way the book says to check the valve lash is to do audible inspection by listening for excessive valve train noise and then check for an uneven idle.
If the lash is excessive there will be a ticking noise that you can hear. If the lash is to tight the valves will not close all the way and you will loose compression and that will present as an uneven idle. If either of these conditions exists you then must physically check the valve lash with a feeler gauge.
The FSM will give you the minimum and maximum lash for each valve. You properly position the cam and then check the lash with a feeler gauge and keep careful notes of what valves if any are out of spec.
Once you have checked them all the next step is to remove the shims from the followers that are out of spec. This is done using the Toyota Special Service Tools (SST). Once the shim is out, use a micrometer to measure its thickness. Then look up the thickness of that shim and the lash up in the chart in the FSM and it will tell you what size shim to replace it with to achieve the proper lash. Normally each shim will usually need to be ordered. The downside here is that you will need to reinstall the out of spec shim before rotating the cam to the proper position to remove the next shim. You must never let the cam lobe touch the follower without the shim in place.
Once you get all the out of spec shims out and measured and you have the new ones ready in install just remove the out of spec ones and reinstall the new ones. Simple, right??
II think Toyota's biggest issue these days are the lousy dealerships that sell their products. They are uninformed and pathetic. Case in point: EVERY TSB I needed for my vehicle I had to bring them a copy of it from this site, EVEN after they claimed to look them up but couldn't find them. I used to think that it was just this particular dealership but it's obviously a larger problem...
Same here in Houston.
Service writers will always claim the problem is not covered under warranty and there's no TSB. However, they can always locate the TSB by asking their manager or go "deeper" search in their computer after I show them a hard copy.
Service writers will always claim the problem is not covered under warranty and there's no TSB. However, they can always locate the TSB by asking their manager or go "deeper" search in their computer after I show them a hard copy.
The internet is poison to idiots working at dealerships. There is nothing they hate more than an informed consumer.
Regarding valve adjustments, the "bucket and shim" design is the best there is IMO. High performance motorcycle engines use the same setup. In 200,000 miles, you might have 1 or 2 valves out of spec. I wouldn't worry about it.
How can the design cause a sludge problem? It has been in use forever on just about every vehicle I have ever owned and never seen sludge in the drive train.
On 1MZ-FE engines w/ sludge problem, reversed bucket design has better chance of compressing oil/sludge into combustion chamber than rocker type valvetrain.
Tundra valve clearance inspection / adjustment?
