Cylinder checkup

I took my 2003 VFR800 to a local garage today and I was told that because the bike has done more than 25k miles (it's got 38k on the clock) it should go through cylinder and valve inspection which may be quite expensive. The bike has done over 38k and I took it to the garage because of some knocking behind the left air vent. It started straight after I changed the engine oil. I used Motul 10w40. I changed the filter at the same time. The oil level is correct. The clattering starts after a couple of minutes riding from cold. It stops after approximately 45mins. It does it as well when on neutral or with the clutch dipped although sometimes it was stopping immediately after dipping the clutch but not always. I noticed that often it was starting when braking but again not always. My question is whether the cylinder check-up is really necessary in this case?

 

My fren 03 had the same problem...he changed to 1 bottle of 10w50w and the rest is 10w60w....all was fine fine after that. Noticed the V4 is quite particular to certain brands.....so far have tried Agip, Liquid Moly and Motrex.

 

How bizarre... I thought it may have something to do with that oil change as it started straight after it was done. Well, I left it in the garage but looks like will have to give them a call. Many thanks

 

I was wonder myself what "cylinder check" was........surely not pulling the heads off.

 

I'd only use a top-rated shop which had real, verifiable expeience doing valve adjustments on a VTEK and could show you the special tools required to do the job !!

 

The "book" says valves get checked every 16,000 miles, but it seems that anytime someone does it on schedule, all is fine. So most wait until later. At 35,000 miles, you could probably consider having the valves checked and adjusted. Here in the US, its a $600 to $800 invoice.

As for your knocking: Is this the first time you're running Motul? Either way, I wouldn't so much think its the oil (not to get into an oil debate, but Motul is at least considered a respectable brand), however, maybe the filter is where the issue is? Perhaps its a bad filter. I'd be much more inclined to think you could have a bad filter made, versus you bought the one "defective" gallon of oil.

 

The filter was original Honda and the knocking stopped after they changed the oil indeed. I was on holidays for two weeks so was hoping when I get the bike back it'll be tip top. Well it's not but that's in my next post in Mechanics. Wish I saw squirrelman's post before getting them anywhere near the valves. I've got this bike for 4 months so I'm pretty new to VFR. Bought it because of good reviews and reputation