Just bought my bike about a month ago, introduced myself here and have had a few posts here and there.

Now I have been lovin the bike, it has everything i could want...but now, today, disaster struck. I have heard a ticking sound for the past week and it finally bothered me enough to run by the yamaha dealership. Had the guy come out and listen to my beast and it was bad news. He said "its the Exhaust valve, its off...but its more than one and its going to be costly" First thing is damn..i am done riding this season..but i asked how much and he says "about 245" which isnt ridiculous..i was expecting maybe 600! So what I am posting for is i am curious if anyone has had this problem before? i have a Full leo vince exhaust btw...hope that wasnt the problem...anyone?

I read some of your other posts and see you have an '05. How many miles do you have on it? From the price that was quoted by the dealer I expect they meant you have an exhaust valve or two that are out of adjustment, $200-$300 is about the going rate for a valve service. If you were in need or a replacement valve it would be quite a bit more since there would be the labor to pull the head, replace the valve, and parts of a head gasket. If the quote was that low, again I'm guessing it's only a valve service becuase you only need to pull the valve cover, check the valves with a feeler guage, and then pull either the exhaust or intake cam or both to change the shims and get everything back to spec.

The service interval for a valve adjustment is about 20k miles, but it could be more or less depending on how it was maintained and ridden. When I pulled mine at 19k I was totally in spec and I'm about 10k miles overdue for my 40k check. I'll get to it eventually.

If you do in fact need a valve replacement then there is a possibilty it is related to your full exhaust. Bikes start their lives out running lean to meet emissions standards. As you open up the exhaust and/or intake you become even leaner running. Normally you correct this with a power commander or other fuel management system. If your PC isn't tuned properly and you are still running lean then you could be burning your exhaust valves with ultra hot exhaust gases from a lean running situation.

Yea its an 05...i will put a pic up of it soon enough ;)


But anyways...Yea its got a full leo vince...but i also have a power commander and a K&N air filter on it so i am guessing that maybe all those together have maybe F'd it up a bit early, who knows. The real problem is being out of commission for the next 2 weeks of riding :(

You still haven't mentioned how many miles you have.

My bad my bad, still a little hazy after last night....

Its got 10k on it...so only half of what you said ....

First off, a Yamaha should not need a valve check that soon. Did you take it to a actual Yamaha dealer? I ask because Yamahas tend to be a little more noisey than other brands. Also, check the oil level (follow owners manual. a little diff. on a R6 due to dip stick). Oh, since you bought the bike used, dont assume that the pcIII has the right map installed (lot of people don't read instructions), so yes, could have a bad valve or out of spec.

is this somthing thats fairly easy to check yourself. that is the actuall valve alignment not getting to the valves. im over 20k

I took it in this past wednesday for an Oil change and to get the valves done (it is a yamaha shop). It was this yamaha shop that told me the valves were off, but it was just the kid at the front desk not the mechanic who told me what it was (first problem there). So anyways i took it in, later in the day i got a call and luckly it wasnt the valve's. I guess the real mechanic figured to check the exhaust before he took everything apart and noticed the exhaust wasnt on tight and thats where the ticking noise was coming from, so i saved a lot of money and the ticking noise is gone. Thanks for all the help guys!! Greatly appreciated.

Gofastr6, I spoke with the previous owner about the maps on the PCIII, he put on the right map.

Did he just tighten the exhaust headers to the engine? And can you do that without pulling off the plastics? Ive my bike for about 1 month and 2 thousand miles. I bought it from a girls that didn't drive it very hard. When i first got it i thought i could hear the valves ticking at low rpm like under 4k. and i have been driving it hard and doing lots of wheelies and now the sound is a lot louder than when i got it. Could it be the exhaust or do you think its the valves? The bike now has 14,500 miles.

Thanks in advance for all the help.