Ticking Sound Byte

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[Anyone else starting to think the .3% Yamaha stated in MC magazine is way off????[/b][/u]
Yes...and I was thinking in this direction for well over a year! It seems new cases of ticking are surfacing almost daily now and I will boldly predict that the rate could rise to 25% or more....worse than anybody could have imagined,for sure! We will never know for sure because Yamaha is not (and never has been ) forthcoming on the matter.I maintain that for allot of units produced since day one, up to sometime into the `05 production run, it`s just a matter of time and distance.In view of the culprit being unearthed (seals that are too tight), why don`t all FJR`s tick? Simple...riding style, riding conditions and factory production tolerances (some seals will be looser and some tighter). Also, some bikes run hotter than others it seems. Regardless, if the oil fow in the head was better balanced between left side and right side (in terms of quantity,direction and temperature), I doubt the ticking phenom. would have arisen. It appears that the exhaust guides on the left side have been inadvertently marginalized by oil system design. I believe that a change in head design would ultimately solve the problem as opposed to looser seals :assasin:

 
Dang, halfway thru November and I just now find this post.

Thanks much 04 FJR Pilot. Hope you get that resolved the first part of next year, at least Yami has a few months to get parts for your machine.

Fortunately for me 7100 miles and no ticky......

 
Geez that is loud, I need to spend more time here. Sounds like a diesel. Hope you get that fixed, and that I never hear that sound between my legs....12K and good so far.

 
I just did my 12K service and when I started it up I think I may have heard the tick. Its quite faint and may be me getting paranoid from reading all these threads but I cannot recall hearing that particular noise before. Oil levels are fine and no warning lights or anything when I fired it up. I have played the files in the first post above several times in the past on my work PC and on my home PC and just played them again and am still not sure what I am hearing. 30 years of rock and roll and working in production machine shops has not done my hearing any good. Is there any chance there is a norcal or SF bay area owner who knows the tick well enough to confirm or deny? I would happily ride 3 or 4 hours to find out one of these weekends. Sierra foothils would be fine too. Obviously this would be done at your convenience not mine.

Thanks

Wayne

 
It started out faint then as the miles roll on you get this and some smoke out the right side tail pipe. Mine as of now isn't blowing oil out the tailpipe like Warchilds was but probably will if she gets many more miles on her.



My ticker
How am I to broach the subject of Ticking with my dealer? Call up and say I've got a ticker, or ask them to listen to it out in the parking lot next time I ride over to get oil? OR...?
Nukestream,

On your signature,

Would that be characteristic x-ray or Bremmstralung?

 
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Ahh crap! Thought it's not as loud or pronounced as the point after 35 seconds into the first clip, I do have the same sound as the first 35 seconds a light tapping that doesn't increase in volume or intensity... yet. So I suppose I may be on the way?

Great news for my wallet as I'm way past warranty.

Now I see why the guy I bought it from was so co-operative after the sale... :p

at least untill I brought up the ticker issue, he musta known

:jester:

 
Greetings from Atlanta where we have an 04 in the shop for 7 weeks now!

Bike will be undergoing the 4th breakdown in 7 weeks and it still is not right!

We have an 05 with 17K on it starting to tick, and a bunch of us "ticked off" that eventually we will be addressing the same issue :angry:

Curious if the 06's have been cured...

 
Today was the day! Went to the dealer and they had the head torn off of the motor. They didn't have to drop the motor out like some folks dealers had done in the past. No revelations, just the typical worn guides #2 cylinder being the worst of all. Now we wait for Mammy Yammy to send the new head and associated tid bits. We (the dealer and I) are hoping the new head will have the new valve seals incorporated in it. If it cannot be determined that they are I am hopeful my dealer will order them and install them while it is torn apart. Side note there was some carbon build up. Nothing excessive but my dealer swears that "Ring free" would keep her clean if used. I had run "Sea Foam" through her before but if ring free is the Schiznit I am going to give it a whirl. I am very happy to have Larry @ Anderson Bros. Yamaha as my dealer. He was very helpful and tore into her without question. None of the "cam tensioner" crap or other put offs that others were getting from their dealers. He just asked me if I was sure it was "The Tick" and I said yes. Couple days later and she's torn to pieces. Sure enough it was as I had expected after all the information this site provided me. Updates will be forthcoming! Happy riding!

 
Parts are on their way. Yamaha is no longer replacing the entire head. Mine will get new valves, guides, seals and the rest of the junk. Hopefully the new part number seal will keep this from occuring again. Who knows, only time will tell. Hopefully she runs better than she was before I took her in.

 
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Parts are on their way. Yamaha is no longer replacing the entire head. Mine will get new valves, guides, seals and the rest of the junk.
Sorry in advance if it's been covered already, but make sure they get new head bolts.

Also, if you get a chance to watch, please make note and post up about what else would be good to replace 'while you're in there' (radiator hoses, alternator belt ;) , etc.) I'm about to undergo a 26,000 mile checkup myself.

 
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Yes, the head bolts are going to be new as well. The bike only has 9500 miles so I don't think anything else needs replacing except the spark plugs. I asked them to do that while they were in there. I'm also guessing the coolant will be replaced as I'm sure it has been drained. I plan on changing the oil real soon after I get the bike back to make sure no coolant and other FOD is in the crankcase. Maybe the end of next week and I'll have her back.

 
Sounds just like mine. No one dealer has ever heard it though! No problems so far but just sitting on it waiting. ha ha

What is the eventual outcome of all this ticking besides a funny noise? Don't mean to be too ignorant but hey mechanics were never my special purpose :eek:

The other question I have is how come my brakes last so long. Is it really due to my not using them?

Rough cost of fixing the dreaded tick? Cdn side please :)

IF I do spend the dough what difference will it make besides resale which I likely will never do anyway.

Hope to make WFO5 but geez us boys from the North might be a bit hot on that FJR eh?

 
Worst case scenario lots of noise and oil dripping out of the exhaust cans. Poor performance. I guess if it got bad enough long enough the valve stem could fatigue and break dropping the valve into the cylinder and destroy your motor. cost to repair the tick generally about 2000.00 US or 2,307.29 CDN

 
Sounds just like mine. No one dealer has ever heard it though!
Rough cost of fixing the dreaded tick? Cdn side please :)
Yamaha has been fixing them at their cost, warranteed or not.

 
I've been seeing a lot of the forum about the ticking so it's "good" to know what it sounds like. Does anyone know what percentage of FJR's get this, or if there are particular model years more prone?

 
The experience of the owner community is that not all units develop the tick, or certainly that some develop it much sooner than others. Ticking bikes are rarely seen before about 4000 miles, and it seems that if you don't hear the tick by 12,000 or 15,000 miles, you'll never get it. This is not definite - as owners we are still gathering data on how to identify the tick and whether and how to know that a bike is "safe" and will not develop it.
I copied the above from the link posted by APRATT.

What is the feeling here about mileage for development of a tick? My 03 has 25K miles and I believe that it has started ticking over the last couple of thousand miles. DH says I read too much on the Internet, am paranoid and need to get my radio fixed so I can listen to music instead.

Jill

 
It is unbelievable to me how such a distinct metallic tapping associated with the Ticking never seems to reproduced well when a normal audio recording is made.  :angry:
Yet, these two sound clips  are about the best I've heard of all the attempts to record this sound.

You must listen to the entire sound clip... 04 FJR Pilot let's it idle for the first half of each clip, then revs the motor a little the second half.

On the first file (Tick1), it is 1:06 seconds in duration, and the ticking sounds between  50 secs through 56 secs are really distinct.

But it is the second sound clip (Tick2) that is the best.... it is 53 seconds in duration, you can hear it pretty well the entire time. At ~ 30 seconds, as 04 FJR Pilot moves the microphone closer to cylinder #1, and the sound is UNMISTAKABLE! It is not as "metallic" sounding as it is in person, but there is no denying the ticking anomaly in this sound clip.

Outstanding work, 04 FJR Pilot!!
I have a 05 with 9700 miles on her,, i hear NO ticking,,, is this something that can develope or am i safe...????

is this a wide spread isue in the 05 's ??? or is any year fair game...??

[ im new to fjr's ]

 
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Add one more to list. 05 11.5 miles starting to tick. Don't hear on cold start, but after riding. Park it then put gear away, restart it makes a lot of niose. Rev. it a little starts to go away. DAMM. Not using any oil. Can't hear it riding.

Just the start of my riding season. Going to ride this summer, fix it later. Have YES, worry about it in fall.

07 sounds good. Wait to see 06 results.

Ride on.

 
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