Ticking repair question

[shuswaper]

Mark/SkooterG...please forgive my fellow Canuck...perhaps its the 30-40 below 0 temps they have had out there, I dunno. In any event, if he`s the same guy I met a couple of years ago (on the Trans Can. Hwy., just outside of Banff), he was one pissed off sob. He had a "ticker"...can`t remember if it was an 03 or 04 but, she was making one helluva racket! He also mentioned that out of 5 FJRs that he knew in Western Canada, besides himself, 4 of them were "ticking". Like I say, I`m not sure if it`s Conwest, but it sure sounds like him. If not well, could be cabin fever alright...the Prairies can be brutal this time of year! :blink:

 

[Gramps]

My '05 ticked & fixed at 16M last summer, no Y.E.S., first one my dealer had ever seen.

Dealer diagnosed the problem, called in a Yamaha service rep. who ok'd the fix at no charge to me.

Not a big deal at all...at least for me.

 

[conwest]

Mark/SkooterG...please forgive my fellow Canuck...perhaps its the 30-40 below 0 temps they have had out there, I dunno. In any event, if he`s the same guy I met a couple of years ago (on the Trans Can. Hwy., just outside of Banff), he was one pissed off sob. He had a "ticker"...can`t remember if it was an 03 or 04 but, she was making one helluva racket! He also mentioned that out of 5 FJRs that he knew in Western Canada, besides himself, 4 of them were "ticking". Like I say, I`m not sure if it`s Conwest, but it sure sounds like him. If not well, could be cabin fever alright...the Prairies can be brutal this time of year! :blink:

...yyes, that was me. I had stopped by the side of the road because my oil level light turned on...I was on the last leg of a cross country ride. I knew I was using a bit of oil but, sure as hell not that much! Anyways, here comes another fjr on the scene and he`s got a litre bottle of oil on board...thanks again for that. Yeah, I was one pissed off owner. Well, the bike was fixed with new guides (that is another story) and I sold it to a guy from Ontario...and I did give him the history of the bike as well as all the documentation attached to the fix. As much as I loved riding the bike, I simply couldn`t trust it and, the heat was getting to me as well. I knew it was just a matter of time before the valve guide issue would be sorted out at the factory and I would get another fjr...and i`m glad I did. That doesn`t let Yamaha off the hook as far as I`m concerned...they did not handle the problem properly by keeping their dealers and customers in the dark, in order to save some money and face...lets face it, it turned into a public relations boondoggle. Lets see how many tickers they fix on "goodwill " after the 5 year emissions warranty runs out...stay tuned for that. In the meantime consider this; of the 20 or so fjrs sold in Alberta and B.C. over 2003 and 4, 5 of them became tickers.Those are only the ones that I know of. THAT DOESN`T SOUND LIKE 2-3% NOW DOES IT. I stand by my assertions made earlier in this thread . In any event, I apologise for my bombastic behaviour earlier...very unprofessional of me. If it weren`t for the fact that our beloved fjr is such a superior mount, I would not have bought another Yamaha. :angry2:

 

[shuswaper]

So, it was you. I think that we are all glad the ticking fiasco is behind us (only some of us, perhaps). I would agree that there are still some unborn, 03-05 tickers out there. My condolences to the owners. One thing about the canadian market, it`s so small in terms of numbers , it`s kinda easy to keep track of! We just got back from the Vancouver bike show. That `08 sure looks sweet in black!

 

[FJRAust]

Remember that internationally the FJR was released in 2001, for what ever reason Yamaha didn't release them to the US until 2003..

There are a good number of 2001-2003's out there.

How many are Tickers. God knows.. (Yamaha do too)

Mine was. It's had a head job and running beautifully now.. (with a smile).

I do expect the actual percentage to be higher than 2%. There are many FJR which aren't recognised as Tickers. I've listened to a few early Gen1's like mine and most were noisy. Yep that doesn't mean they were tickers but it's very likely..

Mine was ticking from the day I bought it..

 

[FJRMGM]

Mine was ticking from the day I bought it..

Couldn't have been from day one - it is an erosion of the valve guide material and that takes time to wear out.

It had to take more than several thousand miles for the wear to be enough to get noisy.

BTW - mine is a repaired ticker also now running STRONG 28,000 miles later.

Mine started to make enough noise at about 10-11k miles than I began to suspect it might be a ticker.

 

[madmike2]

Mine was ticking from the day I bought it..

Couldn't have been from day one - it is an erosion of the valve guide material and that takes time to wear out.

Okkkaaaayyyy....BUT, I replaced my totalled '04 (that was quiet) with an '05. The newer bike had noisy valve train from the first day. In fact, I took it back to the dealer @ 600 miles and had them log it into the computer. It has gotten increasingly noisy (diagnosed as a "ticker" last year) and will be going to a dealer for a tick-fix next week.

Obviously it wasn't the valve guides from the beginning. But it was very noisy to the point that when I had 3 other FJR owners stay at my place on the way to WFO-4, we compared the running engines mine was very much noisier than any of the other bikes (all '04s).

Perhaps my engine was assembled on Friday. Maybe the head was built when they were low on assembly lube or the "break whistle" had just blown.

 

[FJRAust]

Mine was ticking from the day I bought it..

Couldn't have been from day one - it is an erosion of the valve guide material and that takes time to wear out.

It had to take more than several thousand miles for the wear to be enough to get noisy.

BTW - mine is a repaired ticker also now running STRONG 28,000 miles later.

Mine started to make enough noise at about 10-11k miles than I began to suspect it might be a ticker.

I bought mine at 50 000 Km

 

[Checkswrecks]

I recently had my 2004 in for the top box recall and asked about the ticking noise. Our dealer has had one so knew what the deal was. It didn't take long to decide that something (possibly fromt he cat converter) was lightly rattling in the headpipe. So not all tickers are tickers. If that makes sense.