My daughter has a 1998 Honda Accord LX (170,000 miles, V-Tech, 4-cyl, automatic)

In the manual, it recommends having the valves adjusted every 50,000 miles? I have no idea when the last adjustment was done. I bought it at 150,000 miles.

Is this critical? It gets 250 miles per tank (all city driving). How hard is it to do it yourself? I do work on cars, but it's been mostly starter, brakes, alt., radiators, window regulators, dist, caps, wheel bearings, CV axles, etc...

Is this something I can do myself if i read the manual carefully?

Any other advice or pointers to tell if the valves need to be adjusted?

 

Valves usually loosen and get a bit noisy on cold engine. If valve cover gaskets (rim and spark plug tube seals) have never been replaced, you could combine that job w/ checking the valve/rocker arm clearances.

Suggest getting a shop manual to review the entire procedure, but turn cylinder to be inspected to TDC and check valve top to rocker arm clearances. Intakes are 0.010-inch and exhaust 0.012-inch clearance.

On Honda V6's the valves are known to tighten. How? Only way I see is for seats to collapse, but apparently it happens. Never heard of valves getting tighter on 4-cyl, but it may be possible.

good luck

 

when you do adjust your valves, the engine is COLD.