3rz valve adjustment/idiotic Toyota dealer

So went to miller Toyota in manassas va today to get some valve shims as I needed to adjust exhaust valves. Pretty simple right? Nope. The parts guy told me he didn't know what I was talking about so I went to service and asked for help. That guy talked on his phone with someone and I asked for the manager, he said he'd go get him but he never came back. I went into their service lane and found a tech, and asked if they kept a set of shims in the shop and he said they don't do valve adjustments... What?! So I asked him what they do if a client comes in and needs a valve adjustment on a 1st gen and he said they just REPLACE THE ENGINE. Said in the "12 years he's been a tech" he's never done an adjustment. Wtf so I went back to the parts counter, took control of the guys computer and pulled up a diagram of the head and clicked on the shim, pointed at the sizes I needed and said order these. Payed and left, last time I'll ever get anything at that Toyota, bunch of arrogant pricks.

 

Same deal with my dealer. It's a joke getting shims, I talked to 3 people on the phone and not one knew what they were. Never ended up buying any, still need to do that job to this day lol.

 

theres a reason for this. rarely does the valve clearance ever really need to be adjusted. honestly, unless the pressure is so high that it crushes the metal caps, or squishes the metal valve stems, or bends the metal cam lobes, there really is never a reason to swap out the shims. there's just not much that can go wrong with this design.

however, the reason i was mentioning earlier. when you rebuild a head and do a valve job. you're literally cutting the seat for the valve and the valve to the point where it sits higher inside the chamber.

this is really the only reason one would need to change the shims. because the top of the valve stem is now sitting a fraction of a millimeter higher than it was before.

also, next time, you'd be better off calling some machine shops and seeing if they have any they can give or sell you. I know my machine shop has like 3 trays full of shims just sitting around collecting dust.

 

Well I'm coming from a working on motocross bikes and mine and my buddies bikes, either the valves stretch or the valve seat sinks into the head which is why I wanted to check mine. 225k miles and 3 of my exhaust valves are tight which I'm assuming is from worn valve seats cause I never really hear of steel valves stretching like the titaniums do. But to say they don't do valve adjustments when I know of other dealerships that keep shims on hand cause they do them is appalling

 

Could you hear your valves or did you just check the clearances for preventative maintenance? I should probably check mine :/

 

Just checked them when I was doing a valve cover gasket, I know when we do valve adjustments on Hondas they come in rumbling and leave purring lol

 

No shock there, from an old Centreville man.
The 4 cyl's needing a little help on the exhaust valves between 100K-200K is very common. Equally common is the folks that let it go until they burn valves and/or crack the head/seat.
The V6 is much easier on valves, the 03-04 even more so. They still should not be forgotten.

That being said I am doing an adjustment on a 6 right now and just got 2 shims in for the job. Only 2 exh valves were just under spec. Anyhow the shims seem to be different than the last one I did 4 or 5 years ago. They have a light coating, looks like a very light "parkerized" type finish and they measure exactly the stated size where in the past they were just pretty close.

 

I went to Toyota of Somerset in Somerset Kentucky a while back to find out about buying the metal adjustable bed cargo divider shown in the accessories catalog. The parts guy said he couldn't find it on his computer, it didn't show up on the search, and he wasn't sure it was made to fit an 06. I didn't even argue with him, just called and had Toyota Knoxville where I bought the truck order one for me, and told him I would pick it up in a week or so when I went down for my regular maintenance.
Some dealers are good, some are not.

 

Years ago I took my 1987 2.7l Toyota to the dealer for a valve adjustment. When I got the truck back the valves were still noisy. I asked the service manager if they adjusted the valves when they are hot or cold, and he told me they adjust them when they are hot. The service manual says to adjust them when they are cold.

Then I called my old Toyota repair shop (Enterprise Toyota Repair in Canoga Park, CA, an EXCELLENT and honest mechanic), told him the problem, and he said that the valve cover was probably too tight and that I should loosen the nuts a bit and see of the problem went away. I did, and the noise went away.

The cover nuts screw onto stems that screw into the cam supports. So if you put the nuts on the cover and tighten them to much they will pull the cam ever so slightly away from the valve stems and cause them to clatter. So only tighten them up to their torque specification.

 

I thought the first 2.7 was 95.5? Anyways yeah my valve cover only screws into the head