Valve shim thicker than printed number

Hello. I ordered some new shims from toyota dealer and it's measured about 0.05mm thicker than the printed number on the shim. The 2.9 shim is actually measured 2.95 mm under the caliper. My clearance is actually pretty much the same with the new shim installed.

Is this normal? Is there coating on the shim that will get worn down to the actual printed value?

 

If you need to bring that shim down .05 mm you can do it using some emory cloth and elbow grease.

 

It's a good thing that you checked it

Don't count on it wearing down on its own at any appreciable rate.

 

Ya, it's CRAZY. I bought 4 and 4 for 4, they are all 0.05mm thicker. WTF toyota?

 

what kind of caliper are you measuring with.. is it sensitive enough and has it been calibrated?

 

Just check the caliper by measuring the feeler gauge you used. If it’s off then you can just account for that with the new shim.

 

0.05mm is equal to .001968" or .002"
Having only shimmed motorcycles, that's too much of an error if you want to do it right the first time.
Quality mic or caliper?

 

I wouldn’t be measuring those with a caliper, micrometer is more appropriate.


Edit: oh I guess you didn’t say. Oh well, micrometer ftw

 

Is it Chinese caliper vs Japanese shim? If so, and since the error is the same each time, I am going with shim being correct.

As others have said, confirm it with another tool, such as micrometer, or measure the feeler gauge and see if it is also reading 0.05 over before sanding them all down and maybe regretting it later.

 

Yep, if it's consistently off then it's still accurate lol.

 

I just replaced one shim in my truck with brand new 2.9. I measured it with two different micrometers (on analog, one digital) and the shim is spot on (within 0.01mm).
Chinese calipers have resolution 0.01mm but the accuracy is worse than 0.05mm. Actually measuring a feeler gauge will not prove anything - cheese cheep calipers are not even linear (different error in different places). They are good for "measuring a common household items: screws, jewelry, DIY gadgets". I would not depend my truck on them.

Now, the issue might be even worse than measuring the new shim. The question is how did you measure the old one to come up with the required shim size? If you measured them with the same caliper, it is possible you have ordered the wrong shim size.