vinnie Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 All, I posted in my other thread, but thought I should mention it in a thread of its own. I have had a huge problem with my FJ and as it turns out, there are others with the same exact issue as me. A guy nearby (within two hours from me) has had his FZ in a different shop with the same issue since December. I took my bike in to adjust my valves because I was having stalling issues at start. I had 37,000 miles on a 16 month old motorcycle that I bought new. The valves turned out to be unnaturally tight, when checked at 37k miles. My mechanic pulled the head off and the exhaust valve seats were beat to sh*t. We determined that the valve guides failed and had a ton of slop in the valves. We ordered a new head in Feb and the exhaust valves (1RC-12121-00-00) have been on back order since. I have pictures that I will attach later of my old head and you can see the exhaust seats have deformed and rounded out. The exhaust valves are on worldwide back order - I called every Yamaha network I could think of. We spoke with a higher up at corporate Yamaha, through a friend of a friend, and he unofficially confirmed there is a problem, but would not say anymore than that. I have lost 6 weekends of road trips so far and have a 16 day road trip to Alaska that I can't complete because Yamaha won't stand behind their product. I am selling my bike and moving on to a different brand. I cannot express how disappointed I am in Yamaha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member estell Posted May 14, 2018 Premium Member Share Posted May 14, 2018 I took my bike in to adjust my valves because I was having stalling issues at start. I had 37,000 miles on a 16 month old motorcycle that I bought new. The valves turned out to be unnaturally tight, when checked at 37k miles. My mechanic pulled the head off and the exhaust valve seats were beat to sh*t. We determined that the valve guides failed and had a ton of slop in the valves. We ordered a new head in Feb and the exhaust valves (1RC-12121-00-00) have been on back order since. Sorry to read about your valve failures. Did you perform a valve adjustment at 24000 miles? If not, do you think that would have helped to prevent the failure of the valve guides? I ask because I'd like to know if I can avoid your unfortunate experience. My FJ has 22000 miles now so I am approaching Yamaha's recommended service for valve adjustment. 2015 red FJ-09: Cal Sci screen, Sargent seat, ECU flash, slider combo, cruise, Rizoma bars, Matts forks, JRi shock, slipper clutch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinnie Posted May 14, 2018 Author Share Posted May 14, 2018 Yes, I did the 24k mile service and no, we don't think the service would have prevented the issue. I would strongly urge you to get the extended service plan, if you still can. I loved the FJ and how it rode, but I can't afford to deal with this again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member micah2074 Posted May 14, 2018 Premium Member Share Posted May 14, 2018 There are a lot of Fz/FJ’s out there with more miles than yours without this issue, mine included. After reading you post I did a quick search and can’t find another example of the problem. Hopefully it’s not a widespread problem. Let’s go Brandon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koth442 Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 Where was the 24k mile service done? '15 FJ09 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinnie Posted May 14, 2018 Author Share Posted May 14, 2018 Private shop and I was there while it was done. There were three people there total and we all confirmed the measurements and work. I then rode the bike across America and back, without any of the running issues until two or three months later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinnie Posted May 14, 2018 Author Share Posted May 14, 2018 There are a lot of Fz/FJ’s out there with more miles than yours without this issue, mine included. After reading you post I did a quick search and can’t find another example of the problem. Hopefully it’s not a widespread problem. I know the exhaust valves are on world-wide back order. I called all over the world looking for the parts. That's a strange part to be running out of, without having an issue on units. Maybe it's a production problem spanning a range of dates; I have no idea. I also questioned why it's not all over the internet, so here I am sharing it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norcal616 Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 Im not trying to stir up the pot... After reading this a few times, I cant help but wonder why 2 diffrent CP3 motors have exhaust valve issues from the same shop that did the valve adjustments... 2012 wr250f - C-class 30+ age group 2015 fz-07- Hordpower Edition-80whp 2015 fj-09- Graves Exhaust w/Woolich tune by 2WDW @120whp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinnie Posted May 14, 2018 Author Share Posted May 14, 2018 Not from the same shop. Two entirely separate places. I see that my wording in the first post was a little confusing there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duhs10 Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 Sorry to hear about your troubles. I'm not overly concerned about it though because I think if it truly was a wide spread problem there would be a lot more people talking about it (FZ and FJ alike). '15 FJ-09 w/ lots of extras... Fayetteville, GA, USA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norcal616 Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 How did the shims measure out after the head was pulled the 2nd time?? Is it possible they collapsed? Lifters? Partzilla and babbitts shows exhaust valve ships in 1-2 days... 2012 wr250f - C-class 30+ age group 2015 fz-07- Hordpower Edition-80whp 2015 fj-09- Graves Exhaust w/Woolich tune by 2WDW @120whp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinnie Posted May 15, 2018 Author Share Posted May 15, 2018 How did the shims measure out after the head was pulled the 2nd time?? Is it possible they collapsed? Lifters? Partzilla and babbitts shows exhaust valve ships in 1-2 days... The parts were ordered from Partszilla and they've been on backorder. I called both and neither had them and were going to order them from Yamaha. I don't know if it changed, but I have literally called over 10 countries looking for these parts. Everything else seemed to be okay, though. The shims were fine... it appears the exhaust valves were loose in the guides and they rounded out and dug into the head, so the valves were traveling abnormally without the shim changing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinnie Posted May 15, 2018 Author Share Posted May 15, 2018 Sorry to hear about your troubles. I'm not overly concerned about it though because I think if it truly was a wide spread problem there would be a lot more people talking about it (FZ and FJ alike). Well I am glad you aren't concerned. Two people with the same issue, me being one of them, and the lack of exhaust valve supply is enough for me to believe there's some kind of problem. Yamaha was not surprised when we communicated the failure to this friend of a friend in corporate Yamaha. This has ruined my spring and summer. I had 30k miles worth of riding planned and I have completed 0 so far. Good luck to everyone else. I think I'll be switching to a Honda Africa Twin and an extended warranty, despite not being able to afford a second motorcycle in under two years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norcal616 Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 Checked a few more sites and they showed 5/28/18 availability from manufacturer 2012 wr250f - C-class 30+ age group 2015 fz-07- Hordpower Edition-80whp 2015 fj-09- Graves Exhaust w/Woolich tune by 2WDW @120whp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinnie Posted May 15, 2018 Author Share Posted May 15, 2018 https://s7.postimg.cc/uuxk9xsbv/IMG_20180221_173118355_HDR.jpg' alt='IMG_20180221_173118355_HDR.jpg'> You can see how the exhaust seats are beat down into the head, unlike the intake seats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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