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Wed May 31, 2006 8:59 am

I know most people say to do a valve adjustment every 3-4000 miles, or when you change your oil.

The Bentley book, which is the factory manual, suggests every 7500 miles. Is that safe, or do you risk wrecking something?

Reason I ask, is because it seems that the 3000 mile oil change interval is a recent development - last ten years or so. My 1991 Mazda was spec'ed for changes every 5000 miles, and the older Fords I had were spec'ed out for 6000 miles.

Wed May 31, 2006 9:42 am

In an aircooled VW I would strongly recommend doing a valve adjustmen every 3,000 miles while you are changing your oil. If you feel like gambling or perhaps extremely sure do it every 6,000 miles. However at the higher interval you risk a lot (up to a new engine).

Wed May 31, 2006 9:45 am

Every 3000 has worked for me for the past 32 years.

Wed May 31, 2006 9:52 am

For air-cooled motors, the oil specification is every 3,000 miles. Valves are every 3,000 miles.

As an example, here are the service pages from a '65 owner's manual:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/manuals/65bug/page72_73.jpg
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/manuals/65bug/page74_75.jpg

I've seen other manuals that say 6,000 miles on valves.

I do a valve adjustment at every oil change, whenever that is, or before any major trip if it's been a while.

Wed May 31, 2006 9:52 am

Glenn wrote: Every 3000 has worked for me for the past 32 years.

Or more often... if you are really "in tune" with your car you can tell when it is not running quite as peppy as it should. Once you get comfortable with doing valve adjustments yourself and you don't have to pay others you realize it only takes 10-15 min to check them and you usually only have to adjust a couple that are loose or tight.

3 month's or 3,000 miles is the general rule... but it can depend on how many "heating and cooling cycles" you go through. Alot of short trip, stop and go driving can cause the valves to be out VS longer drives/ road trip milage.

Wed May 31, 2006 11:49 am

I remember a co-worker had his brother visit him from out of town many years ago. He had some early 70's bug. Talking to him I learned he had never had his valves checked in a couple of years, like 18K miles. I talked him into letting me look at them, and to my surprise they were pretty good, not all at 006 but none down to zero. Sometimes you get lucky.

But for my cars, I will be checking them on regular milage intervals, and noting which valves tend to loosen or tighten up.

-Andy

Wed May 31, 2006 5:13 pm

I've had some movement in as little as 1000 miles on a fairly new engine. I've been checking them every 1500 miles and writing down the clearance is rather than tight or loose. After installing my stock carb, I had no change in 2000 miles - I'm hoping that everything either settled in or the carb made the difference. I'll stick to my 1500 mile check for awhile until I'm sure it isn't changing, then maybe stretch it out a bit at a time.

Wed May 31, 2006 9:29 pm

Well, apparently I've been put in my place :D

Seriously though, this is my first experience with a car that needs manually adjusted valves. I do however have two motorcycles with the same locknut valve adjusters. The one, a 1980 Suzuki, recommends adjustments every 3000 miles, though since to me it's a vintage bike, that's about two years between adjustments. My other bike a Kawasaki Concours, which I do long distance riding on, recommends every 6000 miles. In reality though, after about 18,000 miles, they barely shift at all, and you can safely move out to 12k between adjustments with no risk of engine harm (specs are the same as the bug, at .006).

That's kind of why I was wondering - because the bikes stabilize after some engine wear - I wondered if the Bug was the same way.

Thu Jun 01, 2006 4:21 am

I had received a reply that sometimes the valve clearance does shift until the engine has some miles on it then it stabilizes.

Thu Jun 01, 2006 4:42 am

For the first 6000 miles i check and adjust it every 1000 miles. Then every 3000.

This Spring was the first time that all the valves were dead on and didn't need any adjustment. My engine has 16,000 miles on it.