larryk1100rs
New member
Approaching the 18,000 mile service. Dealer quoted $1600-$1900 depending on whether valves needed adjustment. Does that sound right?
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18k Mile Service Cost
- Thread starter larryk1100rs
- Start date
larryk1100rs
New member
This is for a 2016 GTL.
larryk1100rs
New member
St. Louis.
boogerman
Booger Man
Holy s#$t. I live around StL. What are they going to do ? Seems very high. I had my 2013 GTL done there a few years back & it was no where near that. Do the oil and filter change yourself. Ask them to reuse the valve cover gasket if it’s still in good shape. Valve check should be around $800-900. If that’s what they are getting for the 18k valve check I’ll push my 2018 GTL a few miles farther down the road before I have mine done. I like the guys at GW but not that much.
lee
Debbie's Servant
K bikes can normally go a lot of miles between valve checks.
When we had K1300Ss with a similar engine to the K1600 we went about 30,000 miles before the first valve check and they did not need adjustment.
They replaced the inner and outer valve cover gaskets and I was ok with that because it's really time consuming to get at them again if one happens to leak.
To save money I changed our engine and final drive oil, changed the air filters and changed the brake fluid.
jonnybow
Member
A lot of recent and dated discussion on this very topic on the forum. 90% or more agree that the valve check that's called for at 18K is a big waste of money until you are in the 65k and up area. Do what you feel comfortable with of course but myself and a ton of other guys aren't wasting our money on the valve checks for a bit.
Get a reference point...
Not withstanding that the K bikes tend to stay well in spec, its good to get a reference point.
Doing it yourself is a lot of bodywork but nothing really difficult.
Filling the radiator back up is a bit of a job.
And getting those damn coils off the plugs!
Our 2019 K1600 GT Sport was spot on at the 18k service.
If I would have kept her, I wasn't planning on another valve check for at least 24 to 36k miles, about the time new plugs would have been in order.
As a reference point our past '08 K1200GT jumped its cam chain at around 40k.
90k miles later at 130,000 the valves were still in spec, none had required adjusting since new!
Same basic engine, just two more cylinders.
Not withstanding that the K bikes tend to stay well in spec, its good to get a reference point.
Doing it yourself is a lot of bodywork but nothing really difficult.
Filling the radiator back up is a bit of a job.
And getting those damn coils off the plugs!
Our 2019 K1600 GT Sport was spot on at the 18k service.
If I would have kept her, I wasn't planning on another valve check for at least 24 to 36k miles, about the time new plugs would have been in order.
As a reference point our past '08 K1200GT jumped its cam chain at around 40k.
90k miles later at 130,000 the valves were still in spec, none had required adjusting since new!
Same basic engine, just two more cylinders.
I am getting my 18000mile service done on Oct 22nd at Gateway. They quoted me a price of $1923 dollars!
A friend of mine had his done at Engle Motors in Kansas City. I don't remember the price but it was well under $1,000, I vaguely remember him saying $600-$700, no shims needed. $2K is just a rip off. It takes less than a day, maybe a full day if they need to re-shim the valves. Do the math, what is their shop rate? $100/hour? 8 hours is $800 , plus some incidentals. I would call around.
boogerman
Booger Man
What are all services they doing for that price ? Surely more than just checking the valves. Do you do any work on your Big K like oil change,filters, final drives etc ?
That was for the whole 18,000 mile service. I don't think I am going to get valves checked at 18,000 miles. Probably wait until 30,000 miles if I do not hit a deer and total it out .....ha ha .
gunnert
Biker
It's you money... Feel free to just "give it away". NGK recommends changing their spark plugs every 100,000 MILES in a car. I checked the plugs in my '12 K1600GT @50,000 miles, they were fine. I've read/followed literally every K1600forum thread on this subject for over 9 years now. There have been less than 5 bikes total that required a valve adjustment and I question those posts. If my memory is correct none of those valve adjustments were on bikes with less than 50,000 miles.
Duane
Duane
61996
IBA# 5819
Don't know how labor charges run out in St. Louis, but I just had my 18K service done a couple of weeks ago, and the Dealer quoted me $1,100. The invoice was actually a little less than that even though they replaced a $75 part during the service. They also offered me free pick up and delivery from my house, 50 miles away. I'm very happy, plus they adjusted my noisy cam chain. The engine is very quiet now.
18GrandAM
pglaves
#13338
Out of curiosity how does one adjust a cam chain on an OEM K1600?
larryk1100rs
New member
Thanks. Interesting. Like many places we only have one dealer so it’s tough to shop around. I am surprised that the price would not be petty standard. Hopefully it will come out on the low end with no valve adjustment needed.
pglaves
#13338
There is a BMW provided flat-rate guide spelling out labor time in tenths of an hour. The big variable is the hourly rate labor charge. And for some jobs shops charge for actual time rather than flat-rate time. This is particularly true for troubleshooting.
