new noise - what do loose valves sound like? - Motorcycle-Journal Forums

Mantissa · 06-19-2009, 09:39 AM

i've got an '05 M50 that just hit 7500 miles - i know that the valve adjustment is an important step in the scheduled 7500 maintenance and my appt is scheduled for next Tuesday.

Within the last couple days i've started getting a new noise - it's a high pitched kind of rattle / flutter sound. It could probably best be compared to the noise a cricket makes. (man it's hard to describe sound with words sometimes) The first day it started, it happened pretty much non-stop for about 30 mins, with me trying to track down where the heck it was coming from which is very difficult while riding along on the bike. After deciding I just needed to take it back home i got on the throttle pretty hard to merge into traffic and it suddenly stopped making the noise. Ever since then, it comes and goes seemingly completely at random. Perhaps more likely to happen at low rpm's in 1st and 2nd gear but when I stop, it stops.

I've read some references to valve noise on here as 'mice typing on a keyboard' or something like that which makes me think valves cause more of a 'tick tick tick tick' sound? If valves are making noise I assume they make the noise all the time, even when stopped / idling?

Any ideas what else could be causing it?