ok so i cant remember when i last checked mine, it would have been quite some time ago... and since then i've probably done about 10k.... well i've done 4,000 miles since August....

almost all of that up untill last week was up and down the M1 doing 40 miles a day at 6,000rpm....

i get the feeling my valve clearances definitely need checking!

Indeed ..cheers Ken looks like mine are due for a look then

Can't say the tappets were ever checked, let alone adjusted, on my always caned original engine that got to 205 thousand miles in one piece-currently awaiting some fettling at Spanners Towers. It will return.

Jonathan,
are you quite sure about that?

Peter Cross at Tibberton,Worcester, next week. When it goes in for those jobs to be done,I'll have the car serviced and will have the heads torqued up(or is it down?..well tightened then) and have the tappets adjusted as in the words of Peter.."It's very quiet for a 2cv engine". The tappets are too tight.

okay, maybe once in 135 thousand miles....not every 5 thousand. Ken, you have a better memory than me, which to be fair, isn't exactly difficult

I fo mine every 3 k and half the time there ok
It's such sn easy job to do,
Make sure the engines hot and dump the oil while your doing it

"Make sure the engines hot and dump the oil while your doing it"

Aren't you supposed to measure the gap on a cold engine? - Surely if you measure when hot, this will give a false reading and they will be very sloppy when cold? - as the metal expands the tappet gap is there to allow for the pushrod to move without being too tight.

I though Haynes manuel said hot or have I got it the wrong way round

James its an expansion gap so it should be done when cold.