The dealer said I need or recommened a valve adjustment for my 2005 Honda Accord Lx . It is at 108,000 miles. Charging $275. Is it necessary because my car is quiet.
Yes it is necessary!
Quiet may be a bad sign, not a good one. Valve clearance tends to become smaller (quieter) as the car builds miles. If not done, the engine can lose power or worse, burn valves requiring the cylinder head to be removed and re-conditioned. THAT will cost FAR more than $275.
Consider yourself fortunate.
My '75 Civic and '81 Accord needed valve adjustments every 15K miles.
The '85 and '88 Accords every 30K miles.
However I did enjoy doing them myself. Satisfying work.
At 108K it probably won’t need any adjustments, but common sense says to get the valve clearances measured anyway. The way it works is they measure the valve clearances on all the valves, and then adjust any that aren’t within spec. It doesn’t take much time to do the measurements, but can be a little time consuming to make the adjustments. I’ve checked the valve clearances on both my prior VW Rabbit and my current Corolla, been doing this every 30K for 30 years, never had to make any adjustments yet. The last time I measured the Corolla there were a couple of valve near the limit though, on the too much clearance side.
I’ve owned/serviced many Honda vehicles. And the only time I’ve done a valve adjustment is when the head(s) where removed or there was an audible noise from the valves.
The 97 Accord I drive has 210,000 miles on it. And the valves have never been touched.
I’d never buy a car that required a valve adjustment every 30,000 miles.
Tester