Purchased a 2012 Limited 8/27 and soon after the purchase noticed some valve noise in the bike...more than I am used to on the other bikes. Also at highway speeds between 2200 and 2800 RPM noticed a noise that sounded sometimes like a valve clatter or maybe like you were floating the valves at high speed on an old car. Sometimes it sounded like a loud injector, and sometimes kinda sounded like I had cheap gas in it. I have burned every brand of premium gas known to man. When I went in for the 1000 mile service, where they put Amsoil 20-50 in at this time, I told them about the valve noise. They said, turn up radio, get louder pipes, wear different helmet, they all do that. OK...not really being satisfied with the answer but I was gonna run it like it was. Took off on a trip across AL, GA, TN, NC, KT, VA, for about 5 days and by now they valve noise is getting worse. The clatter is heard quite often, actually by the time I got back home it sounded more like a diesel engine but not all the time. The bike now had over 5100 miles on it so I did the 5000 mile service myself. The oil I drained from it was BLACK as diesel oil...no metal on the drain plug magnet. I thought the oil being so black was very odd. I changed the oil with Amsoil 20-50 again, and checked all the stuff in the 5000 mile maintenance check list. I have a shop manual and this helped a bunch. After the oil change rode it to get it up to temp to do the final oil check and she was still rattling but maybe not as much...cause I noticed you had to get it good and hot before it would rattle a lot.
The Dealer happened to call me checking on the bike since I was just there for my 1000 mile service. I mentioned about the clattering of the valves and he said they want to see it again. The next morning I road it in 37'f weather 250 miles back to the dealer. The mechanic got on the bike and stayed gone a while on it. After he came back he said I had something serious going on in this engine. He thought maybe it was a broke valve spring, valve guide that came out of the head or something like that cause it would not do it all the time. Occasionally you could hear it while idling in gear at a red light. I found a ride home and the next day the dealer called and said I had to have a new engine. The top of the rod ends were egg shaped, I had some burnt valves, and the internals of the engine looked like it had 50,000 miles on it. They said the pistons were black and brown, and the piston pins were brown from the heat. A new engine was on the way from Harley with fresh 10 digit numbers from the VIN on the frame. They said it would take about 7-10 days to get the bike ready.
The bike ran good...got pretty good gas mileage, 33-44 MPG, had plenty of power and torque. No indications that anything was wrong. I could merge into traffic on the interstate like lightening. I did notice a couple of times that my right calf would get very hot through my leather chaps. I just thought it was an air cooled bike and that was normal. All my other bikes were water cooled. I never idled the bike for anytime besides red lights and even shut it off a couple of times while we were waiting for traffic in some construction. On the trip we rode 10-11.5 hours a day...basically from daylight to just before dark, only shutting it off for fuel and to eat, and of course at night. The heat management was not turned off.
I cannot figure out where this all this heat indications on all the internals was came from... If the CATS were stopped up, seemed like it would not run so good or get the fuel mileage. The bike is stock as can be...only a changed the windshield and added a chrome fork legs, plus a few small pieces of chrome. Stock exhaust and headers. Stock wheels and tires.
Anybody heard of this happening before?
I need some ideas where all this heat is generated from...I do not want this happening again, especially when the warranty expires in 21-22 months. I talked to the dealer about installing an oil temp gauge in place of the air temp...he said it would only scare me to death, cause in the summer the bike will get very hot. IT is not unusual for them to get up over 260-300’F on a hot day. From the internals on this engine, I believe it got hotter than that…and if I would have had Non-synthetic oil in it…I believe it would have be nothing but sludge inside.
Any ideas and comments welcomed.

I got withdrawal symptoms due to no bike available to ride right now.

 

Hmmm...I have same bike and just started hearing a noise and figured they just get noisy. I had a 103 in my Deluxe and it was noisy. Maybe Ill have them check it.

 

ive been posting on here every where trying to get answers for the ticking on my 2011 103 streetglide also...its been sitting in the shop for almost 3 weeks now....they have acknoledged there is an abnormal ticking noise....and pulled the top end apart and only found a tappet with a score on it....they payed for the new one...and i upgraded the cam to se-255's.... when they put it all back together....same noise....changed oil from synthetic to regular oil..and the same noise....no change....

 

Turn the radio up,no noise then.

 

Mine had a noise a little more than a ticking...sounded like a valve clattering....but not all the time. IT seemed to be worst as you topped a hill and started down the other side of it. My wife asked me on one of our trips if this bike had a chain on it...she thought she was hearing a dry chain pop irractically. She could hear the valves clatter from the passenger seat.

 

I can definitely hear it louder when decelerating from mid to upper RPM range.

 

this is just like of all great recalls im afraid.....we just have to keep taking the bikes back and insist they mike good on these machines....and for those who say its just part of it..harleys make noise...i've had my share of bikes....i can put a new bike next to mine and it doesn't have the rattle ticking noise as mine....mine didn't do it when i bought it....shouldn't be doing it now....

 

great the dealer called back and looks like they took care of it
dont beat yourself up you didnt do anything wrong and your dealer is taking care of you
these things can happen and one issue should not be a reason to think the sky is falling
hope you have many safe enjoyable miles ahead on that bike

 

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/touri...new-103-a.html

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/touri...ng-lifter.html

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/touri...tle-noise.html

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/engin...ter-noise.html

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/touri...3-ticking.html

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/touri...n-tapping.html

 

Try running a thicker weight oil should make it less noisy.