Favorite Chassis Grease

[BrandonVA]

I have an old ford escape that is making lots of noises. I plan on going out to get a grease gun and some grease later today and greasing up the chassis while I am changing the ATF fluid. I have never greased a chassis before. Any advice on what type of grease I should use and what exact areas to apply grease?

I know my u-joints are noisy and my tie rods and possibly ball joints. I

 

[demarpaint]

Red Line 80402 Synthetic Grease.

 

[Sawdusted]

If your chassis has already started to make noises, it could be too late already.

I myself prefer amsoil synthetic truck and chassis grease.

 

[Donald]

And do these items you mention have zerk fittings? I did not think there were too many grease fittings left on passenger cars. Maybe you replaced items with grease-able ones?

I agree, while I would certainly try and grease things, it may be too late.

 

[bvance554]

Are you sure you can lube it? I haven't seen a vehicle with grease fittings in nearly 20 years.

 

[BrandonVA]

ok. i feel pretty stupid after spending 30 bucks on a grease gun only to discover my only zerk fittings are on my sway bars. What should I use on the ujoints? I have some spray lithium grease if that would work.

 

[buck91]

Those items such as u-joints and tie rod ends without zerknfittings are "lubed for life." They are designed to remain sealed and the grease to remain functional for the designed lifespan of the part. When the part fails or the lubrication fails it is simply time to replace, regardless of which order that occurred.

That said I have had success with a needle injector to prolong the life of sealed balljoints but I don't think id recommend that, especially on u-joints.

 

[Lubener]

Good luck on greasing anything. By the time u joints are noisy, they are shot. OEM u joints have been non greaseable for decades. Only the aftermarket units have a fitting.Most vehicles haven't had zerk fittings for some time. Ford ball joints often need replacement before 75 k miles.Try to get replacement parts with a fitting and you will never have to replace it again.Stay away from dealer parts or you be in the same position again.

 

[artificialist]

I use Valvoline Durablend because it is approved for Ford and approved for all others.

Unfortunately, you have components that have no zerks, replacement is your only option.

Always replace suspension components with premium parts, otherwise 1 year later you will redoing the same job. Zerk fitting ot not, this is what always happens.

 

[camelCase]

Originally Posted By: Lubener
Good luck on greasing anything. By the time u joints are noisy, they are shot. OEM u joints have been non greaseable for decades. Only the aftermarket units have a fitting.Most vehicles haven't had zerk fittings for some time. Ford ball joints often need replacement before 75 k miles.Try to get replacement parts with a fitting and you will never have to replace it again.Stay away from dealer parts or you be in the same position again.



This. Many parts today are designed to showcase failure prior to absolute failure. Such as face wear on gears causing them to get very noisy before the teeth actually fail. As engineers get more data about component life cycles, they can more accurately design parts to fail when they want or fail in a manner that is very safe (ball joints making LOTS of noise prior to failure).

Older cars were designed prior to FEA and other stress analysis software, not to mention prior to a lot of data on materials and their wear characteristics being collected. This is why old cars seem to be "built to last". They were built to be strong without any of the other constraints modern car designers have to deal with.

Fun stuff.

 

[CBODY67]

GM went to non-greaseable ball joints on their 1988-redesign light trucks. The ranch trucks had noisy ball joints at about 30K miles. GM put out a bulletin to NOT add zerk fittings as there was not enough "meat" to support that mod. The replacements and new vehicles soon had places for grease fittings on their ball joints.

 

[vssjim]

I think any CG-LB grease will do a good job on chassis and bearings. We use Delo EP # 2 grease, as a side note the sway bar links on your escape are after market or they would not have grease fittings either.