Great car care tip. Save thousands $$$.

[Paulyski 2,227]

So, you have a later model car & you/re thinking "I have sealed for life ball joints & linkages, I never have to worry about them"...

Then your driving & a squeak develops.

You love your beautiful car, but it is creaking & squeaking loudly & frankly, it's embarrassing.

Mechanics tell you that you need new upper or lower balljoints, tie rod ends and or steering linkages.

You know they're functioning properly & in tact, because you checked them yourself & everything is tight with absolutely no play. To have all the sealed joints replaced will be over $1,500.00 in labor alone.... if you want to avoid the hassle & don't have time to do it yourself... They are rather time consuming to replace everything & the joints tend to cost around $100.00+ each for most vehicles.

 

You say "But these are sealed for life! they can't be bad!"...

Well.... You just found the life span of the sealed for life joint. Not because it was bad, but because some number crunching shyster decided they could profit more if they left out the process of having a grease zerk installed in the joint. Not only profit in initial production, but also in service fees & replacement parts. Not to mention the fact that you may precive your car as becoming obsolete & buy a new one.... Both planned & perceived obsolescence are applied in this decision. They intentionally lowered serviceability in an attempt to manipulate more money out of you..... I hate pencil pushing process development types. These newer tactics are why a lot of people won't buy newer cars.

 

They sell this crap to you as "low to no maintenance" with some miracle super-lube, but it's simply high quality synthetic grease & it DOES lose it's effectiveness due to break down over time. All the joint needs is to be greased. This crap is like replacing your engine instead of changing the oil. A "no maintenance" machine that will last for ever with use, does not exist.

We even need to maintain our AKs a little if we want them to preform well.

 

So for those who don't know, & find themselves in this situation, Here's the solution.

 

 

This is a neat little tool that can be found at most auto parts stores for under $5.00.

It punctures the boot & allows you to grease the joint. It is simply a grease zerk with a hollow syringe needle.

I put a lot of grease in the boot /joint, inserting the needle as far as I can before puncturing the far side of the boot & fill it until the boot is bulging, upon removal of the needle, due to the added grease having increased pressure in the boot, some of the old grease comes out of the hole the needle made. I then work the steering wheel back & fourth to let the new grease work it's way around the joints before lowering the car.

 

This must be done twice a year, (or sooner if the squeak comes back.)

 

Use synthetic grease, because that's what's already in there.

You may even want to puncture the far side of the boot & fill close to the near side in an attempt to flush out some of the old grease. After doing it once, there will already be a needle hole fron the first time & some of the old grease may come out while you add new.... Good luck using the same hole twice, they're tiny syringe holes & hard to find.

 

Do note; If there is any play (ability to shake or shift loosely) in the joints in question, they must be replaced, as you are now too late & they may fail if they wear further.

One MUST maintain & monitor their vehicles regularly.

 

For this application, Synthetic marine grease is most appropriate due to the fact that upon puncturing the boot, water now has an entry point to the joint. Marine grease is formulated to resist water.

 

I have extended the life of joints with blown boots with this method also. The important part is to stay on top of the vehicle & see the boot is blown before the integrity of the joint is compromised.

If one stays on top of it, the joints service life can be extended substantially to indefinitely.

 

This process is not for fast moving parts or bearings do to the fact that with a hole in the boot & the force of innertia, the grease may likely spin out of the hole.

 

Feel free to add any other "planned obsolescence" defeating processes or products for automobiles.

Edited January 22, 2010 by Paulyski

[bigcec1 72]

I've worked in auto service for about 8 years and pretty much when customers would complain about that squeek we would use this method also but unless the boot on the joint is dry rotted unless you use a rubber care product on the boot between services and the reason we where told they started to do the low maintaince is because a lot of people do not do regular maint on there cars as they should so they attemted to extend the service life but as far as checking for slack you must raise the auto to do a proper shake down I have had people tell me they have done it on there own and when I pick the car up and do a shake down there are usualy loose parts with slack but if you are unshure about it let a shop do a front end check cause it is your life behind that wheel I have plenty of horror stories from bad front end parts so this is a good thing to maintain and keep working properly thanks Paulyski for posting

[kevinfreel 215]

i know at carquest the needle is 4.38 and valvoline snythetic grease is 5.49 a tube... so no matter where you go should be around the same price or lower we are a bit steep

Edited January 22, 2010 by 86camaro