Check Your U-Joints

A little pricey but try a cordless grease gun. SWEET!

 

I must say seeing all of this talk about greasing U joints and yet my 2015 DCLB does not have greaseable U Joints. Seems to be that they used them in either only certain models or certain years.

 

Is it 2wd?

 

Glad I saw this. Had to get new grease but all of mine were empty. I couldn't get the one under the shield up front yet, but so far all of them has take at minimum 7 pumps. Bone dry it seems like.

 

It's hard to believe but the sealed joints outlast the greasable ones.

 

no its a 4X4 fully loaded TRD Sport

 

I wonder how much of that is due to lack of maintenance.

 

Is it ok to just wait till the old (black) grease comes out of the seals? (considering its actually new grease in this case) Or do you need to completely cycle through with the new grease?

 

When you fill the joints, it helps keeps bad stuff out.
Ours, were not filled.
If you have some miles and/or have been driving in severe conditions, I would purge until I saw the new grease.

 

well just finished doing this and added grease till I saw grease exit all the seals, it was the old grease since it was black and the new stuff is red. Is it worth going back out there and doing it again to see the red grease only?

truck only has 700 miles...

 

Just went out and checked mine. Bone dry.. 738 miles / 4x4 OR

 

My tranny is not engaging first thing in the am when i shift from reverse to drive it hesitates and then clunks into gear.. dose not feel rite

 

Checked mine today too. Each one required 6-7 pumps of grease. Thanks OP.

 

Had a very competent "indy" change my oil recently when my V6 hit 1000 miles. While it was on the rack I asked him to check the grease fittings. Told him that members on the forum wrote that Toyota had failed to properly add grease to the areas where the fittings were located. He showed me that the system is sealed (2wd). Then he just grinned and went back to the oil change....

 

It should be fine.
How much grease did it take?

 

Id say about 5 pumps for each zerk.

 

Subd

 

I purged until I started to see my green grease come out of all seals. There was red in it, but not much. Figured it wouldn't hurt to get the old stuff out, as after 1600 miles, the needle bearings should be worn in by now, so get all the metallic material I could out.

 

Do you have the tow package? There's people saying there's are coming with low Trans fluid from the factory when equipped with a tow package.

As for sealed bearing lasting longer, it's probably due to maintenance. Also carrier bearings don't typically see high loads until you start getting extreme drive line angles.

 

Spicer says to purge the u-joint enough that new grease can be seen from all four trunnion seals. This if to drive out abrasive contaminants with the used-up grease, and it makes sure there's fresh grease in all four bearings. It only takes one dry bearing to kill a u-joint.

An added benefit to pushing the oil goop out is that it minimizes cross-mixing between grease brands which has the potential to adversely affect how well it responds to temperature or pressure by goofing up the chemical mix.