U Joints

Son has 2005 Tacoma, added 3 inch lift over a year ago. Have had to replace two u joints since then. 120,000 miles on truck. Do you think replacement was due to lift kit installation or just normal wear and tear on vehicle? The new joints are greaseable, the old ones were not. This is the only vehicle we have ever owned that needed u joint replacement. Thanks for your help.

 

It was around 100,000 miles that I had to do all 3 ujoints on my 05.
I think just wear. Toyota shouldn't have used the non-greasable type.

 

Seems early but depends on how the truck was driven over those 120,000 miles. My truck, with 180,000, still has original u joints but it's never seen wheeling duty.

What happened to clue you in to replacing the u-joints?

Also, keep in mind that the non-greasable joints are structurally stronger and come with "life-time" grease packed in them. The greasables can certainly last longer with proper maintenance but can fail more quickly under extreme circumstances.

 

I had a stock 2010 dc sport and I greased the u joints regularly, They crapped out at 86000 miles. (one did I changed all three) so Id say your son did ok.

 

I just had all 3 of mine replaced I only need one but I was why not do them all

 

on my 2010 i had a lift on it from about 35k miles and replaced the u-joints around 120k along with the center carrier bearing. To be honest they were still good since I was chasing a highway vibration (ended up being the rear tire had a bad wear pattern). I probably could get another 30k out of them easy I would imagine.

Everything has a life to it and a lift may speed up wear but there are other things that contribute how long they last, actually remembering to grease the joints helps a lot (be surprised how many people forget), if you go offroading (also remembering to grease it afterwards so that any dirt or water is forced out of the u-joint), live in a high salt (snow belt) area, and just age.
If you are going over 100k between changes thats pretty good I feel like. If you are blowing u-joints every few thousand miles then I would say you have an issue.

The fact that the old ones are a non-greaseable version is probably the main reason they failed on you. Any debris that gets in there will cause havoc especially water. And if it sits a while the o-rings on the cap dry out and all the grease goes flying out