SPC UCA Question

Quick question for y’all. I had some SPC Uppers installed today and upon getting home I noticed red grease coming out of them when “Moly” grease (which they recommend) is a gray/black color. Should I just put a few pumps of moly in on top of what they did or let it be until next service/oil change? Not sure if I’m overthinking/panicking but I want to know if it’ll damage them whatsoever.

 

Red is synthetic so its nothing to worry about. I've always used moly base.

Does it have grease fittings? SPC has started to phase out the greaseable joints in favor of sealed joints.

Personally I agree with you, just a few pumps to start, then routine with oil changes.

 

Yes it has a greaseable zerk at the ball joint where they applied the grease. I’ll do 3 pumps on each side to get the moly grease working then.

 

It’s a greaseable zerk with a sealed boot under it

 

Interesting, about the joints, I must have missed posts about that but I guess I’m not here as much as I used to be.

 

We had a string of 4runner SPC's fail. Joints and arm bushings. SPC warrantied them all and started to send out sealed units. So maybe a bad batch, but I prefer the sealed style. SPC stands by their product though!

 

Agreed. Both should be lithium based, so even though they aren't the same type of grease, they should be compatible.

 

Makes me calm down a little reading that. I was worried it’d be bad for them when I saw the red around the zerk. So I’m good to add a 2-3 pumps of moly grease on top of what they did upon finishing install?

 

Yep, should be fine. In general, you just want to avoid greases with different bases as they can be incompatible and can either coagulate or liquify which can prevent the actual lubricants in the grease from doing their job.

If I were in your shoes, I would pump some of the moly grease in until you see a fair amount of grease coming out of the bottom of the boot. Then wipe up the excess and call it done.

 

FYI, in november of 2022 SPC pulled all stock of their xAxis joints and ball joints for the slop issues people reported, everything after that time frame came with updated tooling on the xAxis joints / ball joints and the newest style ball joints have been sealed off with an allen set screw in the zerk hole. I just swapped out my FIFTH... yes FIFTH (5th) set of UCA's with xAxis joints and greaseable ball joints for these newest style ball joints and hopefully better xAxis joints in under 50k miles.

Needless to say OP. Wherever you bought those SPC arms from, if they came with greaseable ball joints, they are old stock and plan to feel clunking and time swapping them out within ~ 10k miles of highway driving.

I never had a problem with my older specride poly bushing and original sealed ball joint SPC UCA's.... but once i upgraded to the xAxis joints as a replacement press in option in place of my specride bushings.... it was downhill from there. Ended up not being able to press back out after those developed slop in under 10k miles the xAxis upgrade to my half tubular half forged arms, paid an upgrade fee to go to their new at the time fully forged flat (like current) arms with xAxis joints and the new "better" greaseable ball joint. Been through 3 sets of those arms n joints with slop occurring in multiple locations in 10k miles or less on all 3....

So Now i have a 5th set of new arms that SPC has stated the above as of nov 22 they changed tooling.....

 

Dammit!! That sucks so bad urg

 

Im so burnt on SPC arms that im going back to stock ride height so that when the time comes to go to a stock uca I can and still retain good alignment.


Sorry for the doomsday story on the SPC arms, I used to love them, provided easy alignments tons of articulation rage etc and I hope you have no issues... but having to warranty and swap 5 sets of UCAs.... a bad taste in my mouth is a nice way to put it...

Keep your original receipts.

 

Sounds good. Not sure if it’ll matter but I do not wheel it. It’s my daily driver, all pavement 95% of the year with occasional dirt roads to fish or hunt off. That’s it. Hoping they’ll work out in the long run

 

My off road miles in that 50k miles might of totaled MAYBE 25-50 miles... Oof

 

I did the same thing as the OP.

Pumped in grease then read more about how certain grease types aren’t compatable. I pumped in little new grease and at every oil change just added a little more. Everything worked out so far…well until I got the slop issue in the bushing 10k miles later lol

BUT SPC sent me out a new pair super fast and I haven’t had issues since.

 

I’ll be pumping moly grease into them this morning here anytime. Sucks everyone has had so many problems with these things getting sloppy and having play so early

 

Don't worry. The ball joint boots will develop tears in a year or two and you'll need to replace them ($30-40 for the boot kit). Plenty of opportunity to open the joint and flush the grease...

 

I should’ve just stuck with my stock UCA’s. While I was getting tired of crappy alignment sounds like this is gonna suck lmao!

 

Don’t worry too much about it. SPC warranty is easy and I haven’t had an issues with mine since. I have 33” tires and don’t baby my truck.

 

I baby the hell outta mine hahahah. Barely will see dirt in a year, if so it’s for a few days couple times a year to camp. Other than all town driving. Use my ladies car way more often.