Check Your U-Joints

Interesting. Curious why there appears to be better MPG after you greased the U joints? Less resistance? Either way, good to know

 

Took care of my truck today. If you don't like to get dirty I recommend you get someone else to do it for you lol. And don't wear good clothes as this will mess them up. I used this grease. Hope it's ok. It said for u-joints.

 

Less parasitic drag from friction is what I'm thinking. I know there is at least one other person on this thread that also reported an increase of 3 mpg by greasing the joints. Sounds unbelievable I know, but that's what the dashboard was telling me. Tested driving the same 19 mile highway commute I take to work on consecutive mornings. First morning dry, second morning lubed like a porn star. If you haven't greased yours yet try testing dry then lubed up and report back. I'm very curious to know how it works out.

 

Very interesting. I greased mine up today and prior I was getting 18.9 mpg at half tank. I will see what I get at next half tank fill.

 

Properly lubing them up should help slightly, but 3 mpg seems a little high. I have noticed around a 1 mpg increase. Make sure that your driving conditions are the same. But that's great!

 

I drove 3k miles before I finally did this. They were totally dry like everyone else.

So many of the reported issues on the 2016 seem to be tied to this issue. Specifically:

* Vibration while shifting and at certain RPMs is reduced
* That "thunk" and lurching sensation when moving from park to drive has been substantially reduced
* Gas mileage is better, currently up by about 1.5 mpg from 15 to 16.5

Seems tragic. Such a stupid oversight and only a fractional percentage of owners are going to encounter the fix unless the Toyota issues a recall. Since it's not a safety issue, I doubt that they ever will.

 

New to TW so bare with me..

This U joint issue is only for 4wd? The 2wd have sealed components? Should I be worried? I have a 2wd

 

Correct; but Toyota assembles your sealed u-joints, so....

 

Figured this was a good enough excuse to buy more tools, so I got a creeper and a grease gun, and had at it. My 2.7L Access Cab MT SR just rolled over 1000 miles. Two joints on the front driveshaft only seemed to have a small amount of black grease in them, took 4ish pumps to start pushing out the old stuff, and couple more to get new stuff coming out. 3 joints on the rear shaft seemed to have a decent amount of thin black grease in them (enough that it seems the bearings would be well lubricated), took the same 4ish pumps to get that to start coming out, and a couple more to get new stuff. All 5 still had the original paint on them, though , so not sad that I did it. To note, I did not need to remove a shield to get to the rear zerk on the front shaft, I'm guessing because it's a manual?

 

Thanks for the tip

 

DON'T tell the dealer that you added grease. They will tell you that you just voided the warranty.

 

I have to wonder, though - how is it okay to do your own oil with properly spec'd oil, but not grease your own u-joints with properly spec'd grease?

EDIT - Isn't it also going to be obvious to them (if they were smart enough to look) when the vehicle goes in for the next service and the zerks aren't still coated in the original paint?

 

Don't know. I'm just saying what the service person told me yesterday.

 

Show them page 26 of your Maintenance and Warranty manual.

 

That doesn't seem right. Technically, they are supposed to do it before they ever hand you the keys. Well, we know that isn't happening.

You're doing them a favor.

 

I totally agree. I guess she thought that I was implying that her tech didn't do his job.
Maybe I'm just too picky, since I'm a functional test tech at Boeing.

 

My local wamart was out of the Valvoline grease I've seen recommended here. So I picked up this:

Do you guys think this is ok?http://www.walmart.com/ip/Super-Tec...fault&beacon_version=1.0.1&findingMethod=p13n

 

For whatever it's worth, my truck only has 50 miles on it and was built only a couple of weeks ago. It took 11 pumps on two of the zerks and 12 on the third before any of them even purged air. Apparently the problem at whatever factory builds that subassembly still isn't corrected.

 

Well since there still seems to be an issue, I'm almost ready to say just let them fail and let the dealers can take the hit.
Since they don't seem to want to listen.

 

I'd steer clear.
Country of origin is questionable.

See if O'Reillys has this.
http://m.oreillyauto.com/h5/r/oap/s...MYS_-1_-1&mn=Mystik&mc=MYS&pt=N0412&ppt=C0139