Easy Maintenance to do- Grease drive shaft U-Joints using the 5 Zerks on a 2nd Gen 2014 TRD OR DCSB

Do I understand that a 2wd Prerunner (mine is a 2013) does not have zerks?

 

My 2015 Tacoma PreRunner 2WD does not have zerks.

Wife's 2014 4Runner SR5 2WD has one zerk on each end.

Some do - some don't - you have to get under your truck and check things out to know for sure.

 

I noticed my 2 year old Lucas Oil Red N Tacky was separating in the top and bottom of grease gun and some oil was running out. It is stored in a TX garage, so I'm not surprised if the constant hot temperatures help accelerate the breakdown. I changed grease to Valvoline Synthetic and it visually appears to be a bit thicker but feels about the same. I just finished changing all the gear oil and greasing all the zerks. Now onto figuring out why the transmission hunts and lurches in slow and go traffic since I know the driveline is tip top.

 

Mine were bone dry when I bought my truck with 40k. Was chasing some clunks and realized it was the poor u joints. Truck was routinely serviced by previous owner at toyota. If you haven't gotten around to doing this id just get it done. Lame that some are ungreasable

 

I just want to second everyone else's experiences here with the u-joints being a bit on the dry side. Especially, as mentioned, the rearmost front driveshaft u-joint.

My heat shield would not come off for anything, so I got creative and using a normal grease fitting and a pair of vise-grips, routed the grease gun hose over the exhaust tubing and over the heater plate with the fitting facing towards the passenger side of the truck- with the vise-grips routed in between the heat shield and the transfer case I was able to push the nozzle down onto the zerk. That joint was bone-dry, and the other joints were definitely under-greased.

Definitely worth checking ASAP if you've been relying on a dealership to do it beforehand, as I have.