Lubricating Chassis

[smokerx]

I just discovered LOF procedure for lube technicians. It stands for Lube, OIL and filter. The lube part stands for Lubricating the Chassis. Since most new cars have no grease fittings they don't require chassis lubricating. I'm going to take a guess and say older Tercel's need to have their chassis lubricated. I found this tutorial on how:

http://www.youfixcars.com/chassis-lubrication.html

but I can't find anything in the FSM referencing any front end lubing or grease fittings when I looked in the front suspension section or maintenance (maybe I'm just not sifting hard enough). With my lack of experience I figure I'll just go get a grease gun and pump grease at all the common suspension parts the tutorial mentions and hope to find the fittings to attach a grease gun.

"Common suspension parts that have grease fittings would be ball joints, tie rod ends, idler arms, and center links."

I did a quick search here and didn't find anything mentioning Chassis lubrication so figured I'd post here and see what you guys think.

[Petros]

That is really obsolete advise. Believe it or not, our Tercel is too "new" to have grease fittings. Most import cars went to sealed joints and bearings many years ago. Only on full sized domestic trucks and vans to you see grease fittings, and I think most of those have gone sealed in recent years anyway.

The universal joints, ball joints, steering linkage and other similar parts last about 200k miles or more (some of mine have well over 300k miles on them), so there is really no need to renew the grease in them. On both a '84 chevy 3/4 ton van I had, and a '96 1-ton Ford van, the ball joints and tie-rod end, and u-joints typically lasted about 40,000 miles, and some of these parts had grease fittings. About what a good set of tires will last. Greasing them once a year might make them last a bit longer, but they were basically considered a disposable part. Most of the smaller cars and trucks have also gone sealed bearings because it costs less.

Though it does not stop the lube shops from advertizing, and even charging you for it. If you use a lube shop, watch them and make sure you actually get what you pay for.

See this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiCAJ8ULnaI

One of the reason I prefer to do my own work, even if the so called "coupon" is less than the cost of materials for me to do it, you risk engine damage, high pressure to buy other things you do not need and paying for things you do not need. Never send your wife or girlfriend to those places unless they have an iron will to resist their fear mongering. My wife falls for it every time, and SHE knows better. These rip-offs are not unique to Jiffy Lube shown in the clip, all repair shops can do it.

You only need to grease the parts if you remove and replace them, and that is to protect the seals. the speedo cable could use lube every 5 years or so to make it last longer, as the clutch cable, and throttle cable, plus the locks and door hindges (with a dry lubricant). Most other parts will last the life of the car. So, except for changing the gear lube and motor oil, there is really nothing to grease.