[killerformula]

Hey guys, maybe somebody can confirm my disbelief here...

So my girl has a 2003 civic. She was supposed to take it in for its 15000 mile service which included oil, lube, wiper blades, etc etc for like 150 bucks. Yeah right. So I grab a lube gun and a wrench and go to work on the thing... and discover there are no lube fittings anywhere on the front end?! Then I opened the owner's manual and it isn't mentioned anywhere in the maintenance schedule, or shown anyplace in the diagram of the car. Are new front suspensions designed so that they don't need lube?

ANy ideas?

THanks in advance-

K

[60convert]

that is very common not to have them on newer vehicles. thay all have the "lubve for life" what ever that is suppose to mean. the life of the part??

[crazy larry]

lube for life = 5-10 years depending on severity of use......

[jrm123180]

yea....all the bj's and tie rods and everything else are sealed. THey rip u off by charging $150 to squirt a little white grease on the door hinges. I have an 01 civic and did my own 15k, 30k, and what ever else at 73k (except for the critical things like oil and stuff, which i did at normal intervals).

[4 Jaw Chuck]

I read an SAE paper that showed having a fitting on the part actually caused more contamination than one that was non-serviceable and that the seal was usually misplaced during service from high pressure guns causing further outside contamination. The current thinking is that a sealed unit lasts longer than one that is serviced regularly.

I say amen to that, maybe one day I can throw away my grease gun. I had a similar experience with a set of steel rollers that were flushed with water because they conveyed red hot 8" billets, the original design used a 2" gun drilled shaft with roller bearings on each end, the roller was 8" diameter solid steel. There was one person who was assigned the "grease man" duties to keep them lubed. Later an automatic greasing system was adopted.

After switching to sealed bearings not only did they last longer but needed zero maintenance, later the company went one step further and used disposable bottling conveyer rollers that were stainless tubes with sealed bearings and with the smaller diameter slung the water better but still could handle the load. They lasted until overhaul time usually (once per year) and could be changed on the fly with one hand if they failed, meaning no more shut downs for a simple roller failure.

I am all for zero maintenance front ends. Less work for me!

[killerformula]

Huh, how about that?! WEll I finished up on the thing today (had the wrong size socket for the stupid metric, 17mm oil plug ). No lube, so its actually a really easy car to maintain yourself! All you need is your lug wrench, a philips screwdriver and a 17mm wrench or socket as I so sorely discovered. As a sidenote rant, I'd like to add that I'm sick of the morons at the oil change shops putting the plugs and filters on so damned tight. STOP DOING THAT! An oil plug does not need to be on to 180ft-lbs of torque! USE SOME FREAKING TEFLON TAPE IF YOU'RE THAT WORRIED ABOUT IT!!! Seriously, I jacked up the car, put the ratchet on the bolt and put my foot on the freaking ratchet until I heard ::CLANK!!!:: As the bolt separated from the pan.

Good lord! I don't trust anybody doing work on my cars any more.

K

[poncho62]

And, don't blame all this on Honda (and the other ricers). American made vehicles have been sans the grease fittings for years too.

It's a "make work" project by the car companies.

[adtkart]

Doing the preventive maint yourself isn't a bad idea. Just be sure to do all of it. The timing belt replacement should be closely monitored. On alot of cars(Honda is one of them), a timing belt that has jumped, can bend all of the valves. Also check the front end parts that you want to lubricate. They do sometimes wear out early.

[60convert]

as adtkart said they do wear out prematurly, ever hear a ford explorer creak when turning lowe r ball joints are bad on those as they are "lube for life" and a bunch of other fords are good for that, but most vehicles are made this way, cheaply gatta watch those pennies when building a quality car.
Jesse

[PrimeMover]

OEM U-joints on rear wheel drive equipped cars haven't had zerks for years - some have had plugs and some haven't. Most full size American made cars with conventional front suspension have been consistantly delivered to the dealerships with plugs in the tie-rod ends and ball joints for years too. When I worked brakes and frontends for Firestone back in the early 70's, I told the service manager that If a plugged rig came in for a lube and oil and the customer wasn't offered the option of having zerks installed and was simply being charged for a lube job, that customer was being ripped off... He agreed. Our lube jockeys went thru boxes of fittings to sell that old fashioned LO&F.

[jmcrosby]

They make a special needle valve to fit on your lube gun that allows you fo lube any joint that has a boot. Simply inser it through the rubber at the top of the boot and shoot some grease in. Upon removal the hole will elf seal unless you put too much grease in. This works as I have used it on different vehicles for 25 years. I think you can get them at JC Whitney or harbor Freight plus any good tool source.

[akm]

Originally posted by jmcrosby
They make a special needle valve to fit on your lube gun that allows you fo lube any joint that has a boot. Simply inser it through the rubber at the top of the boot and shoot some grease in. Upon removal the hole will elf seal unless you put too much grease in. This works as I have used it on different vehicles for 25 years. I think you can get them at JC Whitney or harbor Freight plus any good tool source.

i was just about to say that i made one of these a while back out of a piece of thin steel tubing smashed flat on one end, and then i put a little bit of a curve on it.
attach a fitting, and it slides right under the boots so you can lube um' up.

[60convert]

by putting the needle greese adapter under the boot isn't going to do a hole lot of good the grease is needed at the ball and socket part of the joint not on top of it. I would bet you are doing more bad than good and wasting your time. a normal grease zerk is on the bottom of the ball and socket so when you put grease in you are effectivly pushing the grease past the ball and socket part and pushing the older grease out of theat position and into the boot part.
Jesse

[akm]

Originally posted by 60convert
by putting the needle greese adapter under the boot isn't going to do a hole lot of good the grease is needed at the ball and socket part of the joint not on top of it. I would bet you are doing more bad than good and wasting your time. a normal grease zerk is on the bottom of the ball and socket so when you put grease in you are effectivly pushing the grease past the ball and socket part and pushing the older grease out of theat position and into the boot part.
Jesse

good point.
i only used it when i was doing a LOF on a person's car that demanded the "lube".
it got them out the door.

[60convert]

tell them they will need aftermarket like moog prohblem solvers or something like that if they wanted it to be lubed. otherwise by not lubing it you are doing it the way the factory designed it to be done.
Jesse