Ball Joints: Greaseable vs. Maintenance-Free

[GetMeMyStogie]

My first 2 cars had greaseable ball joints, and I greased them myself every oil change. The 2 cars I've had since had maintenance-free ball joints. I had to replace one set of maintenance-free ball joints after about 250k kms, and the next set, on my MM, need replacing at 320k kms. My 1st car went probably over 200k kms on its ball joints, which were greaseable (I don't know for sure - the odometer only had 5 digits). My 2nd didn't need replacing in the time I owned it.

With that experience behind me, I'd have to say I definitely prefer maintenance-free ball joints. Maybe if I took my car in for oil changes and they greased the suspension for me I'd think differently, but doing it myself I found it way too messy for my liking. That was back in my 20s - today, I don't want anything to do with a grease gun. For the amount of mess, the benefits are... meh, hardly worth it. If the boot tears or dries up, you're sol anyway and all the time spent greasing to eek out every last mile of life was suddenly wasted.

I know a lot of guys prefer ball joints (doesn't matter if it's control arms or tie rods) with zerk fittings (greaseable). What do you think - do you prefer greaseable ball joints, or maintenance-free?

[RacerX]

You pretty much hit on the main problem with any of them. If the boots are tight and no water or dirt ever gets in, they'll all last for a very long time. With todays machining tolerances, lubricants and high stress tolerant rubber, zerk free is ok in my book.

[Ken]

The 04 MM that I recently bought, now with 127k, had all 4 replaced last week. :(

[JoeBoomz]

I can't say I miss the nipples one bit. On my car.

[MOTOWN]

I have non greasy now, but when i need to replace em ill go with moog parts which are geasable, i hit em with synthetic lube twice a year.

[Mr. Man]

The first car I had w/o greasable ball joints was my 1990 GMC Sierra. Problem was they were to small for the truck. I always assumed GM put S-10 ball joints on the full sized truck to save .10cents. Well they went in 5 or 6K and they were replaced with full sized ones with Zerk's. Those lasted 156K and were still going strong but the truck like most GM products eventually rusted so bad it went to the scrapper. If the ball joints are properly sized for the job I would prefer non-Zerk's for the same reason as the OP. Not getting any younger here.

[EMAS]

There are 2 problems with greasable joints. #1 many people don't properly, fully clean the fitting before they snap on the grease gun and end up pumping some grit into the joint. The other problem is that people also like to overfill them blowing out the boot so that water and grit can enter and reduce their life. A properly fully sealed joint with some sort of clamp to create a positive seal eliminates those problems.


All that said I still get greasable parts for my vehicles.

[71cyclone]

Right you are sir / It was explained to me back in the 60's the difference with General Motors and FO MO CO was that Ford used bigger nutz and boltz for example, [lug nutz are bigger] and the 60's Galaxies were heaver than the plymouths, chebys and mopars

[RF Overlord]

I have always believed that greasable parts were better, but as EMAS said, they can be damaged by improper maintenance so I understand why all the manufacturers went to non-greasable.

Phoebe went over 160,000 miles before needing new lower balljoints; I don't consider that bad at all for a non-greasable part.

[screamn]

but when i need to replace em ill go with moog parts which are geasable, i hit em with synthetic lube twice a year.

+1 ^^^^^

I installed Moog upper control arms, tie rods, and sway bar end links.

I too grease them two times a year with valvoline synthetic grease. ;)

[tom blahous]

i like the greasable always do it my self wipe fitting first, had a 93 aerostar with over 400,000 when junked and still had original ball joints,tie rods replaced once ,switched to greasable and were on it till junked, that thing just kept going junked because rear end bushings went didnt want to replace, that 4.0 just kept going had more money in tires than any thing else.

[Paul T. Casey]

Getting near my 75th oil change, and my factory non-greasable ball joints are still tight. I vote maintainence free. Too easy to screw up the greasables, IMHO.

[vtwoodsman]

Now what's all this talk about greasin', nipples, and zerkin' ???