Pele

iTrader: (28)

My original tie rods had grease fittings. The junkyard parts I got do not. How many of you out there have 'em, and have any replacement parts you've gotten have them?

I like to be able to add grease manually thn rely on the facotry and the sealed joints.

Any other parts that could have grease fittings? Control arm ball joints? Etc...

MyRxBad

My Left Rod has a grease nipple and the right doesn't.

I replaced the left one, with one from Carquest and on the bottom of the tie rod it had a small bolt and it came with the nipple to exchange the small bolt if you want, so I slapped it on before I put mine in

ladelberg

Pretty much any ball joint type fitting that has been replaced will have a grease fitting. So, if your tie rods are replaced, there will be a fitting, if you have had the ball joints pressed out of the control arm and replaced, there is a fitting there too.

peejay

WT had well over 140k on the original toe-rod ends, idler bushings, and ball joints. The left control arm bushing was just starting to get a little loose, so in theory the ball joints themselves outlast the control arm bushings! (maybe that's why they sell them as complete control arms - by the time you need a ball joint the bushing's probably wasted as well)

Given that they lasted so long, I see nothing wrong with the OE stuff. Just keep in mind that most greasable tie-rod ends are of the metal-on-metal design (instead of the factory low-friction plastic on plastic) which means that unless you grease them constantly, steering feel will be destroyed. We had lots of problems on Hondas because of that, our supplier would give us metal-on-metal tie-rod ends and the customer would come bacjk complaining that the steering felt "funny", or felt sloppy. It wasn't sloppy, just didn't return as easily so you had to use the steering wheel more to drive the car. I've also had personal difficulty with the metal on metal stuff on my first car, tie-rod ends would last 10k at the most before they got loose. (Wheel balance and tire roundness seems to have a dramatic effect on tie-rod end life, as well as wheel bearing life, keep that in mind too)

If you can find low-friction units with grease fittings, sure go for it! Just keep 'em lubed (grease your rod to your heart's content )