FlyingDog

I pulled off the spindles to do my front ball joint and tie-rod boots. All the balljoints feel perfectly fine, passed the push on the wheel tests, and are tight but move smoothly without anything attached.

Some dirt has gotten into the boots on a few of them and some even reached the *****. Can I flush the joints out with anything or am I just going to push the dirt into places it shouldn't be? I've always read not to mix greases, so I need to figure out what's in them now. The grease is dark green. Are there any common dark green greases?

michaelathome

FWIW, the only dark green grease that I have ever used was, you guessed it not on a car but on a bicycle. Phil Wood Waterproof Grease.

http://www.philwood.com/Price%20List...andCleaner.pdf

You should cary a tube of it for all of your waterproof grease cycling needs.

I know, no help at all.

Michael

AO

Unfortunately, once the ball joint is contaminated, it's life will be severly shortened, usually. You might be lucky and they may last another 50k miles with a good cleaning and re-lube and new boots. But they may only last 10kmi. Hard to say. Once the sand and crud gets into the joint, it scratched the mating surface and thus the continuous movement acts like a mortor and pestle and grinds the joint away. Just a matter of time.

I'm not sure what's the best thing to clean them with, but I would think any kind of lube grease should be fine - even if they are different colros. Well, at least it never stopped me. Of course ignorance is bliss!

FlyingDog

None of the dirt has really mixed with the grease around the *****. It's globs of dirt wrapped in grease resting against the *****. That is why I'm hoping a cleaning will avoid any problems.

AO

Yep might be okay then.

SharkSkin

Yeah Matt, just wipe it away from the joint. Do the best you can -- if it's tight, then there is nothing to do but clean & lube it until it is loose.