Grease zerks “dry”

WV_Crusader · October 13, 2023

When I bought my 24 2500 L8T I crawled under and was thrilled to see all the zerk fittings. As I always do, I grabbed my grease gun that has Amsoil in her and started giving what I thought would be a little love turned into a lot. Anyone else have this experience?

the8rotor · October 13, 2023

Oh boy... not another potential "forgotten" item for these trucks when delivered. I haven't checked my suspension components, but did check the front and rear diffs immediately when I got the truck home. Rear diff was low and needed a top-off.

I'll be checking my grease fittings later today now. Will report back.

October 13, 2023

When my 2020 2500 LTZ went in for first oil change, I was under truck a few days later, and noticed zerks were dry . I asked at dealership, how during an oilchange the greasing was missed, the service tech told me not required to grease till 50000km, I ripped him a new hole, and have done my filters and grease since.

newdude · October 13, 2023

53 minutes ago, WV_Crusader said:

When I bought my 24 2500 L8T I crawled under and was thrilled to see all the zerk fittings. As I always do, I grabbed my grease gun that has Amsoil in her and started giving what I thought would be a little love turned into a lot. Anyone else have this experience?

The components when put on the truck only have x amount of grease in there. They don't fill them boots about to burst.

Nor is greasing them a part of the PDI process.

newdude · October 13, 2023

43 minutes ago, the8rotor said:

Oh boy... not another potential "forgotten" item for these trucks when delivered. I haven't checked my suspension components, but did check the front and rear diffs immediately when I got the truck home. Rear diff was low and needed a top-off.

I'll be checking my grease fittings later today now. Will report back.

Greasing the zerks is not a part of PDI process. Only checking fluid levels.

WV_Crusader · October 13, 2023

Shame that this is not part of PDI! Anything for them to save a dollar and we pay the price later!

KARNUT · October 13, 2023

When I used to grease my joints I didn’t push it out. I swelled the seal just a little then wiped the zert. You couldn’t tell it was done. I do my lawnmower the same. Otherwise you’re inviting dirt. I don’t imagine the maintenance guys are that diligent. They’re not going to do a procedure that’s not called for. Proper greased joints should last a long time if the seal is good much like cv joints and other non zert joints.

Pryme · October 13, 2023

Multiple threads on this subject. They are lubed at the factory but not filled properly. My boots were pretty deflated looking and I didn’t go overboard but I did put some red and tacky in all 9 zerks. Most took like 3-4 pumps before they looked filled but not ready to burst. I will do them myself along with oil changes about every 4k miles regardless of what the oil life monitor says.

64BAwagon · October 13, 2023

The manufacturer of the part applies grease to the part during the manufacturing process. The assembly plant does not add any grease, they simply install the part. The grease is sufficient to lubricate the parts until they are due for service. The fact that the boots are slack means nothing. Most people over grease and blow the boots out anyways.

If you really want something to check you could verify the level of gear oil in the rear differential. According to GM documents it should be within 10mm (.40 inch) of the bottom of the fill plug. Mine was built in May 2023 and took a full qt to get to the proper level. When American axle builds the assembly they are responsible for filling them.

Edited October 13, 2023 by 64BAwagon

WV_Crusader · October 13, 2023

I agree about just to where the boot starts to swell or move. But the ones who don’t care at the dealer….pop goes the piggy bank before soon!

64BAwagon · October 14, 2023

Why does it mean they "dont care" if they dont do a task that the manufacturer doesnt feel is necessary ?

Its fine that you have your opinion and youre certainly entitled to it but to accuse others of not caring because their actions dont conform to your unsubstantiated opinion is wrong.

rdonarski · October 14, 2023

Just out of curiosity, how often do people grease them. I grease mine once a year but have very low milage. Also wasn't even aware Amsoil made grease. I've been using Costco oil. I'm thinking maybe I should switch to Amsoil for that too, I live less than 50 miles from the Amsoil factory. I've always said oil is cheap and haven't been following my own advice. I change oil once a year too, but so far have only been putting on about 2500 miles a year. I've always used Amsoil Marine Diesel oil in my skid steer since day one. There too, it doesn't get a lot of use and when the Amsoil salesman said it was built for engines that tend to sit a while, I was all in.

newdude · October 14, 2023

15 hours ago, WV_Crusader said:

But the ones who don’t care at the dealer….

How so? Its not part of PDI check over. They are initially lubed from the component manufacturer.

Assuming its a good dealer, it is just a routine part of regular maintenance once the truck is sold and in the customer's possession. They often get overlooked for service though as 99% of the other vehicles GM makes no longer have zerks.

Edited October 14, 2023 by newdude

Grumpy Bear · October 14, 2023

Dad used to do a partial tear down on new cars/trucks to check for installation, adjustment and lubrication. Greasing was part of that check. Every car had something out of whack and the reason he kept the practice. I never adopted that habit myself, but I was on that task once in my possession. As my first service is always at 500 miles, I caught 90% of what dad caught. Did miss a rear wheel bearing on a Toyota Paseo that not only didn't have any grease, but it was also assembled without seals! Amazingly it went 30K miles without grease.

Fact is greasing is something I preferred to do myself when I did all my own service as even those diligent enough to do this simple task simply destroy almost everything they touch or make a mess of it. Wipe the grease gun off on the belly pan or inside of a tire sort of foolishness.

Now that most of my service is done privately it always takes a while to find a guy that doesn't find the reasonable thing to do unreasonable or wait until he's told to by some piece of paper or book or policy. And I hang on to them once found.

This sort of thing gets looked at by my guy every rotation and every service. Zerks, slides, pad thickness, fluids, air and tire condition. IMHO it should come home in better shape that it was delivered, and it shouldn't have to be detailed to get into it when they are done.

:rant:

64BAwagon · October 14, 2023

I always go over any new vehicle. Its such a huge investment I think its prudent. The only thing I found on the truck was the gear oil in the rear diff was low. On our Mexico built Equinox I found a couple of screws in the front splash shield werent driven far enough and the panel had a potential rattle (I never heard one)

The inspection and PDI processes at the plant are much more than anyone realizes and some get randomly pulled for a road test.