Quick advice on bearing grease..

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Cancruiser

Cancruiser

10 Year 15 Year
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Location
Calgary, Alberta - Canada
The FSM specifies a Lithium base NLGI 2 wheel bearing grease, I've used Mobil 1 synthetic grease with good results. Others have used Chevron, Valvoline, Schaeffer, Amsoil, ----. I have no personal experience with either of the greases you listed.
 
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The stuff called Green Grease at Autozone has proven effective.:hhmm:
 
I use the same grease used in the birf. Less headaches for me having to keep different greases around.
 
+1 i use the same grease as the birfs as well. It will all mix and become one big mess anyway. The birf grease i used was lithium ngli#2, only dif is that is moly fortified. It said it was good for bearings.
 
I would listen to the Toyota engineers; they probably know what they are talking about when they wrote the FSM. Being an engineer, and as my job is to make sure OEM's follow our Tech Data, Toyota probably knows their birfs and wheel bearings better than anyone.
 
7schulz said:
I would listen to the Toyota engineers; they probably know what they are talking about when they wrote the FSM. Being an engineer, and as my job is to make sure OEM's follow our Tech Data, Toyota probably knows their birfs and wheel bearings better than anyone.
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Possibly. However, some decisions are made with cost in mind, even on Landcruisers. Moly grease is more expensive. From the information I can find, moly is an additive that makes grease more 'slippery', generally specified when metal parts are rubbed against each other (like in a CV joint). I can't find any downside to using moly grease that is specified for high temp wheel bearings, if anything it's overkill. Here's a chart from Valvoline that might illustrate what I mean: http://www.valvoline.com.au/files/productpdfs/58.pdf 'Valplex M' (3% moly) is 'recommended' or a 'prime recommendation' for every category that I use it for. 'Optimum Choice' is a 'prime recommendation' for most things, but 'not recommended' for CV joints.
 
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in conclusion...

The grease you pack the birfs with is fine to use for the bearings.

As for the trunion bearings, you could probably get away with no grease. The will eventually pack with the birf grease and those bearings would probably work jsut fine if they were just bushings anyway.
 
-Spike- said:
Possibly. However, some decisions are made with cost in mind, even on Landcruisers. Moly grease is more expensive. From the information I can find, moly is an additive that makes grease more 'slippery', generally specified when metal parts are rubbed against each other (like in a CV joint). I can't find any downside to using moly grease that is specified for high temp wheel bearings, if anything it's overkill. Here's a chart from Valvoline that might illustrate what I mean: http://www.valvoline.com.au/files/productpdfs/58.pdf 'Valplex M' (3% moly) is 'recommended' or a 'prime recommendation' for every category that I use it for. 'Optimum Choice' is a 'prime recommendation' for most things, but 'not recommended' for CV joints.
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Are you saying Toyota spec'd a less than sufficient grease for the wheel bearings? I'm saying they designed these bearings with the LC in mind maybe there is a reason unknown to use why "more slippery" isn't a good idea. Yes in all practicality the moly grease is probably just fine for the wheel bearings but the OP didn't ask for birf or moly grease. We spec a NLGI grade 2, specific % moly, lithium base, and dropping point temp for our torque converter pilot grease for many reasons unknown to the OEM or end user but our service manual will tell you what grease to use. We don't spec the drive line grease because we don't make the drive lines in the truck.
 
7schulz said:
Are you saying Toyota spec'd a less than sufficient grease for the wheel bearings? ...
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Nope, Toyota spec'd the "proper" grease. Moly is the same spec grease with an additional additive. It isn't more slippery, it's benefit is; better protection for heavily loaded sliding surfaces, so unnecessary/overkill for wheel bearings. Lots of real world miles have shown that it works well in wheel bearings and most grease manufactures spec it as acceptable in them. I only run it in the birfs, because it is nasty, messy stuff and no one is attempting to force you to run it, so chill, run what you prefer!:hillbilly:
 
There is some debate whether the moly grease would not have enough friction to allow the rollers to roll in the wheel bearings (thus making them slide instead). That being said, I still use moly grease in my wheel bearings. :)
 
I'm with Tools on this.

I have run the Amsoil moly in both, but since they discontinued that particular Amsoil, I have gone back to Mobil1 in the bearings, and Moly greae in the birfs. I think the regular moly grease has a higher percentage of the moly additive than the wheel bearing greases that have moly in them.
 
Cruiserdrew said:
I'm with Tools on this.

I have run the Amsoil moly in both, but since they discontinued that particular Amsoil, I have gone back to Mobil1 in the bearings, and Moly greae in the birfs. I think the regular moly grease has a higher percentage of the moly additive than the wheel bearing greases that have moly in them.
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Check these 2 links out if you're still interested in running the Amsoil synthetic grease. They're both 5% moly fortified.
AMSOIL Synthetic Polymeric Off-Road Grease (GPOR1)
AMSOIL Synthetic Polymeric Off-Road Grease (GPOR2)
 
Cruiserdrew said:
Unless I'm reading the links wrong, that would not be appropriate for wheel bearings.

Thanks though. I want the old stuff (Amsoil Purple stuff) back as it worked perfectly everywhere.
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I bought that stuff for my birf job then discovered it is not wheel bearing rated. I switched to an alternate.

I want my purple Amsoil back!
 
Cruiserdrew said:
Unless I'm reading the links wrong, that would not be appropriate for wheel bearings.

Thanks though. I want the old stuff (Amsoil Purple stuff) back as it worked perfectly everywhere.
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Yup, you're reading it wrong. Wheel bearings are part of the application.

"AMSOIL Synthetic Polymeric Grease provides exceptional performance in heavily loaded chassis grease points, wheel bearings, axle assemblies, universal joints, pivot pins, fifth-wheel hitch plates, steering linkages, spring pins, king pins, ball joints, water pump bearings and other greased heavy-duty components."
Quote from this link. The link is for the Truck, Chassis and Equipment grease, without the 5% Moly rating. You add the Moly rating to it and why wouldn't it work for wheel bearings? That would be the only difference I could see, other than that it's the same grease, Synthetic Polymeric. Minor differences in the specs, but on the Timken (Isn't Timken a an excellent brand of wheel bearings?) OK load test, the off road grease has a better rating.
Fly Rod said:
I bought that stuff for my birf job then discovered it is not wheel bearing rated. I switched to an alternate.

I want my purple Amsoil back!
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Yeah, AMSOIL Synthetic Polymeric Off-Road Grease is a bit on the extreme side. "AMSOIL Synthetic Polymeric Truck, Chassis and Equipment Grease is recommended for heavy-duty over-the-road tractors and trailers, delivery fleets, dump trucks, refuse haulers, utility fleets, emergency service vehicles, sewer and septic trucks, snow removal vehicles, wreckers, municipal service vehicles, equipment haulers, cement mixer trucks, airport support vehicles and more." (Another quote from above link.) As long as your seals remained in good condition, you could run this grease at least 2X longer than conventional moly grease. Extremely long submersion exposure would be my only concern. Normal weekend trail runners like us ought to be able to get well over 100K between teardowns and rebuilds, provided you start with mechanically sound bearings, races, shafts and housings and your seals are good. To each their own. When I get around to axle maintenance, I believe I'll be using this stuff.
 
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