Is there any potential that the grease channel was a design change to the part mid production?

I have a local site that I was going to purchase lbj's off of that are stated as sankie but someone made a very interesting point of the casings just being reuses and some other crap installed. It's a shame toyota service parts are marked up so high.


To the points above regarding suppliers changes mid model, that is very very rare. Automotive contracts to suppliers are based on the model of the vehicles, commonly 5 years. It is extremely rare for an automotive company to change suppliers mid production. If they do change it is due to significant quality concerns. Dual suppliers is also very rare but not unheard of if the vehicle is built in multiple continents.