CV Grease specs

[swampdodo]

Hi all,

There have been several threads on this and other boards on this issue, but I had the common issue of the inner CV axle boots leaking grease. I guess over time the 'fold over' style clamp looses tension and allows the grease to seep out the shaft side of the boot.

Anyway, I replace the OEM style clamp with a crimp style clamp. I did this while the axles were still on the truck...and let me tell you, it was a PITA. Hurting today from it. Probably would have been easier and less messy removing the axle first. But anyway, the aftermarket clamps seems tighter and hopefully it won't leak anymore.

But, here is the thing...not sure if this has been brought up before...I didn't notice anything in the various threads I saw, but I came across this video after the fact:

YouTube

So, apparently, Toyota uses two different types of grease in their CV axles...a dark grey type of grease (probably moly?) on the outer joint and a off white grease on the inner joint. I did see that 'white' grease while working on the inner CV boots but my first thought were...contamination (water), but that may not be the case.

 

[swampdodo]

Moreover, I also noticed that the CV boots themselves are different from the inner and outer joints. The inner joint appears to be the typical 'rubber' style boot, while the outer boot is more of a plastic/pvc type boot. Since the boots were different, the clamps were different as well. While the outer boot had the 'crimp' style clamps, the inner boot had a 'fold over' type clamp. I used the crimp style to replace the fold over style to stop the leak...hopefully, I didn't damage the boot.

As a fellow engineer, I'm curious (with respect) to the Toyota engineers as to why this was done. There has to be a rhyme or reason...I mean why make your BOM (build of material) more complicated and the part more costly to build (maybe that's why they are around $400 new OEM) when others are not doing this??? At least I haven't seen this on other vehicles I've worked on...