Has anyone lube their tire rod ends. Of course the ML does not come with a zerk fitting for lube. There are people who would tap their own zerk fitting into the part and there are people who use a needle adapter on their lube gun to puncher their boots to inject lube.

What is your thought on this. I would think taping a zerk fitting would involved drilling which will introduce contamination into the joint and pouncing a hold into the boot does not seem like a good idea to me.

What is your though on this.

I assume most of you just leave it as is. Do you have to replace your tire rod end? And if so when?

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Silver Honda Accord, 2006
Silver G500, 2003
Silver SLK-320, 2002
Black ML-320, 2000
Bule Porsche 993 Targa , 1997
Silver Merkur XR4Ti, 1987

You make a little hole in the rubber boot and used the straw from a new WD-40 can and spray this in. After awhile this will mix with the grease, break it down, and get into the squeeking area. Are you sure the ball joints are squeeking? There are some many other things that make noise in the front axel of this car.

I've been checking my new parts for sufficient grease before fitting them. Whilst the clips and rubber boots are still young the chance of ripping them is slightly reduced - I have found insufficient grease and poor quality grease in many cases. I hope my extra efforts help to extend the life of the component.

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

WD40 is not the right lubricant for a tie rod ball joint. I wouldn't recommend it if increased longevity is your goal.

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Prost!

Liquid wrench white lithium grease is a good choice. It is thicker than WD40 and will adhere to the parts better and does not wash off. They have it in a spray can so it will be easy to stay inside the boot.

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1990 190E 3.0L

The OE MB star items have some really really heavy black grease in them and a nylon cup in which the ball rotates.

I practiced a couple of zerk fittings in my old busted W124 ball joints and the problem is that the bottom cap is sheet metal and is very thin - meaning no threads catch unless you have a tapered zerk fitting. Once in I did proceed to pump it till it flushed.

What I did learn is that it will be pretty much placebo if you push some grease in the boot only.

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2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)

Agreed. Unless you can get the grease under the actual ball joint it is only a band aid.....and even then if you have some play in the ball joint you may as well just replace it.

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1990 190E 3.0L

NO NO NO NO NO. WD-40 is not a lubricant, it's a water displacer. It'll evaporate and leave you with a worse situation than before. WD-40 is not for lubricating.

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RIP:
2011 E350 BlueTEC, Schwartz 81k (totaled by uninsured drunk driver)
1964 Unimog 404.1 (wrongfully towed by the city)
1994 E320, Brilliantsilber 208k (transmission shuffled off after sudden catastrophic fluid loss)
1982 300D, Silberblau under a blue repaint 256k (sold for parts)
1995 E320 Polarweiss, 131k (sold for parts)
1995 E300D Polarweiss, 287k (totaled by drunk driver)

I fitter a cattle needle to my grease gun,I inject grease into boots.Its a shame they don't use grease fittings as the earlier cars never had suspension problems

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1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran, deutschland deutschland uber alles uber alles in der welt