I have a car bought in 2006. I’m wondering if the service station is required to grease/lubricate the car as part of periodic maintainance. If yes, which parts would get greased?
All cars need periodic oil and filter changes, usually every 3000-5000 miles. Modern cars do not have grease points and all those joints are permanently lubricated.
If you owned a 60s car it would have many grease points.
Most good service stations can fill you in quickly about lube requirements.
The owner’s manual of your car will have this in detail as well. If you don’t have a manual;, an auto supply shop will have a maintenance and repair manual for your car; in it you will find that care information.
Is this your first car?
Doc is correct, but what could be confusing for the OP is the fact that many–perhaps most–service facilities still state something about “chassis lubrication” in the blurbs that they print regarding their maintenance packages. Just as the term “tune-up” is essentially meaningless with modern cars (unless one goes into specifics regarding exactly what parts to replace), the term “chassis lubrication” is also outdated with modern cars.
No chassis lube, but I spray a little silicone lube around the door seals before the onset of winter and put a little grease or oil on the door hinge parts too
If you don’t have a owner’s manual, you can find one online.
Yeah, they print “chassis lube” on the paperwork and charge for it… but do nothing, since there’re no longer any grease fittings.
That’s not true. When they say “chassis lube”, they mean that they let oil drip all over the chassis and suspension when they changed the oil filter. ; )
I always smear some silicone lube on the windshield.
When I did my own oil changes, I would lubricate the door latches with white grease and oil the door hinges. My 1978 Oldsmobile did have zerk fittings on the chassis–upper and lower ball joints and other places on the steering gear. On my 1954 Buick there was a,place to oil the generator. Today’s cars don’t have much to lubricate, but I still hit the door latches and hinges even though I don’t do oil changes any more.
Most of the time when the term chassis lube is used on vehicles with no grease Zerks it may mean lubing hood and trunk latches, door latches and striker plates, and so on.
Some cars do use grease Zerks here and there and many replacement suspension and steering parts are fitted with Zerks so chassis lube is not dead yet.
“Most of the time when the term chassis lube is used on vehicles with no grease Zerks it may mean lubing hood and trunk latches, door latches and striker plates, and so on.”
Yes, it may–and should–have that meaning.
However, I have yet to see either an indy shop or a dealership in my area that actually does lube latches and striker plates.
Those non-lubing dealerships include Chevy, Ford, Honda, Subaru, and Toyota, and the indy shops are…all of the ones to which I have taken my cars over the years.
Perhaps the shops in your neck of the woods are more scrupulous about this detail than the ones in my area, but I have had to be the one providing the lube for those parts for the past few decades, simply because every shop has failed to do so.
If you have replacement parts with zerk fittings like my stabilizer links, they should be greased.
My stabilizer links dont last long and I lube them,wonder what I am doing wrong ?
@VDCdriver, at the dealers where I worked lubing door, hood, and trunk latches and so on was part of every maintenance service.
Afraid to ask about my creaking driver door, but at least my sway bar links are greased. Now I have tried grease, lithium grease, probably need some new parts but after 5 years, when it breaks I will know what to fix. 03 trailblazer if you know,
Fair enough. I’ve never personally seen a shop do this. I lube all that stuff OK4450 mentioned myself occasionally, but not every time I change my oil.
I have a problem calling ball joints and tie rod ends “permanently lubricated” just because they have no grease fittings. They only last until the grease wears out and then you have to replace the part. I never had to replace any moving steering part on a car I owned since new that had grease fittings, because I greased them every other oil change.
They only last until the grease wears out and then you have to replace the part.
Isn’t is more correct to say the joint only lasts till the rubber seal/boot breaks, allowing the grease to leak out.
In the '80’s and beyond cars eliminated the grease fittings that were mainly on the front suspension components. For a long time you took your car for a lube, oil, and filter (LOF).
Now there really is no “lube” anymore unless you are driving an old “classic” car. Many shops still call it a lube, oil, and filter and perhaps even charge for the lube, but nothing is lubed.
All that needs lubing on modern cars is door latches and hinges, and they get lithium greased at the factory and even they don’t seem to ever need lubricating.
@“oldtimer 11” and @JoeMario have interesting comments.
A tierod end on my '99 minivan started groaning and injecting grease in with a needle with a zerk fitting solved the problem. The rubber looked fine on it.
And the balljoint has a fitting that can be replaced with a zerk fitting to allow greasing. But this is a modification because the manufacturer didn’t do that.
Last, I’ve been playing with reinforcing rubber seals/boots with rubber from bicycle inner tubes.