I drive a pontiac grand prix gt 2001. I started to do as much maintenence as I can on my own. I have done the last 10 oil changes and now have about 84,000 miles on it. Do I also have to lube the chasis?
Take a look at the manufacturer’s maintenance schedule which should be sitting in your glove compartment.
Does it list any chassis lubrication?
No?
I thought not.
GM doesn’t list any chassis lube because there are no Zerk fittings on the ball joints, tie rod ends, or other lube points of yesteryear. Unless the original components were replaced with non-OEM parts, there are no lube points on your chassis. However, when you replace brake pads, be sure to repack the wheel bearings.
Well there are air filters, fuel filters brake fluid plugs and wires and maybe transmission fluid etc. Check your owner’s manual for a list of what should be/have been done. If it is an automatic it is a good idea to replace the fluid and filter by now even if it is not listed in the book.
Good Luck
“lube the chassis” That phrase brought back to memory a practice that used to be done in Vermont about 40 years ago. At the beginning of winter people would bring in their cars and have the underside sprayed with used motor oil. They believed this practice would prevent rust from all the salt.
I bought a new Honda Accord in 1992. During the first oil change I looked around for grease fittings, couldn’t see any, and called the Honda dealer. I was told that new cars don’t have them because there is nothing meant to be greased. I was skeptical, to say the least, about the longevity of steering and suspension components.
At 220,000 miles I had to replace lower ball joints in the front end. All other steering and suspension components are original. I can’t complain.
There are a number of thing to lubricate, such as the hood latch, trunk latch, door hinges and latches, etc, as outlined in your manual. I use a white spray-on lube twice a year. You can do all this is 15 minutes. If you live in a humid, high salt use area, your door hinges can easily seize up if you don’t lubrictae them regularly.
I too was VERY SKEPTICAL…But I’m a believer now. My 98 Pathfinder with over 305k miles has origional steering linkage and ball joints…And they are doing just fine. Zerks have been being phased out for years now. The only time I use my grease gun is for my snow blower and lawn mower.
The chassis lube is as extinct as the dinosaur. All of the old grease points are gone, replaced by lubed-for-life components. Forget about the chassis lube on a modern car.
There are still various hinges and latch points that could benefit from a shot of lubricant every so often. In addition to the stuff Docnick mentioned, you can also do the seat slides.
Thanks for everyone’s help. Now I don’t have to worry!
Depends on the car, and what you consider modern. My 92 Daytona and Dakota both have chassis lube points at ball joints and tie rod ends, and the truck also has lube points at the steering gear and U-joints. He needs to check his owner’s manual to be sure.
I think that maybe this topic is what I’m looking for? First, I know nothing about cars, but I am a mechanical engineer so I know about machines generally. My 2002 Kia Sedona “feels” like something is slowing it down, take your foot off the gas and it just drags to a halt, and I think maybe it’s related to this post about ball joints/tie rods/wheel bearings/etc.? But I don’t know what those things even are.
Here’s what I do know. Over the past 3 years, mpg has been steadily declining, and now I’m only getting about 12 or 13 mpg versus about 28 mpg when I first got the car in 2005. I’ve checked the usual suspects: the car has the correct tires (and why are they expensive special-order hi-performance tires?!?!) and are at the right inflation pressure. Also, the car has had a recent tune up and I had the brakes looked at by Midas (was that a mistake?) and was told they are ok, not dragging on the brake pads.
So I tried some experiments: when driving on smooth level pavement, when I take my foot off of the gas pedal, the car slows down very quickly, losing 10 mph of speed in only 0.1 miles travelled. In comparrison my Mazda Miatta will lose 10 mph of speed on the same stretch of road in 1.4 miles travelled, which kind of confirms my feeling like something is keeping the car from rolling freely. The loss of speed in the Kia is identical regardless of engine in Drive or in Neutral, so does that mean that it’s NOT an automatic transmission problem then?
One final note, I got this car from my dad who literally only drove it 5 miles to the store and back when he owned it, and it had less than 15k miles on it in 2005. It now has about 85k on it, but I had to have a wheel changed due to a bad wheel bearing back in 2008 when I was using the Kia to tow the Miatta over the Rockies when I moved back to the East Coast from California. It was already getting noticeably poor mielage then, although not as bad (like maybe 20-22 mpg), back when the bearing went out.
So if you had to have someone lube some thing/piece/part first, what would that something be? How much $$$ am I looking at to lube “everything”, and what “everything” is there possible to lube? Is repacking wheel bearings an expensive thing? (as an ME, I’m a big believer in keeping bearings in general clean, free of grit and well-lubed). Am I on the right track here, or are Sedonas known for some other kind of “won’t go” issue? Is it possible that this is a tranmission problem (there’s no other issue with the tranny at all) or an engine bearing problem (there’s no other engine issues either)?