My easy question, is it wrong to ask a lube mechanic at a Chevy dealer to wipe off the grease fittings before and after greasing my 03 1500HD Chevy P/U? I worked on Airplanes for a career and when lubing an A/C, fittings were wiped off before and after lubing. So far 5 dealers will not do it and 90% of the time they will not grease the upper and lower ball joints. Why the poor service or do I live in an weird area. (Rural Ohio). Thanks:
You’re right, they’re wrong. The proper method is to wipe the fittings off first. This will prevent the possibility of any new grease from shoving any crud into the fitting. The tiny amount of grunge may not be that damaging in the big picture but the main worry is that it can clog the grease Zerk fitting and prevent grease from being applied in full.
Same principle with an A/C fitting exept that it may cause a service valve to hang open a microscopic amount and leak refrigerant.
As to why so much poor service I have no idea. As to not greasing the upper and lower ball joints they’re entirely remiss if they do not do this UNLESS those joints are sealed units and have no grease Zerks.
No Zerks are fairly common on late model vehicles but many aftermarket replacement components do have grease fittings.
I think by A/C, he meant aircraft, not air conditioning. But I agree, he is right.
Good point. I use the slash when referring to air conditioning so the mind went in another direction for the time being.
Whenever dealing with lubricant fittings or fluid couplings of any kind it’s always prudent to wipe them off first and again after the work is done. Even for something as simplle as an oil drain plug I do this. I may have the cleanest oil pan in town.
By the way, I too worked on aircraft in the Air Force and seem to recall being taught to do that…
They won’t do it because they think you are nit picking or being anal. A tech worth his wrench would do it without thinking twice.
You’re right, they should be wiped off at the very least BEFORE greasing. If this is that important to you then what you need to do is go buy yourself a grease gun and do it yourself. WHY??? Because since you know these techs do not wipe YOUR fittings you know that they most likely dont wipe other vehicles fittings. So you can only imagine the dirt which is packed in the head of the grease gun. Even if your fittings were wiped, the dirt from other jobs is probably being injected into your fittings.
transman