How hard is it on boots?

[wander2039]

I don't have any extended experience with greese injection needles. I noticed on some of the boots I overfilled it and some squirted out the holes. Is this holes a way to get dirt in? How do the rubber boots hold up after many punctures? Eric

 

[rpn453]

Are you talking about ball joints and tie-rod ends?
Are they sealed boots or are they coming out the edge?
If you get a small tear or puncture in a boot you usually just have to grease it more often and thoroughly to keep it full of fresh grease and purge the dirty grease. They'll still last a long time that way.

I made the mistake of overfilling and blowing out the boot on a sealed tie-rod end that had a grease fitting on it ('99 Sunfire). I give that one fresh grease every oil change and leave the other (still sealed) one alone. I have no idea why they would put a grease fitting on a sealed unit?

 

[drive it forever]

If you are talking about cv joint boots, adding grease is not required. This is unless they are slinging out grease. In that case they need fixed properly anyhow. If you add grease to a cv joint with the injection method, I would take a dab of rubber cement and smear in and around the needle hole.

 

[cryptokid]

if it is a cv joint, the boot will fail long before you need to worry about adding any grease.

 

[wander2039]

I normally fill everything but the cv joints. Ball joints, tie rod ends, everything that has a rubber boot on the suspension. No grease comes around the edges only the insertion point. Didn't think about the rubber cement. When the grease does comes out I do smear around the boot, shouldn't rot out that way. Yeah the cv joint boots normally break then if they never get fixed the joints fail, seen several cars that way so I don't ever fill'em. Eric