Before I bought my 2011 Ford Ranger, the new-car dealer service department (not a Ford dealer) turned the front brake rotors, which are integral with the hub. The truck was due for relubing or replacing the front bearings anyway, since it had just over 100K miles. When I looked at it one increasingly hot day in June, I saw that gray grease and red grease were together in the bearings. The new-car dealer had removed the rotor/hub assemblies and added a bit of grease on reassembly. Ford calls for lithium grease, and I'm guessing that was the gray grease and the dealer had added the red stuff. It could be the other way around.
I decided to do it right and replaced the front rotor/hub assemblies, bearings, and seals today. When apart, it was obvious the two greases had mixed because everything was a funny violet color. The driver's side wheel spindle had a small area of surface rust that polished right off with sandpaper, maybe from a drop of water coming from somewhere during reassembly.
Everything was thoroughly cleaned or replaced and put back together, and I used Red Line CV-2 grease. No traces of the old greases remain. I'm wondering if those two greases mixing could have led to a problem down the road, assuming one was Ford lithium (gray) and the other was, say, Lucas (red). Just curious.
I decided to do it right and replaced the front rotor/hub assemblies, bearings, and seals today. When apart, it was obvious the two greases had mixed because everything was a funny violet color. The driver's side wheel spindle had a small area of surface rust that polished right off with sandpaper, maybe from a drop of water coming from somewhere during reassembly.
Everything was thoroughly cleaned or replaced and put back together, and I used Red Line CV-2 grease. No traces of the old greases remain. I'm wondering if those two greases mixing could have led to a problem down the road, assuming one was Ford lithium (gray) and the other was, say, Lucas (red). Just curious.