Thread: MOOG tie rod ends and ball joints..need grease?

Hey,

I was just wondering if MOOG tie rod ends and ball joints come pre-greased or if they require grease before you install them?? Also, how do you know when they have enough grease?

Thanks!

They are pre greased. however my B14 moog ball joints have a grease fitting.

Ya, both the ball joint and the tie rods have a zerk fitting for grease. I was thinking maybe they were not pre-greased.

One reason I thought maybe they needed grease is because they come w/the zerk fitting and also when I've backed out I hear a popping noise which can be attributed to a bad ball joint. That wouldn't make sense because the MOOGs are brand new. I thought maybe they were not pre-greased. I did replace the suspension as well I thought maybe the noise was the struts. My paranoia has taken over and I'm buying a grease gun this weekend.

Are you sure they are properly installed? Did you use hand or air tools. I don't trust my hand strength for suspension parts, I always use an impact. I usually pump a little grease in them after I install them. 1-2 pumps is enough.

I've bought fittings that came pregreased from moog, but the amount of grease is minimal at best, basically to stop it from binding in the pkg, I say put a little more in there for sure.

btw, could be your tie rods jsut as much as it is your balljoints dude. jack the car up, shimmy the wheel, see if it has too much play.

they do come pregreased, but your not gonna hurt them by greasing them
federal mogul does make some of the best stock replacement suspension stuff around

Ya, I'm pretty confident they were installed correctly. Impact wrench was used, but maybe they could use a check by hand. I've been driving on them for about 100 miles and 1 week now w/out any grease added.

Manual says 43-54 ft/lbs on ball joints and 22-29 ft/lbs on tie rods. Doesn't seem that strong. I think the impact should have tightened them to at least those specs, even if they were not hit the bolt w/the impact too hard.



outer tie rods were replaced as well w/MOOG parts.

The car feels a lot more solid, including the steering. I was just a little worried maybe they needed to be greased. The popping noise is a little confusing, I was not having that noise before we did the suspension upgrades. Suspension may just need some time to settle, not sure.

All that was replaced:

4x Struts/Springs (AGX/RM)
ES Control Arm Bushings
MOOG Outer Tie Rods
MOOG Ball Joints

check your sway bar to chassis bushings and your swaybar endlinks next.

I helped with this install. I'm pretty sure its the sway bar end links or bushings. We should have replaced those when we were under there.

yeah i get popping noises the same way, my sway bar bushings are done...


and the MOOG ball joints are only greased a little bit, when i installed my MOOG ball joints i greased the shiit out of them just because i was never able to before