How To Lubricate Suspension – Guidelines For You

Your driving experience is greatly influenced by the suspension and steering components.

Loose, worn, or misaligned parts can further shorten tire life and reduce fuel efficiency and your car’s capability to grip the roadway in all situations.

Tie rod ends, suspension joints, and hub links are common suspension and steering parts that must be inspected and maintained regularly.

How to lubricate suspension? Keep scrolling down to see!

Is Suspension System Lubrication Necessary?

How To Lubricate Suspension

You might have heard about suspension lubrication and questioned if it was essential.

Like many other processes in your car, lubrication is required to keep parts moving smoothly and prevent metal-to-metal interaction and some common car noises.

Appropriate suspension lubrication ensures that your vehicle travels smoothly and that you can manage it swiftly and precisely.

How To Lubricate Suspension

In this part, we will go through the full guidelines on how to lube suspension system.

Materials Needed

First of all, you need to prepare all of these basic tools:

  • Floor jack
  • Jack stands
  • Wheel chocks
  • Rags
  • Vehicle owner’s manual
  • Grease Gun
  • Grease cartridge
  • Creeper ( If you don’t have one, use cardboard or a piece of wood instead of lying on the ground).

To elevate your car, utilize a floor jack with the required load. Remember to check that the jack holder has the appropriate capacity.

If you are unclear about your vehicle’s weight, look for the Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) on the VIN sticker, which is normally found on the door brace, inside the driver’s door, or the door brace.

Lift Your Vehicle

Step 1: Locate the jack locations on your car

Because most cars are low to the ground and have huge trays or undercarriage trays, doing one side at a time is recommended.

Instead of attempting to elevate the vehicle by sliding the jack beneath it, jack it up at the specified jacking positions.

Some cars have a clearly defined or outlined line underneath the sidewall near each tire to identify the correct position.

If your vehicle lacks these marks, see your owner’s handbook for the proper point to place the jack.

Step 2: Secure the wheel

Place wheel blocks or spacers behind and in front of one or both rear wheels, then raise the car gradually until the tire loses touch with the pavement.

When you reach that position, look for the lowest location beneath the automobile to install the rack.

To support the car, position each rack in a sturdy location, such as beneath a crossbar or below the chassis.

Once situated, use the floor jack to move the car down to the stand carefully. Do not lower the jack completely and leave an extended distance.

Lubricate Steering and Suspension Components

Step 1: Reach the components beneath your car

How to grease car suspension? Slide down under the vehicle using a creeper or cardboard, with the mop and grease gun nearby.

You will need to grease the serviceable parts, such as tie rods and suspension joints. Therefore, examine the suspension and steering to ensure you’ve found them.

Each side of the vehicle will typically have one lower and one upper ball joint, together with one outer tie rod end.

A pitman arm linked to the steering box and a hub link (if provided) to attach the left and right struts may also be found towards the middle of the vehicle from the driver’s side.

A joystick and hub-link assist are also available on the passenger seat. You will have immediate access to the driver-side hub connection lubrication joint during the driver-side repair.

Step 2: Grease the components

A rubber boot may be wrapped around each of these parts. Keep your eye on those boots when you attach the grease gun and squeeze the trigger to coat them with grease.

Ensure you don’t over-lubricate them that make them fall apart.

Some elements, however, are designed to release some lubrication when it receives enough grease. If you observe that happening, it indicates that the part is full with grease.

In general, a few pulls of the lubricant gun trigger will apply the appropriate quantity of grease to each element. Repeat with each additional component.

Step 3: Drain any excess grease

Wipe away any extra grease spilled out with a clean cloth once you’ve oiled each item. You may return the car to the jack, detach the jack stand, and lower it to the ground.

Finally, lift and grease the opposite side using the same process and notes.

Lubricate The Rear Suspension Components

Not all vehicles have rear suspension items that require maintenance regularly. An automobile with independent rear suspension may contain some of these elements, but certainly not all.

Before you access the back of your automobile, contact the local auto parts professionals and suspension manufacturers, or utilize web resources to discover if your car has usable rear components.

If your vehicle contains these rear components, follow the same advice and procedures as for the front suspension.

How To Know If Your Vehicle Suspension Needs Lubrication?

How To Know If Your Vehicle Suspension Needs Lubrication

Are you unsure how frequently you should oil your vehicle’s suspension? The best place to look is in the owner’s handbook. Here, the manufacturer will advise you on when to do this maintenance task.

We recommend you check it frequently since a lack of lubrication might cause system damage and costly repairs.

You may detect any or all of the following indications if your car requires lubricated suspension:

  • When you drive over a bump, you will hear a cracking noise beneath the vehicle.
  • A whining sound is produced when rotating
  • The suspension part is not smooth and has a bumpy feeling

How To Choose The Right Lubrication for Suspension Components?

After learning how to grease suspension, let us help you to choose the appropriate type of lube for your car’s parts.

Upper Isolator

The upper isolator works as a shock absorber at the top of the damper or struts mounting location, preventing unwanted sound and vibration through the vehicle’s floor.

Lubricant allows the metal and elastomer parts to move over each other, keeping ‘stick/slip’ noise at bay.

Choose a lubricant with great water washability, elastomer durability, and large temperature performance to avoid guaranteed returns.

Jounce Bumper

A shock absorber delivers maximum shock absorption when the suspension is exposed to significant compression due to the vehicle hitting a curb or a major pothole.

When the strut gets in touch with the bumper, synthetic oil stops the car from creating noise.

Choose the type of lube that has compatibility with elastomers, good washout in water, and a wide temperature range.

Lubrication with high-viscosity synthetic hydrocarbon lubricant, heavily concentrated with lithium detergent, is advised for the silicone-free alternative.

Internal Strut/Shock Oil

Internally, the strut or shock absorber lubricates the seals and bearings while providing dampening action to cushion the road roughness.

When the strut or suspension system is actuated, the lubricant exchange through the valves delays the operation and provides the required damping.

The ideal option is to use the type of lube with the correct oil, which decreases friction on internal parts and enables the strut to work properly over the vast temperature range necessary in a car.

FAQs

How Often Should You Lubricate Steering and Suspension?

The recommended front suspension check interval on your car’s published maintenance schedule is every 6,000 miles.

There is no reference to greasing tie rod ends or ball joints in the service schedule, which might be because those are the sealed components on your car.

If you find zerk fittings on any parts, applying a tiny bit of routine lubrication every 36,000 miles or so is not a bad idea.

Is Silicone Spray Good For Car Suspension?

Yes. Silicon spray is a simple, low-cost way to grease your chassis and minimize extra wear and strain.

When metal-to-metal interfaces are not lubricated, the bearing surface and bushings connections rust.

As a result, the steering wheel and suspension joints wear out and malfunction. You can use silicon spray to prevent this.

Conclusion

To sum up, we hope that the guide on how to lubricate suspension has given you useful information.

The first step is to jack up your vehicle and continue to grease parts like the steering, rear suspension, and other components of the system.

Thank you for reading the post. See you next time!

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