Grease and Carli Ball Joints

[Boaring1961]

I put some Carli ball joints on about 10k miles ago and today jacked the truck and went to grease them. It was tough to pump anything into them and I can't tell if they accepted anything. If they did, they only accepted maybe 1/2 a pump.

Is this common for these ball joints?

 

[seafish]

IIRC, half pump is about recommended for Carli at no more then 10k intervals. You can always give them a call to double check.



Toll Free - 888.99CARLI

 

[jray]

You better call Carli. I lost a set of Carli ball joints in approx. 10,000 miles. Talked to a guy named "Radio" at Carli who told me I should be greasing the ball joints every 3K miles. I hadn't greased them since installation. "Radio" claimed I had missed 3 lube periods and that was the reason for early failure. My stock American Axle ball joints went 220K miles with no issues. Since then I have installed Dyna-trac ball joints.

 

[Ozymandias]

According to the installation manual from Carli about the Greasing.
"If the ball joints dont take grease then they have enough - DO NOT force the grease with the pump or the sealing of the joints will be destroyed".
That is what Carli says about that. The manual can be downloaded as PDF on their site. My Carlis take very few grease, especially the lower ones.

 

[S.Morris]

My Carli's will take about a full pump every 12000km. They have 70000km on them.
Jury is still out.

 

[crispyboy]

They don't take much grease at all every 5k oil change interval. I pumped them too full one time and the truck steering was awful (had to make constant corrections). Carli advised me not to crank down on the grease gun (which I did 1x by mistake). Now they get just a shot or so.

 

[wirehand]

You better call Carli. I lost a set of Carli ball joints in approx. 10,000 miles. Talked to a guy named "Radio" at Carli who told me I should be greasing the ball joints every 3K miles. I hadn't greased them since installation. "Radio" claimed I had missed 3 lube periods and that was the reason for early failure. My stock American Axle ball joints went 220K miles with no issues. Since then I have installed Dyna-trac ball joints.

Pretty much my experience with their ball joints, but I would try to grease them every 3k when changing my bypass oil filter. They never seemed to want any grease in the 30k miles I had them.
Radio had me video checking play with dial gauge. They had .023 of play, which was enough to start wearing the tires unevenly. Radio said they wouldn't warranty them until .060, I believe.
I learned my lesson about their kool-aid. Everything will wear out, so get a ball joint that is easy to change or rebuild, ergo... Dynatrac.
Out of the entire front end "kit" they sell, only the steering stabilizer was worth it. It was scary to drive with their track bar until replacing with the factory one.

 

[EDankievitch]

I had a set of Carli balljoints in my 05 after well over 125k miles they would only that maybe half a shot of grease. they were nice and tight everytime I'd check them at my 5000 mile oil change. On my 2013 I gave a set of XRF a try mostly due to the price, but so far after a year and 27,000 miles they seem to be holding up quite well. I grease them every 5000 miles. XRF says they have a million mile warranty I'm going to hold them to it.