CV2 is very good general purpose CV grease....for certain applications.

Is it better than the moly-fortified (that's the green tinge on the later grease, but it's soluble moly, like you use in engine oil, not the usual black powdered additive, which causes issues with the needle rollers) PolyUrea grease that's specced as OE for the joints for normal use, being thinner for flow into the needles, and having lower levels of additives to prevent needles skidding?
Probably not.

You can't really point to old grease coming out as 'watery' as an issue, when it's supposed to be thinner. Thick grease doesn't provide more protection than thin grease, quite the opposite, generally. The base oil does the bulk of the lubricating, not the thickening soap.

 

You are right, but i had to vent a little bit yesterday. Shouldn´t happen in a Forum. Sorry that i de-railed this discussion a bit.

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We all have confidence that some aftermarket Parts like brakes and shocks are superior to OEM Parts. Right?
So, when a grease in a Tripod Joint is obviously the culprit of wear, it´s logical to source a better grease.
Redline is a reputable Company, not a "Snake Oil" company. They produce high quality oils. So, why shouldn´t i trust the answer of a redline technican?

Some people here love and use a rear differential oil tha is not meant to be used in Cars, produced by a very small, unknown company and they have obviously great succes with it.

 

There is also the part that many users on here and on other platforms have been running the Redline CV-2 grease with great results and I know I have not seen one issue with needle bearings failing.

I HAVE had a CV pit with the redline grease. But it was also an old axle of unknown origin after a day of >6000 rpm launches at an autox practice event. So hard to blame the grease there and with the others success with it I did not automatically move to blaming the grease. Many are saying that hard launching does not cause this and it is all the typical pitting that Honda CV Joints encounter. I'm not aligned with that and cannot fathom that >6000 rpm launches on sticky tires is not going to accelerate this issue, especially considering both times mine pitted, it showed itself literally on the drive home after autocross events on courses that rewarded a drag race style launch. I am sure the regular wear was part of it but it was very much accelerated by abuse. I have also not run on a course like that (90% of them have a turn immediately after starting) in a few years and have never had a CV cup issue since. Have done lots of autocross events and track days, but none where I was pounding on the drivetrain on launch.

 

I think the twisting motion of the drive train acts as a stress point on the axle cup. The engine turns counter clockwise when seen from behind. So the major forces are on the passenger small diff mount and the driver side big mount. Which lifts the diff on the passenger side, pushing the bearing against the cup. The harder you launch the higher the stress point. Extra stress if your engine, transmission, or diff mounts are shot.

If my theory is correct, diff collars or rigid mounts would reduce the pitting issue because the diff moves around less.

I base my reasoning on the fact that most busted diff mounts happen on the passenger small mount and driver large mount, as well as the passenger axle usually being the one that gets pitted.

 

A data point. I installed diff collars at around, guessing, 85k miles. At 150something k miles, I had cup vibes (swapped sides and used an Amsoil nlg1 grease).

A lot of those miles were highway communting. I don't launch.

 

currently, amsoil NLG1 is unavailable and they are recommending the NLG2 instead.
FYI
darcy

 

Interesting. Supply chain issues it seems.

Amsoil NLG1

There is a notify me option for when it becomes available.

While at first I glance an off road specific anything seems out of place on a small sportscar, the specs work. Nlg1, high impact resistance. Nothing about it is low speed high torque specific, other than the impact protection, which seems to be our cup issue.

 

Depends on the moly, heavy moly additives if they're particle based are not good for needle bearings at all in high concentrations, and off road stuff is usually very heavy on moly to provide shock protection.

I run silly spec grease in the CVs on the racer, to get them to survive the heat and impact loading, and because for my use the splines themselves have to slide as well as the CV balls to give enough suspension travel which can cause massive binding issues with the pressure they're under - but I wouldn't put that grease in a tripod joint because it's 20+% moly and most of that is particulate based held in the soap, rather than soluable in the base oil. It would gum the bearings up and cause heat and seperation issues and then wear.

This is part of the issue with comparing greases. Any grease will work to some extent. But which grease will work better is another matter. And sometimes the answer to that is just the original grease but changed more often...

 

Many data points are needed to get a full picture. Cup vibes can happen in as little as 40k miles, or in your case nearly 150k. Perhaps your cups were already pitting but you didn't notice until 150k. The way you downshift can have an effect on this, not just launching. Cornering will move the tripod in and out a few mm, it is a telescoping joint after all. So if you're on sticky tires and are slicing your way through canyons and bumpy roads, on track, and being an on-ramp hero, you may be putting more stress on things than if you're just cruising at 70 on the highway.

 

Yep, LOTS of variables in how we drive so that is why I say that while the redline grease seems to work well for many of us, there are just too many variables and too small of a sample size to make definite conclusions