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i can tell you exactly why. the oem honda grease doesn't perform well in protecting the surface of the cup.
if you use redline grease, you will not get this damage, at least not for 100,000 miles.
i've seen the damage from 70,000 miles of oem honda grease (everyone has). and i've seen 100,000 miles of redline grease, removed cups and observed no damage, just a slight indentation.
everyone should replace the oem honda cv grease, considering there is grease out there easily attainable that will protect the cv cup, and the honda grease is proven not to be able to protect for the long term.
So as an added note, I saw pitting on one of mine after I did a bucket swap and switched to redline and this occurred in about 10,000 miles . I see no more protection from redline than Valvoline or even OEM. Actually, whatever was in mine from the day I bought it, which I assume was OEM since the cups had not been pitted before, seemed to last the longest. Granted, I only see pitting when doing hard launches which I do not do a lot, but did at a practice event recently and ended up pitting one, which I had swapped to redline grease.
Furthermore, I noticed that while the grease that moved around in the joint had changed color from red to darker, all of the grease on the end of the joint was brand new looking. This means it is NOT moving around in the joint very well. This leads me to think that it holding up its thickness, which some are saying is better, is not so good as the grease tends not to move around in the joint as well.
So while mine pitted under hard use (Which likely is the only reason these will pit like that) I see no evidence the redline stuff protected mine any better and feel this is always going to be an issue, especially as the CV buckets wear and they loosen up, allowing more slack when applying a heavy load. Ensuring you preload the diff and axles a bit before launching is likely a lot more key than the grease used.
So I'm new at this game and haven't gone through the pleasure "pitted" CV cup yet...but I'm sure I will eventually.
However, looking at these posted pictures of the pitted cups, looks exactly what it is called...a pitted wear or hole in the cup make me wonders if it is possible to bring it to the welder/machine shop and just fill that pit with weld and grind it smooth to bring it back to its original glory? or is it just not haven't been done simply because it's cheaper to get used replacement (and other means)?
I trust the huge lot of knowlegde and expireince collected in this forum. I have the axles re-greased last year by my mechanic, using Redline grease. My mechanic told me that the cups where like new, without pitting.
Cheap, easy and gives peace of mind.
So I'm new at this game and haven't gone through the pleasure "pitted" CV cup yet...but I'm sure I will eventually.
However, looking at these posted pictures of the pitted cups, looks exactly what it is called...a pitted wear or hole in the cup make me wonders if it is possible to bring it to the welder/machine shop and just fill that pit with weld and grind it smooth to bring it back to its original glory? or is it just not haven't been done simply because it's cheaper to get used replacement (and other means)?
The problem is that the surface of the cups is hardend. The metall added by welding is soft.
It is possible to adding material by welding, regrinding the material and re-harden it, but is a very costly and uncommon work. Not many shops ar capable to do this. To my limitied knowledge, it is so expensive, it is only done for very expensive oldtimer engine Parts.
For us, it is the best way to buy new OEM Honda parts and try to prolong the live of thes cups with the best grease you can get.
So, lets say you are going to replace the entire thing with an OEM axle ($800). Easy to do than other options but expensive. It seems replacing the factory grease with something better would prolong the life of those new cups. Or, would you just trust Honda with better grease at this point?
Would the august members of this forum recommend changing the OEM grease anyway (for those who have not experienced symptoms) to prolong the life of the cups?
The problem is that the surface of the cups is hardend. The metall added by welding is soft.
It is possible to adding material by welding, regrinding the material and re-harden it, but is a very costly and uncommon work. Not many shops ar capable to do this. To my limitied knowledge, it is so expensive, it is only done for very expensive oldtimer engine Parts.
For us, it is the best way to buy new OEM Honda parts and try to prolong the live of thes cups with the best grease you can get.
Welds are extremely hard, actually.
The problem is that you'd need to grind this within exact tolerances
So, lets say you are going to replace the entire thing with an OEM axle ($800). Easy to do than other options but expensive. It seems replacing the factory grease with something better would prolong the life of those new cups. Or, would you just trust Honda with better grease at this point?
Would the august members of this forum recommend changing the OEM grease anyway (for those who have not experienced symptoms) to prolong the life of the cups?
Its hard for me to recommend straying from anything factory supplied. But...I have used Redline with success, and it seems a lot of people have too.
I am going to be swapping in redline for my low mile OEM axles.
I would recommend working methodically and carefully so you don't create new issues. The axle retorque is always a contested point that trips people up.
So as an added note, I saw pitting on one of mine after I did a bucket swap and switched to redline and this occurred in about 10,000 miles . I see no more protection from redline than Valvoline or even OEM. Actually, whatever was in mine from the day I bought it, which I assume was OEM since the cups had not been pitted before, seemed to last the longest. Granted, I only see pitting when doing hard launches which I do not do a lot, but did at a practice event recently and ended up pitting one, which I had swapped to redline grease.
Furthermore, I noticed that while the grease that moved around in the joint had changed color from red to darker, all of the grease on the end of the joint was brand new looking. This means it is NOT moving around in the joint very well. This leads me to think that it holding up its thickness, which some are saying is better, is not so good as the grease tends not to move around in the joint as well.
So while mine pitted under hard use (Which likely is the only reason these will pit like that) I see no evidence the redline stuff protected mine any better and feel this is always going to be an issue, especially as the CV buckets wear and they loosen up, allowing more slack when applying a heavy load. Ensuring you preload the diff and axles a bit before launching is likely a lot more key than the grease used.
What kind of suspension setup do you have? From what I recall most folks get this problem due to hard/excessive turns rather then just straight line launches so you having this problem again after switching to Redline is outside the norm (hence my question about your suspension setup). Just wondering out loud if you have a very aggressive geometry setup that would put undue pressure in those cup spots to cause early failure for you.
. I see no more protection from redline than Valvoline or even OEM. Actually, whatever was in mine from the day I bought it, which I assume was OEM since the cups had not been pitted before, seemed to last the longest. Granted, I only see pitting when doing hard launches which I do not do a lot, but did at a practice event recently and ended up pitting one, which I had swapped to redline grease.
