Re-referencing my own post #39 in this thread, the last update to the Honda lubricants TSB was in 2017 (that I could find). They did stop listing what grease is used in the CV joints from the previous TSB from 2007 (I think) but at what point and why they stopped listing it is unknown to me.

The part number listed for the yellow CV grease is no longer available, I am curious what Honda recommends if you call the dealership (I suspect they will want to just replace the whole thing rather then repair).

Honda spends a lot of R&D money on creating lubricants (oils, greases, pastes, glues) for their cars, and they are very good for the most part, but for this one I did switch to Redline and it's interesting they no long sell their own CV grease.

 

Mr. Matchbox, you can swap the cups from side to side once they pit and it will have fresh contact points and be just like new. Mine pitted 12 years ago and I swapped the cups and it's been good since then (also used Redline grease, see my earlier posts).

Others have stated you can also use spacers and then swap them yet again. So hopefully that will save you time and money knowing you can get many years/miles out of one set just by moving them around.

 

"Run of the mill" STR setup. Lowered approx 1", running the typical STR spring rates. Has only ever happened to mine after hard launches (autox courses with a straight start vs a turn right after the start). Happened a few years back at an autox event, happened again this time after an autox practice event (many hard launches on one course).

Not sure why hard/excessive turns would cause this vs banging the hell out of the CV joints due to hard launches.

Also, like I said before, it was pretty apparent a lot of the redline grease did not move around into the joint and stayed thick and ended up in the end (bottom of the cup) vs moving around in the joint. I still had some redline when I fixed this one so I used it, but I am skeptical it is really better than OEM. Grease does little good if it is not moving into the locations that need lubricating

The other issue over time may just be wear. The tracks get worn, the bearings have more play, and then they are more prone to banging against the side of the cup and causing pitting. Hard to say really.

 

Pre-loading the drivetrain is during a launch, not while driving at triple digit speeds. I have always tried, and others I know too, to pull up to the start line, hold the brake, ease out on the clutch so the car pulls against the brake, and then push in the clutch while still holding the brake. The idea is to take the slop out of the diff and axles, so when you launch hard there is less play. None of us know exactly how effective this is, and is likely somewhat effective unless the car is on a hill and starts rolling when you release the brake and start to launch, but just one more measure I have taken.

 

Pitting isn't primarily caused by launching. its caused by friction. the bigger the axle angle, the more the bearings travel inside the carrier. The more suspension up/down movement, the more they travel also.

So...soft springs and/or low cars have more potential wear (theoretically).

The bearings are harder than the cup. So they erode the cup. Its erosion wear.

Of course, greater impact force and pressure on the cup/bearing interface while the travel is happening accelerates the wear.

Redline grease is supposed to help protect from this, with its EP qualities and moly additive






It was a joke, bruv.

 

They do travel more with more angle. But I have seen that wear on CV joints in the past. that is a nice smooth wear pattern typically but just creates a low spot. That is not pitting. Pitting is material being broken away. Aka, you can see the impact area and sharp edges where material actually breaks away, not wears away.

There are two ways that a CV starts causing vibration.
If it has been in the same angle range for a long time (and thus there is a wear pattern there) and you change the ride height, the bearing now is rolling over the edge of that wear area now and is causing a vibration.

In the other case, if the cup is suddenly damaged and material is broken/chipped away, it causes vibration.

The former is what I would simply call wear. The latter is what I would call pitting. Both times mine have pitted it was after multiple very hard launches. And there is a very obvious section of damage where material is broken away inside the cup. And I mean, car was perfect, took it to a practice event with a straight, hard start and launched it very hard multiple times, then the vibration started immediately. This was after tens of thousands of miles being run at the same ride height with no previous issue. So hard to say that is not from the abuse of hard launches. Now did the changed angle of the shaft increase the odds of it happening? Maybe, maybe not. But I am willing to bet that on a completely stock car if you go out and launch at 6000 rpm with wide sticky tires enough, you are likely to damage a CV joint the same exact way eventually

 

The photo above was an axle cup from my wife's automatic station wagon that we use mostly for long haul trips.

Its lowered on a "Grand Touring" coilover setup.

She's not launched a car in her life.

My daily driven (lowered) TSX also exhibited the same.

Its common on honda/acuras. even on pedestrian models that have been driven normally and whose height has never been altered.

Its not from launching. I'm confident its from erosion.

Think about it thusly....If you rub two very smooth (high surface finish) peices together for long enough at an extremely high speed and pressure, one of them will break away in small chunks, right?

It will almost never be smooth wear in that case. You're thinking of abrasion wear from one roughened surface (like sanding something with abrasive).

Cast parts sometimes also have pits or soft grains below the surface hardened portion.

Rotors can and do also pit like that sometimes.

 

Yeah I doubt she was hard launching that lol.

Must be a Honda thing, as that is very strange wear from just bearing travel. Anytime I have seen anything like that before it was from impact of some kind, and odd that my only occurrences have been immediately after beating the shit out of it for 30 or so hard launches. I guess it is a combination of damage and was just exhibited by the hard launching back to back.

I still dont think the redline grease does any better, at least it has not for me. Actually happened a LOT faster to the recent one that was swapped side to side and had redline grease in it. Like I said above, the grease had mostly moved into areas where it was pushed back from movement and just stayed there. Will see how long it takes to happen again now since I used the rest of the redline grease I already had. If that one pits as fast as this last one I am trying something else. Whatever was in there (Which was most likely OEM since the cups had never been swapped) did fine its entire life, including at least 6 or so years of being lowered. Swapped cups, used redline grease and 10,000 miles later pitted again.

Hard part now is that all my parts, including spares have tons of miles on them so it is hard to definitively say what works better/longer as most are probably experiencing now. Best test would be two brand new axles, one with OEM grease and one with redline. But no one is volunteering to spend the money on new ones to test that, which is why we have these conversations!

 

I just made the swap for CV joint cups and used this grease from Advanced Auto parts. It seems other alternative to OEM grease. Anyone used this grease on the CV joint cup?

Dorman - OE Solutions CV Joint Boot Grease

https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/...049%7CL3*16317

 

Yeah, hard to tell if RL actually works better, since nobody has done a controlled experiment.

Honda has chosen the grease based on a VERY controlled experiment. But unfortunately, lots of people are seeing pitting at various mileages. Usually (+/-) in the 100K mile range.

My wife's car (2011 TSX sportwagon) started shaking at like 70K miles. As of 90K miles, it has low mileage OEM axles with redline in them. We've only done 10K or so since the swap. So far so good, I think.

My 6MT TSX started shaking around 135K miles. At some point, I did the same type of OEM rebuild situation and it held up fine til I sold it.

My 00 AP1 started shaking at like 50K miles. I used axle spacers but got more vibrations at 65K miles. I flipped the cups, but got vibration on downshifts. So I finally just replaced the axles with low mile JDM ones with OG grease around 70K miles. No issues thus far at 95K miles. Car was lowered, tracked, launched, etc. I'm sure launching does not help any of this. This car now has a fairly easy life.

My wife's 04 AP2 was shake free with original parts for 92K miles. She drives like an adult, though....

My track 07 AP2 has 170K miles. No clue if axles are OG. They just started shaking now.

There are probably manufacturing changes with the cups or the grease had been reformulated (totL speculation). There are massive inconsistencies.