Last weekend I finally decided to rotate my tires after 26k miles, since front started showing wear on the edges. Since I had to take all the tires off, I decided to wash the rims as well. To my surprise I found few millimeters of grease spread on the inside of front left rim. The grease was covering half of the diameter of the rim and it looked like wheel bearing grease leaked out when the car was parked (seemed like grease was only on the lower part of the rim, rotating tire would spread the grease all around.) I never took the tires off before so it could have been there all the way from factory, or maybe it got there when my dealer was changing oil one time, but it makes me wonder if it's not something coming out of the car. It's a heavy grease, not oil, so it could be coming from steering box, wheel bearing or one of the shafts or bushings, but I can't find anything unusual or any grease anywhere else. Seems like the grease was old, covered with a lot of dirt. On the other hand after washing the grease and dirt, it's the cleanest, most shiny rim inside of them all. Others have chips and spots that can't be cleaned, that one is perfect, so I may put some thin layer of grease for protection.

 

Is that why Toyota recommends rotating tires every 5,000 miles?

 

Rotation does save the tires. Using synthetic oil I change ever 5000 miles and rotate the tires within a week of that. I do my own oil changes, then I know its done right.

 

Ya, fill them with synthetic air, it does wonders!!

 

Most likely you have a pinhole leak in the outer CVJ (constant velocity joint) boot, probably from a stone. Get it checked out. If you run that joint dry it can cost a few bucks to replace.

 

It could also be the tie rod ends. If you take your car to a jube joint, they can over fill the rod ends, and the old grease spills on the rims if they don't clean it all away.

 

I can't remember the last car I've owned that even had grease fittings. When did they come back?

 

I don't know if they have them or not, but my F-250 has them and I hit them quite often. It also has them on the ball joints and if I don't keep them lubed, they wear out in about 10,000 miles.

 

To the best of my knowledge, the TCH doesn't have any grease nipples at all. All joints are "lubricated for life," as is standard in modern automobiles. I hope that's a long life!

Stan

 

This is true, and has been for several years.