Oily swivels

Just been under the disco as I had to change a wheel. Noticed the passenger side swivel has evidence of oil leaking from it. I am a bit puzzled cos the service history and the stickers under the bonnet say the oil has been replaced with a special grease. It isnt pouring out but nevertheless is leaking.

Should I be concerned?

JR

it int brake fluid by any chance?

never thought of that. I'll check.

OK checked, theres a bit of weeping both sides but passenger worst. I dont think its brake fluid, it does seem to be coming out of the bottom of the swivel joint. The brake pipes seem sound and calipers no sign of leaking fluid plus brakes fine and fluid level ok. Is there a seal or something the goes around the shiney balley thing?

Would it hurt to pressure wash or could water get into the axle?

Daft question I know.....

It may well be the remains of the original heavy oil.

When they fill the hubs with the grease stuff it's hard to imagine they take all the old oil out - like HOW? You would need to strip the thing to its components to do that.

So they just stuff in a big tube of the greasy stuff, and that's that.

Wipe it off if it bothers you.

There's a rubber seal in the swivel hub that rubs round the shint ball to keep the lube in abd the crap out.

Army ones often had a leather cover sewn over the balls.

CharlesY

Thanks Charles, I think I'll just do that. as you say the old oil has to go somewhere.

revjames said:

Thanks Charles, I think I'll just do that. as you say the old oil has to go somewhere.

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There is a drain plug at the bottom of the swivel housing

Did oil change in swivels last year and the kin oil was running out all over the place, chrome balls were damaged, pitied!

So I "one shot greased" the buggers which helped but still came out leaving a snotty greasy mess everywhere, just squirted a bit in every now and again-Bit the bullet 10k later and changed ball's joints etc this summer & jobs a good un!

Jason2 said:

There is a drain plug at the bottom of the swivel housing

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Not on vehicles made after they switched to grease (later 300tdi's), they just have a filler plug, no drain or level.

This confused me a few weeks ago hehe Both my swivel seals are leaking so gonna rebuild them both soon.....might as well do the wheel bearings while i'm there....mmm, its gonna be one of those jobs lol.

TheMunster said:

Not on vehicles made after they switched to grease (later 300tdi's), they just have a filler plug, no drain or level.

This confused me a few weeks ago hehe Both my swivel seals are leaking so gonna rebuild them both soon.....might as well do the wheel bearings while i'm there....mmm, its gonna be one of those jobs lol.

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I did everthing,new caliper brake pipes,disc guards,wheel bearings,ball's etc...............

Bolts that hold ball's onto axle can be a bastide, ratchet spanner comes in handy once you've loosened them,bottom swivel bearing is a torx that if you put an allen key in (like I did) it will be wrecked and you will have too shift it with a centre punch!!

Easy job just farty, long & drawn out,personaly would'nt bother unless they are leaking realy badly.

Thanks guys. From what I've seen, there is no drain plug and the swivels otherwise look ok with no pitting. I will give the areas a good pressure wash and keep an eye on how much is coming out. I am assuming the one shot grease wouldnt be able to get out?

yer dint wanna pressure wash them. you'll end up with water in there as well as the one shot.

its probably the diff internal oil seals behind the bearings.

jcbdigger1970 said:

its probably the diff internal oil seals behind the bearings.

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No! them seals would let diff oil into your bearings which int such a bad thing for them unless they are completely destroyed and oil ****es out of the rubber end cap!

Oil leaking out of & around chrome swivel balls is yeh swivel seals for which they are 2 ways of changing, full strip down & rebuild or cheap fix by removing old seal by unbolting seal retain plate cutting old seal in half to get it off, very carefully cutting new seal in half to put it on and then super glueing the git back together!

Jason2 said:

Oil leaking out of & around chrome swivel balls is yeh swivel seals for which they are 2 ways of changing, full strip down & rebuild or cheap fix by removing old seal by unbolting seal retain plate cutting old seal in half to get it off, very carefully cutting new seal in half to put it on and then super glueing the git back together!

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Sounds like my way of fixing it, although I don't think its bad enough to bother with yet.

Both side swivels are leaking on my rangerover but not badly so i'm thinking of draining the oil and trying the grease as logicly the grease will last much longer and take longer to run out as its thicker than the oil.