Lubricating u joints. Why retorque propeller shaft bolt?

2018 4 runner. I believe dealer is not lubricating u joints. Read in maintenance to lube propeller shaft and retorque bolts. Is there disassembly involved? I only see zerk fittings.
Thank you

 

I doubt they even bother. I'm curious as well because I'll be skipping my toyota scheduled maintenance and do what I can myself

 

They shouldnt skip it…I just did mine a little on the long side of 10,000 miles. You can tell the difference just putting it into drive, none of that little clicky sound of the driveline initially loading up.

edit: can tell the difference, I should say

 

You know the old saying,

“if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself”.

This would apply to the U-joints.

 

Agree with DIY, but on this 4Runner I admit I have gotten a bit lazy. However, my dealership does lube them when I ask, as I can see the evidence on the zerks afterward.

 

We caught the dealership "NOT" greasing our driveline.. u-joints and slip yokes. No reason to get twisted over it, it will be done at home in our own shop along with oil changes and general maintenance. As far as the bolts on the driveshaft flange, it's a pull of a wrench to see if they are tight, curiosity as to why they would even recommend re-torquing.

 

They didn't lube mine with the free service (for the original owner). My 2017 needs a new front prop shaft at 60k miles since it corroded and now binds (got the bump when stopping/starting). Design on the front slide yoke/u joint is worse too as it's above the exhaust.

 

You don't have to disassemble anything to lube it. It only takes a few minutes to hit the zerks.

 

https://trail4runner.com/2021/03/03/propeller-shaft-maintenance-how-to-guide-5th-gen-4runner/

here's a write-up on the procedure. It's not too bad to do

 

Yep. My son (8yo) and I do ours every other oil change. Easy enough. He thinks it's cool working under the truck. You better believe I have some SERIOUSLY beefy jack stands to let him under there.

Jason

 

And the 8 on the front shaft..... They have been saying this for at least 25 years as same thing to check on 97,99,06 and 10's I owned . I have never seen one loose and usually way tighter then 63 ft/lbs when I took them out.

 

I have yet to see this procedure (Lubricate propeller shaft Re-torque propeller shaft bolt) anywhere on any invoice after a 5k or 10k routine maintenance at the dealership. 2018 TRD off-road premium. Shouldn't they be doing this??

 

I request the lube ever second oil change or so. Not sure what the recommended frequency is.

 

I find it curious that such a “mechanichy” thing like greasing zerks on a driveline is ignored by dealers. Not only is it important for lubrication, but if you have grease in the yokes, then there wont be space for winter salt water or de-icing brine to hang out.

Judging from the lack lf complaints of bad u-joints, I doubt ignoring this maintainance leads to immediate failure. But why give yourself another headache at 200k miles when you have to add them to the list?

 

Reason #512 to do your own maintenance or go to a REAL shop where you can ask the person DOING THE WORK if they greased the zerks

And after that . . . roll under your car and look for evidence that it was done

 

Re-torque of the propellor/drive shaft is what I can't figure out. Why is it in the owner's manual? Now that said my dealer admits they don't do that. But I've been in the business a long time and fail to see a need for this given that the bolts all have Loctite applied to them from the factory. Seems to me that loosening them and then re-torquing them would break the factory Loctite seal. My guess is if you paid for this service they put a wrench on it and said yup it's tight.

 

Maybe retorquing them is literally just suppose to be clicking a torque wrench at 67ft lbs?

 

In the world of aviation, "retorque" is defined as loosening and then torque again to specification. A torque check is specifically what it means - setting the torque wrench to minimum torque (or whatever the book says to set the wrench at) and verifying the torque. Easy to confuse, but means something very different.

 

I’ve never concerned myself with the re-torque thing, both on my 4Runner and previous Tacoma.

I do however, grease the u-joints and slide yoke’s about once a year. This is probably more than most owners ever do.

 

Yeah, kind of figure it would be the same for auto mechanics too…but it seems a shame to break a perfectly locktited seal lol

 

Just to add a tidbit. Removal torque has very little relationship to application torque.

 

Removal torque is / was not measured in my work as it had no meaning for the situation at hand - ever. But thank you for your comment.