Front Driveshaft Throwing Grease

[Aemonn]

Looking to get some feedback from anyone with experience with this. My front driveshaft is throwing grease. I took the truck on a long roadtrip and before heading home from the farthest point I did a quick inspection. I found grease all over by the front driveshaft.

This may have been happening for a while and I never really looked up there. The boot looks perfectly fine. I cleaned up the grease (took a ton of paper towels) and checked again after a few hundred miles to find a thin spray of grease.

I took it to my dealer for them to take a look and they said that it looks fine and that sometimes these are overfilled from the factory.

I'm happy to accept that considering I have plenty of warranty. Is this something I should press to have addressed? Does it have the potential to harm other components of the truck? See pictures attached. One of them is after I cleaned the grease, but before I drove the additional mileage. I've highlighted some chunks I neglected to clean off.

The second image is of the thin spray after a few hundred miles.

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[MAV]

I think I would want a second opinion from a different Ford dealership. Maybe it was overfilled, maybe it wasn't, but something is loose to allow it to leak and spray like that. I would look at it like this: if grease can get out, contaminants can get in.

 

[mpcraven]

I've seen this before on my Lotus Evora. Not a rare issue, it seems to burp in high temp conditions. Happened at about 25k miles and after repacking and re-banding/clamping it's been fine through 80k+. I'd want to be sure there's still enough grease in there and that a new boot clamp is the right tightness. Other than that it's just messy.

 

[Aemonn]

Thanks! What type of grease goes in here? If it's just a simple re-pack I'll probably do it myself rather than go through the hassle with the dealership.

 

[olefordguy]

I think I would want a second opinion from a different Ford dealership. Maybe it was overfilled, maybe it wasn't, but something is loose to allow it to leak and spray like that. I would look at it like this: if grease can get out, contaminants can get in.

I’ll second this. Something is NOT right. I would suspect boot or clamps. Let ford deal with it, that’s what warranty is for plus don’t give them a reason to say you didn’t do something right and give you warranty hassles

 

[Ford Motor Company]

Looking to get some feedback from anyone with experience with this. My front driveshaft is throwing grease. I took the truck on a long roadtrip and before heading home from the farthest point I did a quick inspection. I found grease all over by the front driveshaft.

This may have been happening for a while and I never really looked up there. The boot looks perfectly fine. I cleaned up the grease (took a ton of paper towels) and checked again after a few hundred miles to find a thin spray of grease.

I took it to my dealer for them to take a look and they said that it looks fine and that sometimes these are overfilled from the factory.

I'm happy to accept that considering I have plenty of warranty. Is this something I should press to have addressed? Does it have the potential to harm other components of the truck? See pictures attached. One of them is after I cleaned the grease, but before I drove the additional mileage. I've highlighted some chunks I neglected to clean off.

The second image is of the thin spray after a few hundred miles.

Good afternoon! If you'd like additional assistance, feel free to send us a private message with your VIN and dealer info and we’ll look into this driveshaft concern. Thanks!

 

[Hootbro]

I got the same issue.


https://www.ranger6g.com/forum/thre...zeppa-joint-leaking-grease.13035/#post-200867

 

[Aemonn]

I sent a PM either way and will look to engage with another dealer. Thank you everyone for all the feedback.

 

[Raptor Family]

Not to bring back an old post, but apparently this problem still exists. I have a 2025 Ranger Raptor with the same problem—but worse. Every time I drove my truck I swear I smelled something burning. I did my first oil change at Ford at 2k miles—they did an inspection and never found anything wrong. At a 3rd party shop, at 3k miles they found this:

It appears the grease liquified and spewed out. If you blow up the pic and look at the edge of the black sound/heatshield, you can see the grease piled up. It was on the exhaust and what I believe was the burning smell I kept noticing right after I was done driving. I had the grease cleaned up so it wasn’t a fire hazard and had the pictures.

I scheduled an appointment and turned in my truck in to Ford for airbag recall, installation of Perimeter alarm, and to diagnose the grease spewing problem. My truck was there for 4 days—they didn’t even touch it for 3days. It just sat there. When they did get to it, they said they couldn’t find anything wrong and couldn’t recreate the problem.

500 miles later, I have my truck back in 3rd party shop again, and there it is again, a ring of grease splattered all around again—not as bad as first time, but there never the less.

I scheduled another appointment with Ford, waited 2 weeks and dropped off my truck this morning. When I asked when I could expect my truck back, they kind of laughed and said they are back-logged and wouldn’t even get to it for 3 days—to which I asked why in the hell do you have me make an appointment when you are not capable of doing the work? Every day my vehicle is with them is like being in “Warranty Jail” for a crime I didn’t commit. I don’t get a loner vehicle. So it’s a real hassle. It’s even worse when they blow off the problem, not fixing it—and requiring multiple Jail periods to do nothing. I still consider my truck as brand new—it doesn’t even have 4K miles on it yet.

How many people have had this problem, and what was the solution? It seems to me that a lot of heat was generated—so much so, that it liquified the grease and spewed it all out. You can clearly make out individual drops of liquid grease that re-solidified and hardened, building up layers after it cooled.

These driveshaft joints appear to be CV style in stead of standard U joints. They should not be generating that much heat. Something has to be done—as I don’t think there is any grease left. I couldn’t find a hole or a tear—it appears the grease comes out from under the clamped boot edge. Like in this pic, I wiped it off, and drove about 5 miles down the highway—small grease residue can be seen weeping out from around the sealing edge of the boot. The boot is clamped tight, and is hot.

Any ideas?

 

[mrmike7189]

Thats horrible customer service! If my ford dealer ever told me it will be 3 days before they can fix my truck............I 'd ask for my keys back and drive away.
Then give them the worst review on carfax, google, ford, and every other site I can find just to out them to the masses!
So ,Tell us your dealers name ,so we can shame them on Ranger 6g.com

 

[Dino Jockey]

FYI….

 

[superj]

Why not just replace the clamp after checking and possibly refilling the grease? The dealer probably doesnt know how to do that though

Buying a whole new driveshaft for a new truck sounds dumb, that is the point of the warranty, but they need to call you when they have the opening for the truck, not have it sitting for 3 days.

 

[Aemonn]

Ford told me nothing was wrong. They're keeping an eye on it every 10k miles when I bring it in for service (really just a tire rotation, i do my own oil). It hasn't caused any major problems, yet, aside from the grease all over.

 

[Hootbro]

How many people have had this problem, and what was the solution?

They replaced mine. Took a picture when I took it in and the tech verified and they ordered a replacement driveshaft that came in a week.

I do not understand the retardation of some dealerships saying nothing is wrong for some people.

 

[Raptor Family]

Thats horrible customer service! If my ford dealer ever told me it will be 3 days before they can fix my truck............I 'd ask for my keys back and drive away.
Then give them the worst review on carfax, google, ford, and every other site I can find just to out them to the masses!
So ,Tell us your dealers name ,so we can shame them on Ranger 6g.com

Of course it’s horrible customer service, it’s a big corporation with many dealerships. I don’t want to kick the hornets nest. I think they are the lessor of the worst in my area.

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