Yes - on riding lawn mowers and bulldozers. Good luck finding any on a passenger vehicle made in the last few decades.

 

I read this, and my eyes grow big! Damn... my bulldozer! I forgot.

 

Time for me to google "grease zerks".

 

400 years from now, they will look back on our literary dialog and proclaim that it was poetic in the way we view Shakespeare today. Could your very sentence be exactly how William sounded to folks in the 1600's?

 

Yeah..there haven't been grease (zerk) fittings on OEM parts in the past 25 years. Only if you were to purchase premium aftermarket parts, would some of them have one.

The days of oil changes that actually included greasing fittings are long gone on these chassis. Not just imports, never had a zerk fitting on any of my post 2000 GM cars ether.

 

uhm...my 2002 Chevy S-10 has them.

 

I have some on my snowblower and hand truck.

Don't the 2017 1-ton pickups still have them? It can't be called a Real Truck unless it has nipples (zerks) on the driveshaft, as a minimum.

 

Yes there are Heavy Duty, industrial and agricultural equipment that still incorporate grease fittings as regular maintenance parts. However, production vehicles of the domestic type have, for the most part, ditched them. There is more money to be had in replacing dried out joints than there is paying a tech to grease them during an oil change. Even though we still pay the prices for that maintenance.

 

I have Chevys and a Buick from the 50's and 60's so that every Fall I grease all of the many Zerks as well as change the oil and filter before their winter sleep. King pins and ball joints are equally seen as terms from the past but common to us old gearheads.

 

Still quite common on snowmobile suspensions and a few areas on inboard boats. The grease zerk may have vanished on the automobile but believe me they are still quite alive and welcome in many areas in numerous applications. Today the mechanic simply says you need to replace that steering joint or tie rod end as opposed to squirting a little grease in there now and then and they outlasted the car. There are quite a few applications where sealed things do better with a little help now and then as the term sealed for life is more like dog year life. Personally I like to use a grease needle in certain sealed applications.

 

My 2013 Tacoma had a few grease zerks on the U joints. The current ones have them as well so they still are out there.

 

forgot about the U-joints! They DO NOT Have any zerks! Original u joints at the moment, 140,000 miles.

 

My '15 F150 is zerkless. Now, my commercial zero-turn mower, on the other hand, has more than I care to count!

 

If I remember correctly, the 2WD did not have zerks in the driveshafts but the 4WD did.

 

True, mine was. 4WD with zerks.

 

You'll find them on some boat trailers.

 

We spent a lot of time kicking this topic around years ago on the heavy duty diesel pickup forums. The answer is very simple - grease zerks are not provided because grease zerks cost $$$. The cost is rather minimal, but on a million cars or trucks it adds up fast. The manufacturers face little risk from selling "lifetime lubricated" (LMAO) components because they will usually last at least 2X the warranty period. People who have the "lifetime" (LMAO) components fail, are often surprised to find that the aftermarket replacement parts have grease zerks installed.

Components will last longer, sometimes MUCH longer, with a regular dose of high quality grease. The chassis will be quieter, the steering and ride will be smoother. So a lot of folks who appreciate long life components, will actually drill and tap their components to install their own grease zerks, or try to get around the lack of zerks by using needles to squirt grease in wherever possible.

Popular Mechanics did a nice little article on this a few years ago: Chassis Lubrication - Car Squeaking

 

One of the problems is people tend to over grease. They pump until they see grease. You have now blown the seals on the bearing/bushing and opened it to grease flinging and grit intrusion. A sealed bearing left alone will almost always outlast a bearing that has been over greased. A bearing with an occasional little shot of grease, enough to just introduce fresh lubrication, will outlast the bearing that has been left alone.

Just like the oil in your engine, grease is not just about lubrication. It also serves to transfer and dissipate heat, though its bigger function is to prevent the heat in the first place.