2018 Tundra TRD 4 wheel drive - no zerk fittings an drive shafts?

Are there zerk fittings on drive shaft on the 2018's? Cant find any on mine, my 2016 had them, my 2006 Dodge had them, what goes?

 

Should be zerks at all U joints

 

Really? There's gotta be some somewhere...

 

2018 don't have any zerks. See here

 

Wow. I guess mother Toyota doesn't believe they need fresh grease. Maybe they don't...

 

Did Toyota save a nickel again here? Hope they used quality joints with good seals. Thanks for confirming I wasn't crazy yet.

 

I hope they last also. I had already bought grease for mine and climbed under a couple of times to try and find them. I even got my dad to take a look. Once I saw that thread it confirmed it for me also.

 

Wait, what? How come one of you has a 2017 with, and the other without? Did they change up mid year? Seems kinda unlikely (I quoted one of your posts from the other thread linked above.)

 

just did my 17 last weekend, has 5 fittings

 

Toyota shows that the 2018 ujoints fit all years Tundras. So the non greaseable and greaseable joints must be the same dimensions. Which means that when the non lubeable joints fail we will at least be able to replace them.

04371-0C082
https://parts.toyotaofcoolsprings.c...1bmRyYSZ5PTIwMTgmdD1zcjUmZT01LTdsLXY4LWdhcw==

 

My ‘16 is zerked out. Front and rear shaft u-joints all have em

 

Have not checked front on mine but have looked at rear twice and not found any. Tacoma is first vehicle I ever owned that had fittings on OEM u joints.

 

My 2018 definitely doesn't have them.

Maybe people tend to not grease them and in that case sealed joints are better? I'm just guessing, I don't know. I do know that I went too long without greasing the u-joints on my first Tacoma once and had one go bad.

 

My 2017, 4WD, DC, 5.7 liter, has them front and rear. I've hit them twice myself.

 

Zerks here, front to rear at the U joints

 

Thread resurrection. My 2016 Off road thankfully has zerks on the rear driveshaft but not the front. I'll live with this since the front doesnt see a ton of use. Kinda surprised though.

 

Mid production year design changes have been common with other OEM since probably forever.

If an engineering change is made for whatever reason (improved design, improved reliability, cost savings, etc.) it may be implemented with what is known as a "running change". The changeover in parts, in this case driveshafts with no-lube U-joints, may be effective at a given unit VIN, or there may be a short changeover period where both old and new parts being installed. Such installation would continue until all the original parts in the supply pipeline are used up, and the new redesigned parts are on hand.

Now we know...changeover to no-lube U-joints occurred during the 2017 MY. I would expect VIN comparison to confirm this. With enough data, the approximate changeover VIN could be determined.

 

Don't hate me for this one, but on my 2018 there are 2 zerks on the front driveshaft at each joint.

 

Toyota is just making their truck more reliable and durable. For every one that religiously lubes a driveshaft, there are 50 who have no idea what a zerk is and there are 10 who will put the wrong grease in there.
Our company is sealing things up too. Believe it or not they will last longer.

 

Haha! Not at all.

My experience is in 60s-70s Corvette restoration, and that is the explanation for documented mid-MY production changes. They may be handled slightly different by Toyota, but that's how they were handled at the St. Louis plant for GM. No parts were/are simply scrapped or discarded because engineers want to make a change. Such small changes happen much more often that the customer base is aware, but there has been no means for curious owners to make observations and compare notes...until online forums came to be.

There were/are also "anomalies" outside of the "official" VIN changeover that cannot be explained with the limited information available to the public. Maybe a shipment of lubed u-joint driveshafts was found in a dark corner of a warehouse in 2018 after the official changeover? Maybe the parts supplier still had zerk u-joints left over, and made Toyota a deal they couldn't refuse? Who knows. Sometimes, it's fun to speculate on the unexplainable.

 

Maybe this is a reason mine has the fittings.? Built date was oct 2019 early production ! Thats what the sticker on the door says.

 

I would believe early 2019 production in Oct 2018 might possibly make sense. See "anomalie" above...you'll never know for sure what happened, but early production often does "clean up" any and all remaining revised parts from a previous production year.

Don't worry about it, just use the thinking that works best for your u-joint configuration: (1) Grease fittings give you the opportunity to absolutely maintain your universal joints as well as they can be maintained under the most adverse and severe off-roading, stream-fording conditions. Of course, if you didn't have the fittings, (2) I would just tell you that Toyota would never have made the change if they didn't expect their reliability record to be improved by better sealing and permanent lubrication...similar thought worked for upper and lower ball joints.

 

Yes bought my 2019 in nov of 2018 built date oct 2018

 

When I was the owner of a Gen 1, I religiously lubed the U-joints. I mistakenly presumed the 2018 4WD would have zerks and had not checked the forum on this issue. When I examined my truck today, I at least found zerks on both ends of the front shaft, but none on the propeller shaft. For the few cents it would have cost to use zerked U-joints, I am disappointed Toyota chose to cut this corner that will certainly lead to premature wearing and failure of the driveline. I have seen plenty of "permanently lubricated parts" on other vehicles fail due to lack of lubrication.