How bad is grease coming from ball joints

[kms]

I'm looking at buying a 2010 Auris.  I was poking around and found that, on both sides, the ball joints and tie-rod ends are leaking grease. I've attached a photo of one of the ball joints.

 

It's strange that both sides are doing the same thing, and it's both the ball joints and the tie-rod ends.  I've never seen this before.  All the joints seem to be solid and don't rattle at all. I've never seen such symmetry before.

 

Is this somehow a defect in the Auris?

Should I not worry about this?

 

Thanks for your opinions.

[furtula]

That does not look like grease to me.

They could have replaced both ball joints at the same time, and used oil when trying to install new one, did not clean up, and it accumulated dirt.

I doubt the grease will drip, even with temperatures in +40 its still solid.

 

Not really a reason to worry, worst case you replace them both, it's a cheap part, but as you said, there's no movement so should be fine.

 

[kms]

You right. It doesn't look like grease.  I asked her if she had work done on the car and she said no, so it was the only alternative I could think of.

[Gerg]

It is difficult to be sure without standing next to it, but there seem to be some age cracks in part of the rubber boot (arrows).  If the boot has aged where shown, then maybe there are cracks that have penetrated the boot (which the highlighted ones don't seem to have) where you cant see, and that has allowed it to leak.  Your dry and dusty environment has made it very visible.  In the UK, the brake dust shield in your picture would look a right state after 10 years of our weather.

The grease that is inside the boot will be some sort of lithium-based grease, which will have oil in it.  With time the oil can separate out of the grease.  In some ways the lithium part of the grease could be likened to a sponge, holding the oil part in the place where it's needed.

The castellated locknut seems to have been in place for a long time, I don't think this has been disturbed for a while.

[TonyHSD]

This is 100% grease and it is absolutely normal for Auris, We have two Auris, one is 2010 with 136000 miles and the other is 2012 with 60k miles., they are exactly the same and both have it. Until there is a play in bolt joints or tie rods there is nothing to worry about it. Even don’t need to clean, just keep an eye for eventually a play in the future, might not happen anytime soon though. 
Regards 

[Guest]

I have a 2009 TR with only 66K miles, and was very surprised to be quoted for BOTH new ball joint ends and BOTH control arm linkages. I understand this is a 13 year old car, but it is not driven that hard and I thought these parts would last 100K miles.

Have a look yourself: (see attached file below)

I think I could have driven elsewhere and had these replaced for a lot cheaper - but in the end Mr. T replaced the four parts for a cool £800-ish, but gave me a loaner car for no cost.

[Derek.w]

I dont know your technical skills but drop link rod are supplied with ball joints just replace them.

It looks like you can replace the track rod end ball joint yourself you need a ball joint splitter (seperator tool) for this and two new cotter pins for castle nut or a locknut but this is in the kit but without a ball joint splitter.

[Guest]

Thank you, but this was found by Toyota Service when I took the car to them for a service. I let them just keep the car and carry out the repairs. If I'm going to DIY, it's stuff like wing mirrors and radios.

The reason I included this on the thread is that I think this kind of failure of suspension components is a surprise for a lightly driven city car, with less than 100K miles on it.

Actually I can see from the MOT history, there was deterioration in the ball joint boots as early as 30K miles. I wish the previous owner had acted upon that and replaced these while the car was under warranty.

Well that brings me to the next shocking thought: what if they were replaced at 30K? These suspension parts are only lasting 30K miles!

[Derek.w]

I seen them last a lot longer and I seen cases where you needed to change the lower arm as the rubber bushings have purished yes you can just change the rubber bushes but then you need a press of some sort.

I lot depend on how it was driven, how many pot holes it encounted and other road conditions.

Plus rubber deteriates over time more quickly if it encounters oil on top of plus sudden shocks.

[TonyHSD]

The worst enemy to all cars suspension is salt, and here in uk we have plenty of that. If the car been taken once or twice on M25 during bad winter then left to seat on the street without use for weeks and use infrequently after the salty drive, this event will accelerate rust and rubber deterioration 3 or even more times than if the car was in daily use and on high miles. Reading my post from early 2020 my car was at 136000 miles and had some oily marks on the spots in question, however the car is now at 220000 miles and still on its original suspension except rear springs, and these parts are still fine. Only there is a slight play in the outer tie rod ends , but minimal and will not change them until becomes obvious and start to clunk and rattling while going over bumps. 

[Roy124]

Following on from Tony's point.   I had a real rust bucket but it was on the east coast and the road I used was attricious. 

The next car I got was 10 years old.   First thing my mechanic said was you could see it was an inland car.   It was from West Midlands.