grease vs oil for Longfield CVs

[RichardS]

Another twist on the grease vs oil debate...

My Longtracks setup just arrived today and I was a bit surprised to see the CVs packed with what appears to be EP grease, the red sticky stuff. Same stuff I use on my wheel bearings and ujoints. I was expecting to see either CV grease or a recommendation to use oil. So I looked on the Longfield site and they recommend just pumping 1/2 a tube of such grease into the housing upon install. Their recommendation is for Toys but the Land Rover CVs are the same materials and the housing is a similar design. Thus I'm thinking I will go with what they say and use red EP grease.

For those of you that have already installed these, what did you use?

 

[Nomar]

Personally, I would use oil or grease depending on where you drive. In VA, we do alot of water and I like to drain the oil out and change it. If I were in Utah, I'd probably put grease in there and forget it.

 

[justinhaaga]

I've used oil 80w90 and it drips (seals are shot and I don't care). But now I am using grease, why not? Land rover sells a tube of what they call "CV Grease". Looks to me like a high quality wheel bearing grease.

So I say, go with grease. Only downside is taking it apart, grease is messy, and like Nomar said, if it gets contaminated.

 

[maxyedor]

I like grease, it can't quite get through the seals. To get it out just add light weight oil, run a little bit and drain, repeat a few times and pretty much all the grease will come out.

 

[RichardS]

I agree with what you guys said above in general, I am using the one-shot CV grease in my stock CVs, and I see why people who do a lot of water crossings choose oil instead.

What surprises me in this case though is Longfield's use of the sticky EP grease. Thus is very much unlike CV grease, much thicker and seemingly much less likely to move around inside the swivels and get into the CVs. I'm going to give it a try - it's their recommendation and they give a lifetime warranty on the CVs so I guess they should know what works well.