Q. Recently a shop in Mesa, Arizona, serviced the brakes on my 1988 Ford F-350 crew cab pickup. Although I am not hard on the brakes, nor have I towed our trailer yet, I am experiencing grease running across the four wheels.
At first there were heavy, wide grease lines running down and across the wheels. Now, five months later, it has subsided considerably. I guess I can expect the running-grease problem occasionally here in Arizona because of high temperatures, but this problem occurred on a daily basis. I know because I’ve had to clean and polish my chrome wheels almost daily.
Do you recommend a grease-seal inspection, or is all this normal?
— L.S., Mesa, Arizona
A. Fortunately, the grease is probably only seeping out onto the wheels and not onto the brakes, or you would have had problems stopping. The mechanic probably put too much grease in the outer bearings, and/or didn’t properly seal the dust caps and rear-axle flanges. Whenever there’s a concern like this, the vehicle should be returned immediately to the repair shop that worked on it, especially when it’s local.
— K.F.
Ken Freund’s more than three decades of auto-repair experience and 20-plus years of RVing helped him author numerous books and articles on vehicle repair. In addition to RV Clinic and Performance, he writes the Powertrain column in MotorHome magazine. Ken has been a California Automotive VO-Tech and Smog-Test Program Instructor and an ASE-certified Master Automobile Technician.
