Grease leaking from tie rod end joints -- related to PS flush?

So I was inspecting my tie rod ends while rotating the tires and was surprised to see grease leaking from one of the boots. There is only 60k on the truck and they looked fine at the last rotation 5000mi ago. Then it got more weird when I saw the same thing on the other joint! I did a PS fluid flush recently and was wondering if cranking the steering wheel back and forth might have caused this. Anyone have a similar experience? How concerned should I be?

 

Did you drive through deep water recently?

 

I did a power steering flush recently and do not have this.

I jacked the front end up though so the wheels were in the air.

 

No water crossings. I was off road a bit, but nothing like rock crawling.

I jacked up the front end while pumping fluid out, then had the wheels on the ground for a couple of wheel turns to bleed the system.

 

My wheels were up in the air while turning.

Not saying that's your issue. Just that my method was different.

 

Tie rod end grease typically isn't that runny-looking.

 

Looks a little much, but maybe they were a little overpacked with grease at the factory? Or maybe it’s this much white grease because you looked at it so soon after cranking it back and forth? Is this the first time you remember exercising the steering through its range that much?

I noticed a little white grease coming out of mine. This at about 85,000 miles. It’s pretty clear that there’s been some grease coming out for a while. I’ve got a fair amount of off-road miles, so it gets a workout. The steering gets used gently, but fully.

If you look closely, there is a little fresh white grease at the top. That came out literally after very gently touching the boot (the lightest of pushes). I think that grease is probably pretty thin relatively speaking.

I’m keeping an eye on it I guess. Next oil change I’ll give the tie rods a fee good tugs to feel for looseness, but otherwise it seems fine and I don’t get any clicking or noises.

 

Grease is too thick to leak out like that and it's not the correct color for it to be grease, it appears to be water that got into the boot that is leaking out.

 

Cranking the steering wheel back and forth is within the range of normal steering system operation. This boot is not sealed against the stud pin at this location or against the knuckle. As you drive, grease can expel out and mud/water can get in.

You should not be concerned because tie rod joints are wear items. Usually either the boot tears or the grease degrades with contamination. When you go off-road, you should carry at least one inner and outer tie rod as trail spare anyway, because they're easily bent or impaled by rocks or branches on the trail, and this can happen at 100 miles or 100,000 miles.

You can do a quick tactile check of the tie rod for play every time the wheel comes off for tire rotation. If you see the boot torn or notice play, replace the tie rod end.

 

It does look runny, but it is also pretty tacky. It's definitely grease. I drove on a bunch of dusty dirt roads about a month ago, so if it was there before then I think it would have more dust embedded in the grease. Then the PS flush was a couple weeks ago. Hmmmm...

 

I’ve replaced my inner and outer tie rods. that’s simply just your outer tie rod balljoint boot leaking grease because possibly it’s starting to fail.
or coincidentally it’s a spill from above.

 

Water that's been sorta trapped in the boot with grease would sorta be tacky, doing the flush could of caused the boot to work it's way loose enough to allow the water to leak out, I still think it's water diluted by little bit of grease.

There's been mention of "white grease" leaking out of their tie rod boot, the grease that's used in a tie rod end is not white lube A.K.A. white lithium grease. , it is much the same as axle/wheel bearing grease.

 

That's actually what ChatGPT told me, for what that's worth.

It is pretty unusual for me to hit the steering stops. I tend to take gradual turns, not one of those people who always crank the wheel to the stop when turning.

 

Turning your wheels full lock in either direction isn't going to cause that. Neither is a PS flush. You have water infiltration there. Which means there's going to be oxidation of metal (rust). Change those things out.

 

I thought it would look like the typical honey colored axle grease too. But the fresh stuff I saw coming out of mine was white/bone colored, and quite thin for a grease. It’s probably some toyota special sauce grease that costs 45 dollars an ounce.

 

You just described what water that has been confined and agitated with axle grease for a while looks like.

 

The stuff coming out of my boots did not seem like a mix of grease and water. It looks runny in the pics, but it was actually very tacky, and felt just like chassis grease, just maybe a little lighter. It does look like it flowed, but probably extremely slowly. Also, I did not do any water crossings deep enough to cover the boots. Even if water did get in, I don't think there's a way for it to be agitated and mixed like it would in a differential, if that's what you're comparing it to.

 

It could be old worn out grease which can get to a point of being somewhat runny and lose it lubricating qualities, but if so I would replace the tie rod ends with new ones with grease fittings at some point so you can regrease them.

 

I agree with the failing boot comment above. That was my first thought when I saw the grease pattern. I can’t see any visible cracks or separation in the picture but take a very close look at it with a flashlight even in the daytime and I’ll bet you find some separation. If they haven’t been recently greased there isn’t really a reason they would leak out from over greasing at the 60k you stated. Something has changed within the last 5k miles. 60k isn’t bad for a joint on an off-road vehicle that gets used off-road. Replace with a super cool upgrade.

 

that has nothing to do with a power steering flush - at all. To me, it looks like PB Blaster but as others have mentioned i have seen this with water

 

that looks like grease mixed with water