Grease in New Brake Assemblies

fj12ryder wrote:
Yes, I'm serious. Would you buy a new car/truck and immediately pull the rear differential off to check for an issue if you'd read about problems with them from the dealer? Or would you hie yourself back to the dealer to have it checked and fixed?

Paying tens of thousands of dollars for a new unit and then playing shade tree mechanic makes little to no sense to me. If I paid for a brand new $50,000 5th wheel, then yes, I expect them to fix the problems that came from the factory.

I see no reason to give the dealers/manufacturers a free ride when they screw up. That's the way I look at it.

If you just paid $50,000 plus for a new 3500 series truck I would strongly recommend checking all fluid levels your self including the differentials. That is not shade tree mechanic.

As for the trailers with the number of axle seal problems I know of including my own the only sure way to get it corrected is do it your self.

I returned my trailer to the dealer with brake problems with less than 50 miles of towing on my part. They told me they found some grease on the shoes. I asked what did they replace. They said they cleaned the grease off of the shoes and put things back together. No new grease seals or brake shoes.

I also had two of the drums turned as they had not been originally turned so they were concentric with the bearings.

When I decided to bite the bullet I removed all 4 hubs and found grease on three. I found the grease seals had small tears.

I replaced all four backplates with new brakes and double lip seals and have never been back to the dealer.

In short the assembly and machining of components on axles units on trailers has a lot to be desired.