Some of my lorries had chassis autolube systems, a centrally located container of heavy oil pumped at regular intervals via tiny bore pipes to all joints, spring hangers and king pins etc, brilliant system.....quick aside, one Sed Atki front spring had to be disconnected and fitted with grease nipples, too much oil was finding its way onto the spring leaves and a road shock like hitting a drain would set a bounce up that would only stop when speed was reduced down to about 20mph....truck tyre balancing in its infancy then.

My MB indy told me that some older MB cars were fitted with autolube.

Most recent vehicle i've owned with greasing points was my 07 Hilux, greasable Hardy Spicers and prop sliding joints, enjoyed doing that again.

PS...i hated king pins on cars.

Edited by gordonbennet on 04/10/2012 at 10:07

So we're still rolling around in motors whose lifetime is set at the factory before you buy it, just like in the 60s when Ralph Nader and others were the first to criticise built-in obsolescence.

As there are lots of Corollas from the early 1990s around .. and the Mark1 Yaris (ended 2005) was second top in Autocar (?) 's recent list of top used car buys, Toyota must be doing something worng...

Many manufactureres can't even get their engines to last 10 years before a major component fails - see Ford 1.6 diesel engines on this forum.

Edited by madf on 06/10/2012 at 11:18