Grease Fittings

Is it just me complaining? I sure would like Nissan to put grease fittings on their trucks. I can maybe understand cars not having them but SUV's designed for off-road use should have them. I change my on oil and have always had trucks with grease fittings. I greased the front end every time I changed the oil and never had to replace those parts. Has anyone had problems due to this?

What exactly do you want to grease ?

You can't grease the suspension, it uses rubber mounts. The steering components are sealed, and don't require greasing. The front drive shaft slip joint can be greased and has a fitting for it. The rear drive shaft doesn't have a slip joint, and doesn't require grease.

What did you used to grease on your other trucks ?

Mostly tie rods and ball joints. I don't think sealed components are truly sealed especially over several years. Even if they are, grease will eventually be pushed away from the mating pats and wear will occur unless you have a way to add more grease. I used to be an engineer for Ford Motor Company and worked for a time in road load engineering. Front end parts that were manufactured without grease fittings were done as a cost saving feature. But all the trucks still had them due to the more severe conditions people put them through (at least when I was still there). Though you might not think your saving much money, you are when you take volume of mass production into account. A few cents per vehicle gets auto ececs very worked up! Xterras are used off-road allot and therefore have more wear on the front end. I had my last truck 7.5 years so I hope my Xterra will last as long. I doubt the front end parts will.

If you don't modify the Xterra, they should hold up for quite some time.

Lifting it (suspension lift) will cause extremely fast wear on the steering linkage, but there are 2 aftermarket solutions for that.

Many of us have had our Xterras for 3.5 years, and have had no problems so far.

Thanks, that's what I'm hoping for! I was just wondering if people were noticing any premature replacement of front end parts. I guess my old grease gun was a security blanket of sorts!