morning folks we're going to talk about something uh right now i figure we're having an unusual heat
wave here in wisconsin in november i mean the kids in the kiddie pool right now in the backyard with
mom watching him and it is warm there in the 70s so i thought let's get some tlc done on the cars
now i've been having an issue with model x and some of you might as well when when you turn the
wheel it'll turn smooth and all of a sudden it'll feel like power steering just went out and then
you turn it a little bit more and all of a sudden it's back again so go go stop go go go you'll go
difficult then easy then difficult and easy as you as you turn so usually about every 90 degrees
and the main problem with it usually ends up being the universal joint
uh where the lower shaft universal joint where the now there's two shafts there's the upper
upper shaft which goes from the steering wheel through the firewall
into the uh well for sake of this video we're just going to call it the engine compartment
a motor compartment yeah that's better that's more accurate there's a motor up there on this vehicle
and then it goes to the lower shaft which has another u-joint at the point where it connects
to the power steering pump now this shaft we're going to take a look at it right now
um is very exposed to the elements and very poorly protected yes i got jack and jack stands
and this is the only wheel that's off so let's see right there dead center right in the middle
you can even see the part number this is a a so this is one of the older versions they
currently have two versions right now both bees but that is the universal joint on the lower shaft
now let's zoom in a little bit now i already cleaned it now as you can see let's back up again
okay i got the wheel off that's right there get new tires tomorrow tires are right there stacked
up in the garage as you can see there's this whole section here where there is no wheel liner and for
the uh vehicles with air suspension that's because there's going to be a lot of range of motion
um i guess the model s is pretty similar to um and this problem is universal the universal
joint problem is universal for both the s and the x not sure about the three and the y's yet
so we look down there so you can see this is wide open in the winter time if you live in the snow
belt country and it's also the snow belt country areas that have the biggest problems with this
that salty slush gets thrown right in here as you're driving down the road look at all this rust
that's this is a 2016 now i already cleaned it out i didn't even lubricate it yet but i already
cleaned it out and already and this thing was completely caked let's put it this way it was so
bad i didn't even realize there was a label still there that's how much crap was caked all over this
thing and there was sand dirt grime even looked like there's some salt left over from last winter
and look how rusty now those little circles you see everywhere right in the center there that's
the pivot point those circles everywhere are where it rotates on and the problem is it binds up
so my solution because this is not a cheap fix if you are out of warranty like of course
i am and i'm also pretty much out of tesla service credits
to get to this to replace it let me show you what you got to go through
okay i removed the front because i wanted to see if this would be something
easy that i could potentially um replace myself on the model s i don't think it'd be as bad
but this is the model x under the hood in the model x with the bio hazard filter removed and
of course none of it was bolted down biohazard filter was flopping around so was the uh the duct
work that's a whole different story there's the battery very easy to get to on this car
so look down there you can see can you see it focus you
right there right there dead center that is where it enters it's a power
steering pumps right there power steering unit made in usa all right
the shafts i don't believe are low and that goes up and you probably can't see it
uh goes up there and back there so to get to it uh you gotta take out the 12-volt battery
there's something behind there looks like the motor motor components are back there
this is not an easy item to get to in fact my car was in for a uh uh control arm upper control arm
on this this driver's side as well last week and they pretty much said if it still works acceptably
drive it because that is not something you want to pay us to have to do it is a long process so well
and he also said it's we've never heard of it failing where it's going to cause an accident
well my wife can no longer turn the steering wheel but let's just go back here and like i
said i've only cleaned it out so far and even with the wheel off the ground wheel off and only one
wheel on the ground i could barely turn it before yes power steering was on right now power steering
is active because i hit the brake before i started this video and of course i just turned on my heat
and just by cleaning it look how easy it is to turn it's as smooth as butter but i
am not going to leave it at just that now i would have liked to paint it too rust proof
however i decided against that um because the paint can kind of act like a glue too and
that's the last thing i want to do is put something else on there that could potentially
cause it to bind up again what i am going to try and use is there a manufacturer country made in
no model x left hand drive so okay what do i got here i got uh let's see we've
got some white lithium grease and i have chain and cable lube with ptfe it's just
smells nice first aid it's generic but it makes some good products
it kind of like the fuller brush man come door-to-door
so i'm trying to decide if i'm going to go long-lasting heavy-duty lubricant prevents
rust and corrosion water that's the key word water and heat resistant or this nice chain
it's kind of thin though uh chain and cable lube with p actually you know what good thing
i found this can because i gotta lubricate the lawnmowers cables um now this is designed for
chains like motorcycle chains uh chains on your bicycle clean so it loosens dirt and corrosion
provides protective shield that rejects dirt salt and ice i might just go with this
provides a long lasting protective coating that shields all metals from rust and corrosion ptfe
and for those that are unaware that is teflon
teflon's the trademarked name t ptfe is actually what teflon is uh is a superior lubricant for
practically anything that moves and gives better longer lasting protection automotive industrial
home marine electronics and office using well ventilated area negative 65 to 475 degrees
i think i will go with this now to clean whoops to clean the u-joint there should i bring it back
there again i know we're moving around a lot here to clean that i used a spray degreaser do not use
um something anything with acetone acetone is bad for any rubbers or plastics so i used a mild
um degreaser spray degreaser do not use anything water-based either or you're going to be spraying
it and then blowing it out and waiting quite a while for it to dry because you need it bone dry
when you before you put the lubricant on so let's go back in here again then i took i took that
went in there
i went in there and i dumped about i emptied my 21 gallon compressor six times and
i also rotated it so turned it a bit went back and forth rotated it cleaned it all out real nice
i'll make sure it's as dry as possible so i'm gonna put that i think i'm gonna go i'm gonna
try i mean if it doesn't last i can always degrease it again and go with another product
originally i wanted to do something similar and this is really what should have been done at
that point but we got the uh the cv constant velocity joint uh that goes to the wheels
i wanted to do something similar to a cv boot um oh here there's a steering shaft there there's a
there's a boot there something similar to that would have been excellent on that on that joint
just not enough room to really get in there without disassembly and if you go that route
you might as well get a brand new one and then come up with a different way to wrap it
uh hey flex tape or mighty putty no no that might not be flex tape you could wrap it
makes a waterproof permanent bond um but just too much to get to if i'm gonna go that route
then i'm gonna just replace it with a brand new one and have it all done and ready to go
um now why did this one fail in my model s not that's because i have an unlimited car wash pass
touch free car wash it's just the cheap one no frilled car wash i don't do the underbody or any
of that but it does do side spray and i keep my model s and now my model x washed throughout the
winter i can get one wash a day every day of the month for 25 bucks a month not bad um and i've had
extremely little corrosion on my model s the model x uh the person i bought it from i did get it used
did not keep it maintained very well not very clean even when i got it the
uh the hood latch was completely rusted shut that was a project and a half to get that open but
now i got it it's still pretty rusty i did not replace it but i did um de-rust it quite a bit
and um there's a lot of corrosion all over this thing on aluminum parts steel parts everything
um so now that i have it all these little problems are starting to pop up although i am keeping it
considerably uh considerably uh cleaner so i'm probably won't have a repeat issue for a while
on a lot of this stuff but there you have it i'm gonna go with the ptfe chain lube i will of course
update you all and in the description box if i end up changing to another product down the line
i like the white lithium grease because it's thicker and would probably cling on better but
it because it's also thicker it might not get in there uh to lubricate as well either whereas
the chain lube is also designed for hitting the elements it's for chains less likely to sling off
it's a little more fluidic so i'll soak in between those joints a little better and it's got the ptfe
which is test basically teflon and i think that will do i love ptfe for a lubricant it works
really good and being that it's thinner it probably will not attract the road grime and
grit as much like lithium grease would probably grab and hold the road grime and grit a little
better so that's it uh my phone is now storage is now full there goes 256 gigs and my battery is
dead so i'm going to put that on like i said it's already running great don't forget to blow out
and dry any cleaner that you use to clean off that universal joint before greasing it or i'll be for
nothing
do you