Grease below freezing temps

[deerefan]

There has been a lot of talk lately about diesel/gas and oil at below freezing temps. Has anyone experienced grease failure at low temps? I am wondering w/ all the attention paid to motor oil and fuel, has anyone wondered how the greasable parts of your car, truck or tractor are effected at low temps due to grease failure? Does grease even fail at low temps? It seems to me it would become stiff, brittle, maybe lose its lubricity. Maybe I'm wrong. Here in Louisiana the coldest it gets is maybe 22 degrees for about 6 hours. I've never experienced any problems w/ fuel or oil flow here, so I am guessing the best replies will come from folks above the Mason-Dixon line.

 

[beenthere]

If grease 'failed' after using it to lubricate in temps way below 0° F, it would have been recognized long before now (and substitutes in place). I'm not saying I don't think that some of the properties change, and it becomes stiffer, etc., but not
'failure' to the point it doesn't do its intended job of lubricating. Above this imaginary line, we don't 'change' out the grease in the winter, to the best of my knowledge. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[deerefan]

"Mason-Dixon" just an old saying, a reference point....so i am guessing no one has ever seen premature wear, say, in their suspension components from grease failure in low temps?

 

[beenthere]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( "from grease failure in low temps? )</font>

Grease doesn't 'fail' as in change to something else and not 'grease' anymore. Gets stiff, but its still grease. There are multitudes of different 'grease' types, and likely some wouldn't work, but the all-purpose ones will do just fine, year in and year out, north or south pole too, IMO /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[escavader]

Try greasing a snowmobiles wheeled track with regular lithium grease,and see what happens below freezing...it turns very hard.White lithium is made for colder weather.I even use it in my hst pedal on my KUBOTA.
ALAN

 

[slowrev]

the main thing is to use the right color grease for your tractor. Red for Case, blue for NH, etc...
Do they have any green grease ?
Ben

 

[BobPa]

The manufacturers data sheet should give you an indication to what temperature their grease should perform under satisfactorily. Mystik JT-6 High Temp. is -10F , Delo is -18F.
That doesn't mean it will pump well at those temperatures though. I think SKF did some research on this in Sweden with rail car bearing failures and concluded that a grease with a high degree of bleedability, and a low base oil viscosity worked well.