I'm curious if salted winter roads are the cause of premature u-joint failure. Seems most complaints originate from snow areas when I look at the city the poster is from. I currently have 90k on my originals, with 15k of it lifted with 35" tires.

Anyone who has replaced their U-joints at less than 50k intervals please select from the poll.

 

60,000 all its life in az three months in salt. factory joints still going strong.

 

I had to replace the ones on my '03 at about 75k (just past the warranty of course), very salty roads, they were quite rusty. One guy on here coats his undercarriage with WD-40 every fall. Might be worth a try...

 

I couldn't vote because all of my drive shaft joints are OE and I have 295K KM on them. Axle joints only got changed once when I put the freespin hubs in 100K ago. Greasable axle joints were the key to longevity for me. They get greased every 10K during oil change time.

I live where the roads are heavily salted in the winter. And I have no idea why the driveshaft joints are lasting as long as they have.

 

I've never driven on salty roads but let's see:

3 joints on rear shaft x 7 = 21 joints on rear alone!
3 joints on front shaft x 3 = 9 joints!
2 joints for axle shafts (1 per) x 3 = 6 joints
And still have factory unit bearings!

All of that with 306k miles.....as much as I hate to brag....my dads old IDI Ferd has 272k miles and not a single joint has been touched.

 

just replaced my rear u joint yesterday-fourth time since i bought the truck new. truck has 140,000 miles. roads are salted here. i buy the grease-able joints and always keep them greased

 

2006 4x4 dually originals with 105,000 miles in the desert.

 

Seems like it's hit and miss so far. Maybe other factors need to be considered as well, like long bed vs. short (assuming most all are quad cabs), lift vs. no lift, etc.