If you grease your parts does that guarantee that it will not seize?
 

I'm afraid of seizing and wonder if greasing will prevent it or can parts still seize despite greasing under certain conditions. If seizing can still occur, it looks like periodic removal of parts might be beneficial. What do you think?

I have greased seatpost, stem, pedals, and headset. Am I supposed to grease skewers?

Is it possible to put too much grease on your parts?

You don't need to grease the skewers, but it doesn't hurt to do so.
you know you have used too much grease when it starts to flow out of the joints.

There's no guarantee, but I've had bikes unserviced for 10~20 years give up their pedals with relative ease, because someone was thoughtful enough to grease the threads.

Very very light grease on my skewers to prevent rust.

Grease greatly decreases the likelihood of surfaces seizing. I use grease on just about every threaded fastener (including skewers, derailleur mounting bolt, and cassette lock ring) and non-carbon seat post and stems.

Although grease is sufficient for bicycles (in my experience), you can get anti-seize compound, such as: http://www.amazon.com/PARK-TOOL-ASC-.../dp/B001AC735M

In general, I do operate the various threads at least once a year. Usually, the fastener is operated during quarterly, semi-annual or annual maintenance and adjustments.

There are products out there called "Anti-Seize".
Wish I could remember what they are there for????
Seriously, if you use light grease, you are probably ahead of the manufacturers.

IF you have dissimilar metals in close proximity, you definitely want something to prevent them "bonding" to each other.

Today, mainly to prevent spark plugs for seizing in the aluminum heads.
Plugs on most cars now only get changed at 100k intervals. Four or five
years.

And, yes, I smelled the sarcasm!

You need antiseize when you are dealing with similar metals to prevent galling; primarily titanium, aluminum and stainless steel. With galling the surfaces actually exchange metal and seize in a process called cold welding. To prevent this, anti-seize paste usually contain graphite, copper, aluminum (for non-aluminum surfaces) or molybdenum disulfide that acts like a lubricant and barrier against galling (regular grease is usually ineffective against galling). Dis-similar metals seizing is usually caused by an electric exchange called galvanic corrosion, where the dissimilar metals are touching and moister, which creates a battery of sorts that corrodes both surfaces, the softer metal usually taking the grunt of the damage. With aluminum the process is similar to anodizing which can seize the surfaces with aluminum oxide. Galvanic corrosion can be prevented by coating the surfaces with a water proof substance such as grease. But remember, any moister will eventually break down the grease, turning it into a waxy adhesive. So any place you are using grease to keep moister out, should be cleaned periodically and re-greased; with sealed bolts and threads this is not necessary.

Grease is very beneficial however grease isn't perfect. Just ask the owners of older Shimano index shifters from the 90s and 2000s how well the grease is holding up. :) It has dried those shifters out to the point of them being quite seized and non-functional.

Does grease prevent rust? Is it bad to put to much grease?

I highly recommend a product called Tef-Gel for anti-seize purposes. It is a medium thick, sticky grease with a high (40%) PTFE content. It was developed for the marine market which is just about the toughest environment I can imagine for an anti-seize product. I use it on all dissimilar metal joints. I also use stainless steel pedal washers, also coated with Tef-Gel, on all of my pedal to crank joints. http://www.tefgel.com/contain.php?param=tefgel_infor
For high-temperature applications like automotive work, I use Never-Seez; I imagine that it would be good on bicycle disc brake assemblies although I have not tried it.

Grease does inhibit corrosion. Too much is only bad in the sense that it makes a mess, is wasteful and unnecessary, it won't harm the metal.

Even if you grease (or anti-seize) seatposts, stems, bolts, etc. it's still a good idea to remove, clean and regrease them every year or two, and more often on bikes routinely exposed to rain, salt or other harsh conditions. I make it a part of my routine overhauls and cleaning.

The only metal-metal contact where grease or antisieze is sometimes frowned upon in at the square taper fitting of traditional cranks. I put grease on this connection but many people assemble it dry.
QRs need a drop of oil in the mechanism as well as a rust preventative smear along the skewer.
All threads and bolts need a smear of grease. Sandsmachine have a reading on the best type of grease, and why.

The requirements of the S&S couplings are far different from ordinary bolts and other bike fittings and their grease recommendation is vast overkill (and cost) for nearly any other use. Yeah, it will work but it's certainly not necessary. I had and used DuPont Teflon Bearing Grease when I owned my Co-Motion S&S coupled bike but I limited it's use to the couplers themselves. There was no need for it anywhere else.

FWIW, I am told in the instructions, the Dyno- hubs, Schmidt SON in particular
have a water vapor escape hole inside the hub, that a skewer with excess grease will plug,
and greater retained moisture is not good, dynamo may cease operating ,
and wont be in warrantee ..

I am happy you said this. I have a Son hub in my front wheel and was about to grease the skewer sometime this week.

That is $1.61/oz. I just buy the automotive tub of moly grease: $3.49 for a one-pound tub ($.22/oz). I bought a tub several years ago and it's still over half full.

My Trek owner's manual says to not grease a seat post in a carbon fiber frame.

I use antiseize on all metal mating surfaces. Occasionally these surfaces need to be disassembled, cleaned and fresh antiseize applied. I use Loctite 222 on all threaded fasteners, and check them for tightness once in awhile. These procedures have worked well for me for a number of years.

YannisG

I am an aeronautical engineer and I like the way you work. Do you pre-flight your
bike before each ride? I do!

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ight=preflight

The carbon isn't going to seize like metal would, so that advantage to grease is lost. Also, grease will make the already slick carbon even slicker leading to slipping seat posts, leading to over-tightening, leading to crushed carbon tubes. A tackier carbon prep paste is recommended.

any oil based product will prevent corrosion, because it adheres to the exposed metal surface and due to its non-polar nature, repels water, which prevents oxidation.

I wonder if the OP has greased the wheel bearings?

I have also come across a bike where the customer had greased the seat-tube (carbon fibre) and it leeched (right word?) into the material and made the top-tube floppy. Don't know what grease it was though.
edit: soft is probably a better word, but it did droop.

I have a Son hub in the front so it was installed as is. I don't believe I am able to get to the bearings even if I wanted to. The rear wheel was installed by another person so I am certain it was greased. I was mostly wondering about the parts that I would put in once I had my bike. These are typically seatpost and stem.