I have ~15K miles on a set of PD-6700 SPD-SL pedals. As they rotate completely freely, I assume that all of the grease is gone within.

I bought the ~$5 tool from Shimano that allows removal of the spindle from the pedal body. It's a cheap tool and figured I might as well own it.

Now I'm debating if disassembling the pedal is even worth doing. The bearings have a small amount of play but are working just fine. I'm a firm believer in "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" method of bike maintenance. Also, straight up replacing the entire set of pedals if they do happen to start failing is inexpensive. I'm not sure how concerned I am about life span of the pedals given that I've clearly already gotten my money's worth on them. On the other hand, the pedals are fine aesthetically and I'm not a fan of blowing money simply because I'm lazy.

Thoughts on this?

It couldn't hurt. I recently rode a bike that I had left in storage for a year and it wasn't 10 miles before the pedal stripped the thread, ruining a perfectly good Campagnolo Mirage crank.

I just bought the same tool to do the same thing to the same pedals with about the same amount of use on them.

I just greased my 5800 pedals the other day.

All I needed was a crescent wrench to remove the fitting that holds the axle inside the pedal body.

I put grease in the hole where the axle goes and reinstalled the axle, done.

Yeah, rotating freely is the pedal's way of telling you to clean and regrease. It is an easy job to do once you have the tools.

You already have the pedals, the tool and the grease (if you don't have the grease, you should get some, not just for this task). It is literally a five minute job. It is not a repair, it's maintenance - you don't do it to fix the pedals, you do it so they don't break.

Just did mine. Nice video on how to do it at:

Video: Servicing Look and Shimano pedals

5 minute job

You guys convinced me. I'll take care of it tonight.

It's easy to do; it can't do any harm- so why not?