gen4 - oil dripping from kingpin

Hi all,
I have oil dripping from the lower kingpin. I have found similar topics, but in all of them it looks like the oil is leaking from the knuckle seals. In my case I think the oil is coming from the kingpin itself.
Here's a quick photo and also a video.





Do you think that I need to replace the bearing or the kingpin itself?
Also is this oil coming from the diff? Does this mean that other seals in the axle need to be changed?

If it is oil rather than grease/water then that has come from the differential, past the drive rod seal and in to the knuckle. This often happens when the kingpin bearings are worn and need replacing.

It probably isn’t coming out of the Kingpins themselves, rather past the knuckle dust seal and dropping down the outside. If it was coming out of the Kingpins, that would suggest that the lower Kingpin is loose and I think you would know about that.

You usually don’t need to change the Kingpins, just the bearings, but it depends on mileage and how much off-road you have done.

You can test for worn Kingpin bearings by jacking the wheel and check for in and out movement (top and bottom) on the wheel?

Just out of interest how old is your Jimny and how many miles? If it isn’t very old or hasn’t done many miles, I would double check that it is oil and not just water/grease.

As you have to take the drive shaft out to replace the Kingpin bearings it’s easy enough to replace the drive shaft seal at the same time. I would suggest doing both sides, if one has gone the other is probably going to go shortly.

Martin sells kingpin bearings and seal kits in the BigJimny store, see banner at the top of the page.

With the arrival of the Jimny Nomade we have to ask the question "which Jimny do you have" as for the first time ever, Suzuki have changed the Kingpins on the very latest model (and perhaps as a consequence, the Nomade has Kingpin issues)

It's a German 2019 GLX, with 100k km on the clock.
It was involved in an frontal accident and later repaired and the accident was mostly from the lest side. I bought it at a deal about a month ago, already repaired. There is chassis damage too, there are traces of the chassis being cut and welded near the left strut, but it looks like smooth work.

It was wobbling at first and it turned out to be bent left hub and spline and the brake pads were dragging the rotor. We changed the hub, spline and both front pads and rotors and the oil started dripping after that.

There is absolutely no wobble at any speed now (tested to 140km/h) and the car doesn't pull to any side under acceleration or heavy breaking, so I believe (or hope at least...) the chassis was well repaired. I think the car was not heavily used for off road, though it was on 235/75/15 BFGs. I swapped them for 215/75/15 and I'm using it a lot for off roading now.

P.S. Martin, I'm the one who bought the SZ5 alloys from the shop about a month ago. They are perfect. Cheers!

Hi! 

Given that the new Jimny is identical underneath to the gen3 and it has had a frontal accident and I think you are looking at the left side which is where the longer axle case is, I would look for axle case damage, I have seen a couple of axles bent or cracked over the years.

Thanks! We'll take it apart this week and see what comes out. Hopefully it's not the axle... sounds expensive.