I was thinking about this again the other day - I never had problems with grease making a mess until I switched from "red" grease to "moly" grease at the request of the owner of a CAT excavator that I rented. The moly type grease seems more like mayonnaise compared to the red grease which seems to be more of a jam or jelly consistency. The red stuff seems to stay where it's put better and not ooze out of the joints like the moly type does.