For applications that involve shearing of the grease, the ASTM D217 10,000 or 100,000 multi-stroke penetration tests and the ASTM D1831 Roll Stability Test provide an indication of how the grease will hold up under shear conditions.

In cases where water resistance is important to the grease performance, ASTM D1264 Water Washout and ASTM D4049 Water Spray-off may indicate how the grease will perform. In addition, ASTM D8022 Roll Stability in the Presence of Water gives an indication of how the grease performs under both wet and shear conditions.

For those applications where resistance to corrosion is important ASTM D4048 Copper Corrosion, ASTM D1743 Corrosion Prevention, and ASTM D6138 Dynamic Corrosion Resistance (Emcor) offer insight to grease performance. For more extreme conditions, ASTM D5969 Synthetic Sea Water Corrosion Prevention and ASTM D6138 using 100% Synthetic Sea Water or 0.5 N sodium chloride (NaCl) solution can be used.

When a grease will be exposed to high loads and must prevent wear under highly loaded conditions, D2266 Wear Prevention (Four-Ball Method) and D2596 Extreme Pressure Properties (Four-Ball Method) are used to indicate performance in those properties. Additional tests, D5706 Extreme Pressure Properties Using the SRV Test Machine and Fretting Wear Resistance by either D4170 Fretting Wear Protection or D7594 Fretting Wear Resistance Using an SRV Machine can be used when more extreme or specific types of operating conditions are to be encountered.

When a grease is to be exposed to low temperatures, the D1478 Low-Temperature Ball Bearing Torque Test is used to indicate how the grease will perform. The test temperature can be lowered to test how the grease will perform in more extreme conditions. Other tests, the DIN 51805 Flow Pressure Test and the US Steel Grease Mobility Test, can be added to provide an indication of the flow and handling characteristics of the grease at low temperatures.