Yes, you may have air. But, have you cleaned the PS solenoid screen before?

 

Oh, I wasn't aware there is a screen. Where is this located? Somewhere easy to service I hope? haha. A picture of its location would be wonderful.

Edit: I found our little bible on how to do it.
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...ing-bible.html

I'm going to attempt to do a lock to lock on jackstands to bleed with system with the power steering cover off. If that doesn't work I'll flush it. Will deal with the solenoid last because that requires the easier things to be done afterwords anyway.

 

And you'll be emptying the system when removing the solenoid as well. Haha

 

Updates to my power steering problem:
1- Solenoid screen cleaned. No change.
2- Power steering vacuum valve capped off, and welded shut. Slight improvement? Perhaps due to flushing it so many times now.
3- Rowing and bleeding the system- the power steering pump is at a point where its whining under a light touch of the steering wheel. It is TRYING to assist and its actually helping some! I spent over an hour slowly rowing the wheel back and fourth. Very slowly. Shut it off, let the air bubbles rise and repeat. Over and over... and over. No change.

I have made an observation that leads me to believe my power steering pump has died on me. When moving the steering wheel the resivour is not going down basically at all on either end of the rowing movement. There is a slow bubbling up from the return hose so the pump is working. But its working VERY slowly. Even with air in the system it should pump through much more then it is.

Currently I believe the junkyard power steering line I installed that I made the mistake of not cleaning it internally and flushing it, I believe my power steering pump sucked up some crap and got ruined.

Will update again when I can get a new or known good working used power steering pump somewhere. Can get one on ebay for $88 with a 10 year warranty. I would be fine with a used one as well as long as its known to work.

 

Managed to find a seller who has a good rating and is known for selling good used parts. Got a OEM pump thats in "good working" condition coming in the mail next week. Hope it fixes my issues.

 

Love seeing these cars get revived and healthy, keep it up!

 

Its tough... when your trying to daily drive it like I am.

Anyway... DISCOVERIES! Hahaha... this is quite funny.
So today my replacement used power steering pump came in the mail. I finally can see that screen everyone talks about inside the resivour. Its about... halfway up the bottle. Super fine mesh. Mine was pretty clean, but I held it upside down and cleaned it with some wd-40 and then gave it a rinse with some extra new Dexron ATF I had laying around. The replacement pump looks good, and feels nice when it spins by hand.

As for that screen halfway up the power steering fluid bottle in my replacement- as it sits currently I can take a bolt longer then the entire resivour and it will DROP ALL THE WAY DOWN into the bottle that is attached the my old power steering pump currently on the car. Long story short my old PS pump got so plugged up it sucked that screen down into its self.

I swore I saw gold-ish glitter in the current fluid thats in the resivour!

On a plus, today it was cold enough when I left for work that I had frost on my read window. My rear defroster works! Small victories.

A question. Would it be a poor choice to remove that screen from the resivour of the new PS pump?

 

Anxious for tomorrow morning. Got everything I need to change the PS pump and a special ATF flush+cleaner in a can for the PS system. I decided to remove the screen from the replacement power steering pump as well. Id rather just get in the habit of yearly changing the fluid within the bottle to keep it fresh constantly. I am pretty confident I will find that my screen got totally plugged up and sucked down into my current PS pump on the car. Wont have that happen again.

That aside, today I decided to tinker with my trunk pop actuator. I know its working at the switch because i can pop the fuel door, and hear a relay click for the trunk solenoid. I partially took apart the actuator on the trunk lid and I noticed it works by a white plastic swing arm coming out and pushing on the latch to open it. That plastic bit comes out partway and doesn't go all the way back. it moves a little. So I have come to the conclusion that I need a new trunk latch (With the electric motor attached) that is in good working order to fix that small problem.
Had one small happy moment where the trunk popper actually worked right. Just one time...and not again. Such a tease!

 

Out with the old:


In with the new:


All my power steering woes are SOLVED! Holy F-ing hell its nice to have a quiet working PS system again... Tell ya what!

After swapping the PS pumps, we didnt even have to jack it up to bleed it. The system worked almost immediatly after starting it up. Turned the wheel end to end a few times slowly while on the ground and all is VERY well!

Best $40 spent on a used PS pump off eBay. One issue squashed. Now to continue with the regular repairs & maitenence!

 

Congrats and good job. Can't imagine doing this much work on a vehicle that is also a daily driver. I don't have an issue working on mine as I've got another vehicle to drive and take my time on the repairs.
Keep us posted.

 

Well... my replacement CD changer door arrived and I SWEAR... In the photos it looked gray. It has the same scratch as the seller's pictures, its just his camera was that bad with the colors. The ad did say Beige interior, which is this tan/brown color. I just was going off the photos alone and hoping the seller's description was inaccurate.
Oh well. Its back up for sale on eBay for the same as I paid for it. $20 + shipping.

If anyone has a gray cd changer glove door in good condition please let me know, or if you see one from a junkyard I would appreciate it if you grabbed it. I'm sick of looking at my beat up door. Worst piece of my interior by far.

 

Moving to Build Threads, keep up the good work

 

Thanks!
Today my car rolled over a milestone!


My shift-interlock cover also came in the mail. Nice to have that little hole covered up.

 

Here in Wisconsin the temps are dropping. 5-8" Snow storm incoming today. 120lbs of sand in the trunk... Hope my LS is ready! (I work for a snow removal company, I will have to drive on unplowed roads at 3-4AM at the tail end of snow storms!) I imagine it will do as good or better then my RWD S10 I drove last winter with 240 lbs of sand in the back of it. It was SO USELESS without weight in it.

Its been starting like a champ in the low teens/single digit temps. Seems to take a little longer cranking then usual from cold- guessing my ECT sensor needs to be changed. My MPG has also dropped more then I expected from the cold.
Starter is cranking strong as well in the cold, doesn't seem tired at all.

Odd quirk of the cold- my cd changer is giving an error from the cold start with a cold cabin. Changing discs makes it work again. Not really a huge bother- I got my mixtapes I made for my old VW Scirocco and the cassette player works and sounds wonderful on the car!

 

The old girl doesn't seem to have any issues starting in the cold we're having.