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Quick update. To correct my previous post it is the front side plate stuck in the housing. Not the back side. I baked it in the oven and couldn't get it to come out. Then put it in the freezer over night. Still wouldn't move. Then beat on it using an extension from the inside till I broke out the inner ring. Still didn't come out. I got really lucky I think and found a pump at a local yard from a 97. $75 including the reservoir (I previously took my reservoir apart trying to figure out what was going on with the filter). So between that unit, the parts I have from my original, the rebuild kit and new ACV I purchased I am optimistic that I should be able to put together a good pump sometime in the next few days. So the filter in my reservoir appeared to be disintegrating (pieces came out when I opened it up) and the front side plate was is somehow glued/epoxied in place inside the housing. Wondering if these both might be the result of someone using the wrong fluid in the past? Or otherwise related?
So here we are a year and a half later and Fiona still on jack stands in the garage. But making some progress recently. While I'll admit to some laziness and "not feeling like" working on it out in the hot garage in south Texas, I also went down hard with Covid. Month in the hospital, another month in physical therapy - still not back to where I was physically but can function almost normally. I lucked out that one of the mechanics at work previously owned/loved an LS400 so he's giving me some help. I rebult the salvage yard ps pump but must've screwed something up. The pulley was way harder to spin than it should have been. Ended up getting a reman from O'Reilly's and I'll keep the Lexus pump to rebuild again later if/when the reman fails. Also ordered all the OEM pcs for a timing belt, water pump, thermostat, serpentine belt, spark plugs, plug harness, rotors, etc... change while it's all apart. Got the new timing belt on but waiting on parts to finish it up. Pulled the power steering solenoid off the rack and cleaned it up. It was pretty clogged. I used brake cleaner to clean it (all I had) and now that I've put the filter "sleeve" back on the solenoid it fits VERY snugly. Does not move up down, etc.. like it did when I pulled it off. I think the chemicals in the brake cleaner may have affected the plastic sleeve. It doesn't seem like it would need to be able to "float" so I hope it still works when I get it back running again.
And a quick recommendation for Bell Lexus North Scottsdale. If you are in need of parts I highly recommend contacting these guys (no affiliation whatsoever). Have been a pleasure to work with and excellent pricing.
glad there is progress happening despite your getting hospitalized with COVID! is your power steering the only thing from keeping the car from being driven? not too bad i suppose in the grand scheme of other things that can hinder movement.
bell lexus had a great promotion over the holiday season with a good discount. there are others that can attest to their attentiveness as well!
The new timing belt is on and we turned it over for a few seconds to make it sure it works before buttoning everything back up. However, we had the radiator out (to be replaced - which is where this all started, the rest of it is "while I'm in there") and while it ran for that few seconds it spit transmission fluid out all over the floor of the garage because the transmission fluid cooler lines were disconnected and just "hanging there". While taking everything apart to replace the timing belt noticed some parts that should be replaced while we've got it taken apart. So ordered new rotors, new plugs, new plug harness, thermostat and other little bits. Should be able to get all that back together today.
I've been working on getting the new ps pressure line installed. My assumption is that it is in 2 parts so the short one can be clocked correctly and connected to the rack then the union can be connected later. But had a helluva time with it yesterday. I didn't pay enough attention to how it was clocked when taking the old one off - now trying to get the new one clocked correctly at the rack while still having the union somewhat accessible to be able to tighten up is a job I had to finally walk away from for the night last night. Hoping with a night's sleep and renewed patience I can get it in place today. Hoping to have her running by end of the day today.
One very important thing that is easy to forget. Inside the steering wheel there is a "Clockspring device" (google it) that connects electric connection to the airbag and the buttons etc and handles the lock to lock rotation of the steering wheel . This has a very limited rotation range, about what is needed .
It is important that the steering wheel is not rotated while the rack is disconnected and that the rack when connecting to steering weel is well centered. If not centered right the clock spring may be outside of its very limited range in max right or left position and quickly break the device.
I had to change mine due to brekage of a wire. The clock spring device design looked quite sensitive and flimsy . I would recommend centering by someone that knows what they are doing if centering is unknown . A new OEM device cost about 300-400$ + labor.
Thanks. But this time I'm not disconnecting the rack. Just trying to connect the pressure feed line to the rack in situ. Did finally get it connected but impossible to get a torque wrench on it so went with "snug plus 1/4 turn" and will check it for leaks once I get her fired up.
Got spark plugs changed out, new spark plug harness installed and all hooked up. Fan housing back on. The day included putting the bolts back in the a/c compressor 3x and removing them 2x because 1st, forgot to put the small triangular guard for the timing belt that goes behind the fan housing in place and 2nd, a misplaced bolt made me take it all apart again to make sure the missing bolt hadn't fallen down in where it shouldn't be. So, a lot of time lost doing rework. But, ended the day just shy of torquing down the fan pulley to 181 ft-lbs.
So a little more than 2 years since last post... Fiona has right at 162k miles. Very soon after getting her back on the road two years ago, the alternator, that I didn't replace when I had the ps pump out, quit. Due time constraints and more than a little frustration at myself for not doing it when it was "right there", I took her to a shop to have some after market alternator installed. Been 2 years and no problems. Power steering working fine as well.
I noticed the ride getting less and less "Lexus like" so I put new KYB shocks on all four corners last month. Just swapped the old coils over to the new shocks. Getting the old ones out with just removing the tires and disconnecting the upper control arm (front) was not so much of an ordeal. Getting the new ones in on the front gave me problems. After a couple days of fighting with them I finally got about a 4' pry bar and pryed (pried??) down on the lower ball joint and was able to get the bottom bolt in. Then, when reconnecting the upper control arm the stud would just spin. On both sides. Finally ended up putting a short piece of 2x4 up in the top of the wheel well then lining up a 6" long 1/2" socket extension right on top of the stud and jacking up on the rotor with my floor jack. It did the trick and I was able to torque the castle nut to proper torque. The back shocks both went in and out easily without having to do more than removing the tires (and the entire back seat of course). Got everything put back together and went for a test drive around the neighborhood. I could hear a lot of very pronounced "clunks". Put her back up on the stands, removed wheels, removed back seat and checked everything I touched and didn't touch to see if I could find a loose nut. Nothing. Checked the 3 bolts on the top of each shock - all torqued as per the book. Checked by reaching up in with my fingers to see if there was any space between the top of the shock tower and the body - no space. Then I remembered that I didn't torque the single nut at the top of each shock. They were all way loose. Got them torqued down. Went for another test drive (before putting the back seat back in this time) and no more noise. Victory.
Replaced all 4 shocks and it didn't help the ride. Still jarring at every little bump and/or expansion joint on the highway. If I'm driving on a "rough" highway (versus new blacktop smooth) I feel like I can feel every little protruding bit of gravel in the mix. I have the two replacement engine "cushions" as well as the one for the transmission. Going to install those next and while I would love for that to give me the riding on air feel, I'm not holding out much hope.
I have a sneaking suspicion that all the bushings in all the various suspension arms, links, etc.. are likely due for replacement. Is just getting the bushings pressed out and new ones pressed in a "thing"? Versus buying all new components? One front upper control arm is $385++. Haven't dug in enough yet to see what all the various parts cost.
I'd like to do this in stages due $$. Which parts will give me the most ride improvement? Or is this something that needs to be done all at once due to geometry and angles bearing on the bushings?
when you replaced the shocks, did you unbolt or loosen any other suspension components to help with drooping the arms to get the coil assembly out? all suspension bushings are under tension and should only be tightened when the arms are at neutral (ride height). i found that if you tighten things with the suspension drooped, that will cause unnecessary tension and thus poorer ride quality.
what also concerns me is why it was easy to remove the strut assembly but very difficult to get the new ones in. this tells me the new ones were much longer - which lead me to ask: are you sure you used the front shocks in the front and vice versa in the rear? the shocks look the same but vary in length. iirc, the long shocks belong at the rear.
Pretty sure. Bought the KYB 341159 for front and 341269 for rear. Double checked prior installation. But... I'm going to do engine and transmission mounts today/tomorrow so I'll check the numbers on them while I'm under there and make sure I didn't get them discombobulated.
The only nuts/bolts touched were those on the shocks themselves and the castle nut that holds the spindle (I think that's the name) to the upper control arm on the fronts. I don't have ramps so I torqued those down at droop when the wheels were off.. Don't know how I'd get to them otherwise. Might be possible to get to the lower shock bolt if it was on ramps? I did torque the shock top nuts when it was sitting on the ground.
She's got 162k and that seems to be a pretty popular mileage area for replacing the engine mounts on all the videos I've watched and threads I've read so maybe that will make a big difference. If it doesn't I'll start reading up on what bushings give the most "bang for the buck" ride quality wise to do that in stages. While reading somewhere I noticed someone said replacing "x" component/bushing in the rear helped immensely with the car feeling like it was fishtailing in any kind of wind. On my last couple road trips I noticed that was happening as well. So looks like it's time to drop some $$ on suspension to get back to the ride I want.
Got the new mounts installed today. Everything just sitting in place right now as I can't find any torque settings for either the engine or transmission mounts. I was able to break the top nuts on the engine mounts with just a standard 8" 17mm wrench. Then, on left side couldn't even get the wrench reset to do another 1/8 turn. Went to HF and picked up a set of stubby wrenches that included a 17mm. With that was easily able to turn the nut the rest of the way off. Have to say it was little unnerving raising the engine up, then a bit more, then a bit more, then a bit more. I loosened the nuts on the cross member and used a pry bar to get it to pull down some in order to get new ones in (old ones came out easily as they were in 2 pieces). I took the harness and power steering lines out of their brackets and removed the oil filter to have space to get the left side in and into position. Hope I never have to do that job again but if I do I now know how.
I referred to the fsm to find the torque spec for the bolts holding the crossmember under the transmission (or "rear engine") mount. Flanged hex head bolts with 2 tick marks and 10mm diameter means 32 ft-lbs. Seems a little light to me but that's what the book says - so that's what I did. Had to put a scissor jack under the cross member to push it up into position so I could get the bolts started as the new mount was too hard to push it up into place by hand. All back together now, oil changed, other fluids checked. Took her for a spin. Definitely better - but not as smooth a ride as I think it should be (or remember it being about 30k miles ago).
Prior to raising the engine for the engine mounts I removed the water valve. Dropped one of the damn 10mm nuts down along the firewall. Tried and tried and tried to find that little bastard. Eventually went to Harbor Freight and bought the $90 inspection scope thing. It comes with a few attachments for the camera end of the cable. A hook, a tiny little mirror AND A MAGNET. Found the nut (after about an hour), the magnet grabbed it and I pulled it up. Reinstalled. New bushings or new suspension components next up. Seems to do pretty good now with bumps in the road (like overfilled potholes) but pretty jarring when there are dips (like potholes) in the surface of the road.
New engine and cabin air filters done today at about 162.5k miles. I MIGHT have put a new engine air filter sometime in the last almost 5 years/almost 30k miles but I don't remember and I'm sure I haven't changed the cabin air filter. I'm ashamed of myself. Gotta be good for a few HPs.
06-24-20, 05:20 AM
