Today my LS dash lit up and many of the warning light came on like coolant, antilock (on and off), battery, oil, etc. The indicators would get brighter when I used my turn signals and or breaks. It finally go to the point where the car died at at stop sign. I understand that this is possible due to a leaking power steering pump seal leaking on the alternator causing the alternator to go bad. Does anybody have anything that can help steer me in the right direction. The car has only 130K miles on it and is almost perfect in every way. I understand that it is about $1200 to replace both the pump and alternator and I am trying to determine if this is worth doing or not.

 

I say yes. Those are things most shade tree mechanics can do. Just get up under it and make its leaking. Also check your battery.

 

If you get the parts yourself I think you would be in the $700 price range if not less. Denso reman. $118 and a pump is about $150 Make sure you diagnose it fully first then order your parts...

 

how to fix this for CHEAP

you can get a LIFETIME warranty alternator at Advance Auto Parts (it's well made) for ~$144 and do it yourself (easy)

the new alternator will run for many months or even a year even with the PS fluid leaking on it, giving you time to contemplate which PS components are actually leaking and where to buy them at the best price. - the pump may not even be what's leaking, could be high pressure line or reservoir O-ring or idle up solenoid or ALL of the above!

 

I garauntee if you bring your alternator to advanced auto with power steering fluid they will not honor the warranty

 

Welcome to Club Lexus.

Toyota San Luis Obispo is kinda far. Any Toyota authorized repair in Paso? I'm curious as well since I'm in the area with regularity.

As for whether is worthwhile, if all it needs is this, these are capable of easily being 200K+ mile drivers. If it hasn't seen good maintenance practices I would check other parts of the car to determine if it is practical. Is the tranny fluid red or burned? Has it had regular oil changes? Do you need to add oil between change intervals. Are the electrical components of the car in working order? Mainly is the dash functioning properly.

Off hand, I would say if these are the only two problems, fix it. These cars are excellent.

 

and where do you get that??

I wouldn't bring it in with PS fluid dripping out of it, wipe it down with brake cleaner and let it sit for a day and wipe it down again, but never have had Advanced Auto Parts deny anything under warranty, they don't need the bad press! - besides, they aren't going to disassemble it and look for PS fluid, that's ridiculous, they will just hand me a new part, no questions asked, like they always do!

 

just to make sure, with a brand new battery installed, put a voltmeter across the battery while the car is running and see if you have at least 13.5V with headlights off, and 13V with headlight on.

if you don't have 13.5V, very likely to be the alternator, if you do have 13.5 volts or more, then you may have dirty battery connections (disassemble the + side) or bad ECU caps or a bad ground.