Unclebob9

I finally got around to replacing the seals in my power steering unit on my 1991 LS400 with 180,000 miles on it.

The kit runs $24 from discounttoyotaparts.com,

It includes all seals and "O" rings in the unit. Level of difficulty is not too bad, took about 6 hours start to finish, but when I do my 1990 I think I will get it done in under 4 hours since I now know how to go about it. The hardest part was removal of the pump, since it is hard to see the bolts. There are 4 bolts holding it on2 from the front and 2 on the side at 90 degree angles to the first 2. In order to get to the front 2 you have to remove the pump pully and this requires a small gear puller.

Every seal and "O" ring was very hard and brittle, no wonder it was leaking!

If you have enough mechanical ability to remove the pump, you should be able to do the seal replacement yourself. The mechanical parts of the pump and bearing looked great even after 185,000 miles.

Best of luck: Bob

The leak is a small problem but can develope into a large one.  The leaking fluid WILL eventually cause your alternator to go out and May eventually foul your Crankshaft postioning sensor which will tell your computer not to produce spark to your plugs.

  A Power steering seal kit is available from: www.discounttoyotaparts.com for about $23 US. (they ship world wide)

  I am about to order one myself and replace the seals on both my 90 and 91 LS400.

  If it is just the tank seal "O" ring that is leaking the tank can fairly easily be removed from the pump while in the car and the "O" ring replaced.  But get a replacement "O" ring from a hydraulic shop, not your local hardware store and make sure you empty the tank of as much power steering fluid as possible before removing it and do everything in you power to prevent fluid from running down onto your alternator.

Best of luck: Bob

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The leak is a small problem but can develope into a large one. The leaking fluid WILL eventually cause your alternator to go out and May eventually foul your Crankshaft postioning sensor which will tell your computer not to produce spark to your plugs.

A Power steering seal kit is available from: www.discounttoyotaparts.com for about $23 US. (they ship world wide)

I am about to order one myself and replace the seals on both my 90 and 91 LS400.

If it is just the tank seal "O" ring that is leaking the tank can fairly easily be removed from the pump while in the car and the "O" ring replaced. But get a replacement "O" ring from a hydraulic shop, not your local hardware store and make sure you empty the tank of as much power steering fluid as possible before removing it and do everything in you power to prevent fluid from running down onto your alternator.

Best of luck: Bob

anyone got ballpark figures... I've got the usual problem [ with the leaking seals on the pump ] , so I'm shoppig around.

I'm in Dublin, so if you're UK then I could get it shipped over ... but what kind of prices < new or OEM > + average amount of labour ...

Any help useful, thanks. Chris

Hi Chris, Here is what I have found, website: discounttoyotaparts.com, sells the seal kits for around $23 US. They ship world wide.

I have replaced the "O" ring between the resouvior and the pump a coulpe of times with standard "O" rings and they just do not last and I believe I have leaks elsewhere. So I am going to order the complete seal kit and do the whole thing.

The Leaking fluid will eventually foul up your aternator and eventually can foul up your Crankshaft position sensor which will prevent spark ignition to the engine.

The LS400 is a fantastic car intil you develope a problem, due to all the sensors and precision components it can become frustrating locating the problem.

Since I have 3 of them, It is well worth my while learning as much as I can and repairing what I can on the cars.

I will post after I rebuild my power steering pump details of the project.

Best of luck: Bob

NGK also makes iridium plugs. any iridium is far superior to Platnum. you can find them on eBay very reasonable.

Follow-up;

It seems to have been the crankshaft positioning sensor.

The leaking fluid from the power steering pump made its way down ond fouled it. After cleaning it up a bit, the car is now running. We will see if it keeps running for awhile.

Thanks: Bob

I have an LS400 in excellent condition with 175,000 miles on the clock.

Although I have had numerous cars in my life and normally change at least once a year, I have now reached a stage where I felel like keeping this one.

I have 3 LS 400's. my 1990 now has 235,000 miles, does not use a drop of oil in between changes, which I do once a year using synthetic, and it gets up to 25 MPG on trips and I drive 80 MPH.

The only real maintenance is changing the oil and every 100,000 miles change the timing belt and water pump.

Bob

I have a 1991 LS400 that has no spark after it sits for a few hours. Thgis is an occassional problem. the first time it happened it had sat for a week, when I came back from vacation it would not start. I discopnnected the Battery for a day which reset the computer and it started and ran fine for about a month. then the same problem. this has happened with increasing frequency since. Thinking that it might be the computer, I replaced the computer with a used one I got really cheap and it ran fine for about 1 week. then it would not start when I came out from work and this time disconnecting the Battery didnot make it start. I switched back to the original computer and still no start. I checked the coils and the distributer connections and all appear to be fine.

I was told that it might be the Cam shaft positioning sensor, but I am not sure how to check them? (can I bypass them?)

The engine turns over fine and there are no warning lights on the dash, just no spark.

Right now the car is sitting in the parking lot at work and I wold like to get it started so I can at least get it home.

Feel free to send me an E mail if you have any constructive thoughts.

thanks: Bob

Unclebob9@aol.com