Reservoir Is Gushing

[SOUTHBEACHLEXUS]

Reservoir is gushing even without me turning the wheel.

I just replaced the power steering twice, got the pump to finally work after hours of bleeding the system,but it is still not correct. when I turn the steering to lock it makes a loud grinding sound, the other way ditto. The pump is real slow meaning when I turn the wheel I have to wait a sec then it will kick in.

This is my second thread in 4 days on the same topic, I really need help on this.

I have searched on this and other forums for answers but have come up short, I am very frustrated and financial situations have kept me from going to the dealer, although my friend is a certified mechanic and has looked and worked on the car, he is also stumped and wants to replace one thing at a time and see if it works. :cries:

[monarch]

Can you start from the beginning and tell us again why you changed the pump and whether or not the old pump was working right (from a steering effort standpoint). Then tell us what parts from the old pump were tranferred to the new pump and whether or not the vacuum hoses to the air control valve were hooked up exactly like they were originally on the old pump.

[JDOwen2]

Did you try this:

Bleeding Air From Power Steering Pump:

info provided by lexcoupe94:

STEP 1: Check power steering fluid level. Fill if necessary.

STEP 2: Warm up the car 5 minutes or so to heat up the power steering fluid.

STEP 3: Jack the front end up and prop up on jackstands so that the wheels turn free.

STEP 4: Take off the power steering fluid reservoir cap and stuff a rag around the reservoir to catch any fluid.

STEP 5: With the car running, turn the wheel full left and right about 10 times, then straighten wheels and check fluid.

STEP 6: If fluid level is down, fill to proper hot level and turn full left and right 10 more times.

STEP 7:Repeat until no more air or fluid burps out.

STEP 8:Lower wheels back down and recheck fluid.

[SOUTHBEACHLEXUS]

Can you start from the beginning and tell us again why you changed the pump and whether or not the old pump was working right (from a steering effort standpoint).  Then tell us what parts from the old pump were tranferred to the new pump and whether or not the vacuum hoses to the air control valve were hooked up exactly like they were originally on the old pump.

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[SOUTHBEACHLEXUS]

It all started by the famous grinding noise every morning till it warmed up, then I was sitting in my friends driveway with the car running and It made a noise then locked up and started pouring fluid on the driveway.

So I change the pump bled the lines and no power, I thought it was a bad pump so I returned it got another one installed it made sure all the lines were back in the right location but still no power.

I was reading on another posts that it took someone a while to bleed the lines so I thought I would give it a try, after about 2 hours of doing so I started getting somewhere, it makes a loud grinding noise when the pump kicks in and is not smooth like before. I look in the reservoir with the car shut off( cause with the car running the fluid gushes out the reservoir 5-6 inches) there are tiny white bubbles in there, so I bleed for another hour. I cannot believe that there can be all that air in the lines after bleeding it so long and why would the fluid be gushing like that?

thanks for all the replies

[JDOwen2]

How are you bleeding the lines?

[SOUTHBEACHLEXUS]

How are you bleeding the lines?

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I turn the wheel to lock hold for 3 seconds then back the other way 3 seconds.

Is this the correct way, should I put alot of pressure or light?

[Moony400]

Proper bleeding is very important in replacing the power steering pump. Mine was leaking about a month ago. I bought an after market one from autozone $200. A buddy of mine who has been a mechanic at a Toyota Dealership in Tacoma, WA for sometime now was working on swapping out the unit. What happen after he swapped it was the way Southbeachlexus described it. We thought the pump was bad, so took it back. Unfortunately autozone didn't have another one. I told him about rebuilding it to save some money and stay with OEM pump. He was able to get the rebuild kit for $23.00 and spent about 3 hours to rebuild it. After installing the rebuild pump, he got the same problem. He finally called some of co-workers and went over the bleeding steps. Now everything is working fine. The pump from autozone was probable working fine, but we thought it was bad due to improper bleeding. I check the pump every now and then to make sure it's not leaking still. Wish I could tell you how he did it, but I wasn't there. He told all about it when I picked up the car. Here's a site that tells you how to flush the the power steering fluid on a 91 LS400 http://www.lexls.com/psflush.html. Also shows how to rebuild the power steering pump. Should be pretty much the same way. Good luck.

Moony400