Touge man

i am about to replace my power steering pump and alternator, and on a scale 1/10 how hard is it to do?

saber

About a 4 - moderately difficult and quite time consuming since the radiator / serpentine belt / air cleaner / duct to throttle body need to come off for good access to the pump and alternator.

I removed the alternator first from below and then the pump from above. Pump is mounted with four 14mm bolts. Pulley on pump needs to come off and this is what stumped me since the puller you can rent at Autozone doesn't come with instructions on how to mount and operate the puller. The PS fluid reservoir is mounted on the pump with three 12 mm bolts http://www.saber.net/~monarch/psreservoir.JPG It is extremely important to clean the filter screen inside the reservoir with brake cleaner, then flush the reservoir out with fresh Dexron auto trans fluid. Restricted screens are what cause high pressures and temperatures in the system to begin with and associated leaks and deterioration of seals. For the same reasons, the filter screen inside the steering rack solenoid needs to be cleaned http://www.saber.net/~monarch/psclean.jpg Finally, the air control valve (also called idle up valve) on the power steering pump should be removed and replaced
http://www.saber.net/~monarch/removeairvalve.JPG as it is another source of fluid loss.

Some owners buy a PS pump reseal kit at Lexus for $21 and change as many accessible 0-rings on the pump as possible as this sometimes stops pump leaks, especially when done in conjunction with cleaning the filter screens and replacement of the air valve as described above. The more mechanically inclined know how to replace all the seals in the pump. Since the pump itself doesn't wear out (unless it was starved of fluid) replacing the seals is all that is needed.