williamb82

well, i fixed this issue this weekend. the power steering pump would whine extremely loud as soon as i cranked the car, but the fluid is full. on supras, there is a screen in the bottom of the reservoir that gets clogged. you just take the reservoir off and blow it out backwards with brake parts cleaner to solve it. well, on the ls400, mine had no screen.

what i did was turn the pump by hand. it wasnt pumping at all. sprayed some brake clean in the inlet and repeated. it began pumping a tiny amount. the old fluid coming out of the return line was far too red and seemed "chunky" with clumps of thick goo. i kept spraying more brake clean and kept rotating by hand. took awhile but it seemed to free up and pump like new again and the fluid coming out seemed a bt thinner from mixing wit hthe brake clean. put the reservoir back on and filled it up and plugged the return nipple with a finger and kept spinning by hand till new clean fluid came out. put the return line back on, belt back on, topped it off and started it.

it was still whining, but not as loud. took it lock to lock 4-5 times, then went for a test drive. the more i drove it the quieter it got until finally the noise was gone and the steering was smooth as silk, even easier then before. guess i just had to wait till all the air bubbles got worked out.

anyhow, if anyone else is having a similar issue, i suggest flushing the power steering. i wouldnt pull the reservoir though. just disconnect the return hose. run a longer one to a empty jug and put a cap on the nipple on the reservoir and run it till all the old fluid is out. might have to put a solvent in the reservoir to clear up the clog if its as bad as mine was. previous owner was filling it with stop leak as the old rack had a bad leak. kinda dumb since he had a replacement rack for it. he gave it to me with the car when i bought it. was the first thing i swapped out on the car when i got it.