ychachad

This concerns my 1992 LS400.

Well, this problems started a few weeks ago, when I was behind this salting/sanding/snow truck. All the salt and sand went inside my engine compartment. A few days later I washed the area around it, but I started hearing a humming sound. It progressively got worse over the next few days. I changed the serpentine belt. Then yesterday all hell broke lose. I was driving when I started getting this massive vibration and grinding noise. Luckily I was 2 miles from home, and I limped her home.
At first I thought it was the timing belt, but after removing all the coverings and exposing the belt, it looks great. Then I looked at the radiator fan and it has a lot of play in it. As I fired her up, I watched the timing belt turn without any problems. The fan was the problem. To make sure I removed the serpentine belt, and she was as smooth as smooth can be.
Has anyone replaced the bearing in the radiator fan? Any tips on how to do it, or where to purchase the parts? Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

hyperopt

That's a special needle bearing and I could not find the replacement bearing for it anywhere. Only the entire fan bracket is available at the dealer.

I also stopped washing the engine after my fan bracket went south.

lspower

if you are refering to the clutch fan, which i think you are....i would buy a can of water wetter (redline) (buy a trd thermostat 160) and take the fan off, put 3 washers behind the oem nuts and drive it.... i discovered this when i forgot to put the power to the pos side of my battery for my electric fans, amazingly enough the oem a/c fans came on as a backup (damn the japanese are smart) and it was like this for a week or so till i fig it out... so you will be fine free mod, more power, cool running engine

ps if you dont like my find and want the oem clutch fan pm me i have one sitting in my room i will sell..

-ryan

ychachad

Ryan,
Thanks for the tip. I have heard of the fan/electric fan mod. With my pending move to Florida, I don't want to delete the fan altogether. I will try and mess with the fan, and try to do the electric fan setup, but if things don't work out, I'll be sure to contact you regarding your fan. I see you are in PA. I am near the Pittsburgh area. I'll try to post a writeup if I can. Now if it ever starts warming up and if it ever stop raining here...............
BTW, what year is your LS? Thanks

ychachad

I replaced the fan clutch today, but that is not the problem. The problem is the pulley and the bearing on the fan bracket, behind the fan clutch. Is that the water pump unit? Can anyone please help. If it is the water pump, then I am going to take her in. Thanks in advance.

hyperopt

As I stated before, your problem lies in the fan bracket. Replace it with a new one and be done!

ychachad

Thanks again

ychachad

Thanks Hyperopt. I checked into the nationwide salvage database for the Fan Bracket and the best price I got was $178 for a 1991 with 150k miles!!! Not worth it. So I checked with some Lexus dealerships. The prices I got quoted ranged from $208 at Rohrick Lexus, to $240 at Lexus of Wexford, to $270 at Pohanka Lexus. What a range of pricing. I ordered from Rohrick Lexus and it will be home in 2 days. Thanks again. Moral of the story, shop around even if it a Lexus dealership.

My mechanic now refuses to put it in since I did not buy it from him and he wanted $350, installation extra. So I have to find someone else or attempt it myself. I know the procedure from Lextreme's website. Do I need the Harmonic Balancer pulley remover to attempt this or not? anyone???

ychachad

I just finished the replacement of the fan bracket, and water pump. Details to perform the job were superbly outlined at http://www.lexls.com/timingbelt.html . Thanks LexLS. The job was a monster, but I was able to complete it in about 9 hours single-handedly. Now my back and arms are killing me. A word of advice: Anyone attempting to do this should get a helper who is mechanically inclined, and an impact wrench. I didn't have either. Also keep handy an oil pan for tranny fluid, clean coke bottles for reusing the coolant (as mine was new), several garbage bags in which to keep the parts and related nuts and bolts, a marker to mark the bags, printed directions in a 3 ring binder from LEXLS's website (preferably in colour), a pen to add to those notes, and scotch tape and labels to mark the spark plug wires to their locations on the distributor. This job cost me about $400 in parts, but it saved me $1200 in labour. She is running absolutely purrrrrrrfectly.
PS: this is a great time to change timing belt, spark plugs, coolant, serpentine belt, complete tranny fluid flush, and oil change as most of the parts are out anyway.

A big THANKS to HYPEROPT for diagnosing the problem.

hyperopt

Good to hear that the problem was fixed and you did that yourself. Great accomplishment!
I too changed the timing belt, water pump, ect... when I changed the fan bracket and it took couple of days for back and hands to recovery but it was all worth it.