DannyCO

My son has a 96 ES300 and thinks the thermostat may be going bad. I have a 96 Service Manual that say that the thermostat is on the passenger side of the engine near the water pump in a housing that connects to the lower radiator hose. The problem is that his lower radiator goes to a housing on the drivers side of the engine. When I googled it, I get conflicting info. Some say the thermostat is on the drivers side and other say it is on the passenger side. Where is it REALLY? Did Lexus change locations in mid-year or something?

Also, is the cooling fan really driven by the power steering pump and is not electric? That just seems dumb to me!

Thanks,
Danny

LeX2K

It's on the left side of the engine. edit - yes the cooling fan is indeed hydraulic driven by the PS pump. An over engineered setup to be sure, but on the plus side the fan is very quiet, and it is also infinitely variable so it only spins as fast as it needs to.

DannyCO

His power steering pump has been loosing fluid and his car has begun to overheat and coolant would come out of the overflow. I never thought the two could be related! We were going to change the thermostat yesterday and couldn't decide where it was. While google'ing where the thermo was, I found a thread that said the coolant fan was hydraulic! We filled his power steering up and he has not had a problem yet with overheating. Who woulda thought?

Thanks!