High Pressure Power Steering Line/Hose

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Last year, I replaced the rusted/dripping P/S return line on my wifes '01 Lexus RX-300. Actually, I made the replacement part by buying a foot long piece of steel GM fuel line(already pkgd) as it had the correct tip & O-ring that goes into the steering rack. Along with 5ft of rubber tranny hose for the rest of the assembly and some clamps. Total cost about $40 bucks and it will never rust again.

This past week(July 4th week) I removed the High Pressure P/S line as it didn't look any better for rust as where it's placed in the rack, it get all of the road/salt splash in the driver side wheel well.

Man, what a job! I never want to do this again on any car. I removed everything that I could without breaking anything in order to remove this line which ran from the passenger side to the driver side is an "up/down, over one way to another, bends around" and all for no reason that I can imagine with the exception of, it's easy to assemble at the factory.

Total time was 15 hours.
7 hours to remove one day. 7/7/11

The next morning 7/8/11, I drove over to a radiator shop in the city and they replaced only the bad/rusted steel tubing and high pressure hose with a beautiful new crimp. The way it's supposed to be made! The rest of the tubing was beautiful as it's place away from any moisture/salt. Total cost was $85 bucks. They had it by 3:00 pm. I waited till the next day to reinstall.

In the mean time(while waiting for my parts to be made), I removed the whole air box and anything that was in the way so I could inspected the Throttle Body's and IAC Valve and both looked perfect. Along with the tranny speed sensor(just below the 02 sensor) and anything else that I have always wanted to pull apart and inspect.

7/9/11 I installed the P/S hose and it took me another 5 hours to reinstall. Trying to manuver/twist and turn the tubing in order to fit it in the tight spaces and get everyting lined up. Now, keep in mind that I'm working alone so, I have to climb under the car and back out over to the driver side wheel well. And keep doing this until everything is perfect. Done for the day.

The last day, 7/10/11, I buttoned up every thing and checked for leaks. I reinstalled the air box and anything else that I had removed to make this job a bit easier. Drove the car and came back to see if there were any leaks and top off the fluid resivior.

"Every bone/muscle in my body hurts".

I understand why the dealer wants $1600 dollars...Of course, the tech's that would have done the job would probably have removed the suspension/steering rack and who know what else, which would have cost me extra money for an allignment. I didn't want to remove all of that stuff cause it would have taken be two weeks to do a simple job.

I'll always do my own work as I have been doing for 40+ yrs but, the MFG's aren't making things any easier to work on and I can understand why the dealers/shops are getting this HUGE money to perform what used to be some of the simplest tasks. I have never had the luxury of a LIFT so, I have to do everything on the ground. I have paid in the past for jobs that I could have done myself but, I won't work in 6" of snow/freezing cold. I have my limits.

Although the job was still good theropy for me, it was also frustrating at times.

My wife love this car and doesn't really like anything new that we look at. Every other SUV, Lexus or otherwise, she can't see out of as the glass in shorter and piller thicker and head rests are in the way(all in the name of crash protection). I must say that the view out of the RX-300 is great! The car is rust free, floor boards/rockers underneath and body panels. Other lines such as brake lines and anything else I can see are all perfect but, I'd make them anyway myself. She love driving this car so, we're keeping it! Even if the tranny goes, "Kapoot", she wants another tranny even though it may cost $4000 grand. She doesn't car!

I don't know how long we'll keep this car but for now, my wife isn't interested in anything new. I think she would cry if anything happened to her baby. It still rides well and pretty quiet but, not as well nor as quiet as our friends new '11 Chevy Equinox. Well, it's 10 years old!
 
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Its experiences like that which make me think about never buying another product from an automaker. My wife's PT has a few features that border on that level of difficulty (I don't ever plan to replace the timing belt myself on that one, the accessory belts are bad enough). But it redeems itself in other ways- one of the easiest filter and oil changes I've ever seen, and I could probably replace the whole steering rack in a couple of hours. And like your situation, she LOVES the car.
 
I could go on for hours on how unfriendly cars are to repair. It'll remain that way. No one goes in a dealership and asks how repairable a car is before buying it, and no automaker has lost sales because a model is difficult to repair.

I don't need the therapy of wrenching. I'm tired after work and have lots of other stuff to do than deal with the shortcomings of an automotive design. The only time anyone hears me swearing is when I'm in the garage. Though I do have the satisfaction of a job well done and enjoy the savings in money.
 
My parents had a 2007 RX and the VVTi oil line blew. Oil went all over the place. Towed the SUV home and I started to remove the one little 2" section of the line that some genius decided to make from rubber. 8 hours later and I was still trying to remove that line!!!!! The RX is the hardest vehicle I have ever worked on!
Ended up having it towed 60 miles away to the dealership.
The loaner was a 2010 RX and low and behold the oil line had been revised to all metal. The way it should have been to start with!
Anyhow, I share the same passion as you!
 
Originally Posted By: cchase
It seems odd that it rusted out in 10 years. Sounds like a satisfying job anyway.


Well, here's the thing! Last year the return line leaked/dripped right where it was clipped to the frame(at the clip). Also, you need to see the salt we use here in western NY state.

Because of this, I decided to change the high pressure line this summer only because of how it looked as far as I could see. Which, I couldn't see much as everything blocks your view of any/everything. Putting a light in an area to see, blocks your view.

When I "finaly" removed the high pressure line, I could see that it was thicker steel and not corroded as bad as I originaly thought. So with the line removed, I wasn't putting it back in without having the rusty parts remade.
 
Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
Its experiences like that which make me think about never buying another product from an automaker. My wife's PT has a few features that border on that level of difficulty (I don't ever plan to replace the timing belt myself on that one, the accessory belts are bad enough). But it redeems itself in other ways- one of the easiest filter and oil changes I've ever seen, and I could probably replace the whole steering rack in a couple of hours. And like your situation, she LOVES the car.



You're right, you don't want to do a timing belt on it or several other things...
 
Originally Posted By: The_Eric
Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
Its experiences like that which make me think about never buying another product from an automaker. My wife's PT has a few features that border on that level of difficulty (I don't ever plan to replace the timing belt myself on that one, the accessory belts are bad enough). But it redeems itself in other ways- one of the easiest filter and oil changes I've ever seen, and I could probably replace the whole steering rack in a couple of hours. And like your situation, she LOVES the car.



You're right, you don't want to do a timing belt on it or several other things...


I usually have the timing belts/water pumps done professionaly. Yeah it's alot of money but, should I decide to do my wifes Lexus, I'll be retired at this point. I can take all the time in the world.
 
Originally Posted By: Char Baby

I usually have the timing belts/water pumps done professionaly. Yeah it's alot of money but, should I decide to do my wifes Lexus, I'll be retired at this point. I can take all the time in the world.


I usually don't by cars timed with rubber bands in the first place. :)

The PT is my second belt-timed car ever and pretty much totally opposite of the other one. The first was a 1993 Eagle Vision with the longitudinally-mounted Chrysler 3.5L SOHC v6- the first generation with the iron block. A timing belt/water pump on that car took me maybe... MAYBE 3 hours, and that was with frequent breaks and being VERY careful to check the final timing 6 or 8 times before firing it up. It was only slightly more trouble than changing the AC and alternator belts. GREAT car, GREAT serviceability. Spark plugs were a half hour for all six. I had reservations about buying a first-year anything and 1993 was the first year for the 3.5 v6, for the LH-series cars, and for the 42LE transmission. But it was rock-solid reliable for 260,000 miles. I miss it.
 
Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
Originally Posted By: Char Baby

I usually have the timing belts/water pumps done professionaly. Yeah it's alot of money but, should I decide to do my wifes Lexus, I'll be retired at this point. I can take all the time in the world.


I usually don't by cars timed with rubber bands in the first place. :)

The PT is my second belt-timed car ever and pretty much totally opposite of the other one. The first was a 1993 Eagle Vision with the longitudinally-mounted Chrysler 3.5L SOHC v6- the first generation with the iron block. A timing belt/water pump on that car took me maybe... MAYBE 3 hours, and that was with frequent breaks and being VERY careful to check the final timing 6 or 8 times before firing it up. It was only slightly more trouble than changing the AC and alternator belts. GREAT car, GREAT serviceability. Spark plugs were a half hour for all six. I had reservations about buying a first-year anything and 1993 was the first year for the 3.5 v6, for the LH-series cars, and for the 42LE transmission. But it was rock-solid reliable for 260,000 miles. I miss it.


I loved those first gen Intrepid/Vision/Concoard. Couldn't beleive these were Chrysler Products. Drove great! Both the 3.3L and the 3.5L were nice engines as we had several friends that had'em! The second gen's didn't do much for me except the 300M.

For a while there,(80's-90's) it was hard not to buy a timing belt engine especially in the smaller engines(4cyl) that I was buying. If I had a car that was a non-zero tolerance engine(many Mopars), I had nothing but problems with the rest of the car. If I bought a car(Import) that had a timing belt and a zero tolerance engine, the whole vehicle was reliable(Honda/Toyota) but, I just had to have the belts changed out every 100K miles. For the difference in quality/reliability(at that time), it was worth it for me.

Many differences today. Most, if not all vehicles are quite reliable and use timing chains. But, if they have belts, it isn't going to be easy without yanking the engine as you can't get to anything without doing so, as I mentioned earlier.
 
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After a string of headache jobs like the one you had (water pump + belts, oil pan, burried A/C compressor, rotted brake lines, rusted ball joint replacement) I finally had a breath of fresh air last night replacing a pair of upper control arms with ball joints.

Despite being in place for 17 years, the ball joints just popped out of the suspension with a couple well placed whacks with a 4lb hammer. Total time for the job roughly two hours, and thats only because I took apart the ball joint boots to add more grease (no zerks).

So nice to work on suspension without having to cut parts off with my angle grinder!!!
laugh.gif
 
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