1997 Camry V6 PS Pump ?'s

[MARK2]

I have a leaking power steering pump on my 97 Camry V6. The shop wants to charge an arm and a leg to replace it. Does anyone have a writeup or link on how to do this job?

Many thanks!

Mark

[hwmspec]

Mark,

I recently had my power steering pump replaced on a 95 Camry.

I was going to do the task myself (lots of experience) and had even started removing nuts and bolts. I had a Chilton's manual in-hand.

When I couldn't figure out which bolts held the PS unit on, I buttoned it up and took it to a friend. The friend does this stuff for a living. All the tools, hoist, etc.

Long story short. He charged me 180 bucks (labor - I had purchased the part); it took him 3 hrs to get it off. He said it was the worse PS pump he had ever seen. I had to agree.

It may not be the PS unit. I would recommend taking your car to a car wash and cleaning the oil and goo from around the PS unit. Then see if it a hose that is leaking.

Harv

[Jimnist]

I kinda do, but not for a 97 Camry, sorry. Info provided below was done on a 2nd gen Camry.

1) Raise the front of the car and support with side/chassis stands.
2) Get most of the power steering fluid out by diconnecting the return line to the reservoir and then turning from full lock to full lock. Do this with car raised, makes turning easier, do it with engine off.
3) Remove crossmember, any covers in the way and disconnect exhaust. Depends where and how it's routed for your v6, but after the exhuast manifold(the pipes, not where it bolts into the engine block), so that you have more working room. You can work it out yourself, i don't know as i did it on my i4.
5) If possible, remove pump from engine block or member ( i think that US had the pump mounted on the cross or centremember, but mine was on the block via mount). If you can't just move onto next step.
4)Disconnect the power steering hoses, making note of which hose is which (one is high pressure and one is low pressure). High pressure is between pump and rack, low is between reservoir and pump.
5) Then if you haven't already, take the pump off.

Yay! half way done.

Get the new/re-conditioned pump and high pressure hose gaket.

5) Connect the hoses back onto the pump and re-mount pump or vice versa. Make sure you get a new high pressure hose gasket and fit it.
7) Re-attach everything you disconnected (exhuast, crossmember and covers)
8) Bleed system. Fill with watever the manual says, should be ATF Dex 3/III

In a nutshell, really. You should get the general idea, but if you can't do any of the above yourself or wokr out how to, i'd suggest you to back away from your tools and take it to a mechanic. Similarly, if you don't have the tools to do certain things, either buy them or take it to a mechanic. You NEED a good breaker bar and torque wrench to get the crossmember back on properly. Mine needed to be torqued to 207Nm. Don't know what yours needs to be.

[MARK2]

Thanks for all the info guys, I really appreciate it!