YEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS!!

[azekeil]

My car's power steering broke recently. Took it to a garage who quoted 2 hours labour and 160 quid for the Lexus power steering cooling pipe, plus as the pump was most likely gone as well, 3 hours labour (no, they can't be combined as they're in different places) and 695 quid for a new pump. Pattern parts aren't available for those bits either.

So I was looking at the worst part of a grand to get my car back on the road.

Well, that was until today. I woke up thinking - if it's just a cooling pipe, why not see if it's possible to replace the pipe? I can refill the system and see if the pump's knackered at any rate, and eBay have pumps (in America unfortunately) for around £100.

So I removed the old pipe (god that was fiddly), got some copper pipe of the same external diameter from B&Q, gently hand bent it and put it in place, got some more power steering fluid and started her up. A bit of a whine but the power steering works perfectly! The whine is only slightly noticable as you pull out of a junction, and is practically unnoticable when you're just driving around.

So, 3-4 hours of my time, and a bill of £40, plus a euphoric feeling of success (those who know me will know that I've not had the best of luck fixing vehicles before.. I've kind of been put off by past attempts). So this was a huge win for me :)

Comments

[siani-hedgehog.livejournal.com]

when one of the power steering pipes on my old hearse went many years ago, i took the broken one to a hydraulic components manufacturer who dealt mostly in industrial machinery, and they knocked me up a new one for $20. the nearest equivalent i could find was $75 for a pattern part. i have no idea why car parts are so often STUPIDLY expensive.

[gerald_duck]

Don't forget there are plenty of LS400s in breakers' yards you can scavenge things like PAS pumps from.

For example, this one for fifty quid on eBay. If you search a bit harder, you find lots of people who list just a couple of specimen parts of a breaker but say in comments that they'll put other bits of the car up for auction if you ask them.

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

Price gouging. Captive market.

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

I did try a couple of parts finders, but neither of them got back to me :(

It's working for now, so if/when it does finally die, I'll be sure to check a little harder :)

[gashinryu.livejournal.com]

Well done, old son. We'll make an engineer of you yet. ;-)

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

Heh, thanks. It's been too long since we've seen each other!

[beebyb.livejournal.com]

Gosh, how wildly satisfying............

[xidia.livejournal.com]

Well done!! I'm struggling to find the bonnet release for my car, which is making filling up the screenwash problematic.

Might be worth pouncing on a good deal on a pump now, if you think it's on the way out generally?

[ev1ldonut.livejournal.com]

Nicely done :)

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

Nicely done!

[dragon-prince.livejournal.com]

yesterday I couldnt spell engineer now I are one