93 Toyota Camry Power steering Pump Leak

[JDBord]

Could anyone tell me what this thing is on the top of my power steering pump? It has 2 vacume hoses going to it, "is it some sort of booster"?
Fluid is leaking from this thing and I don't know if it can be tightened or replaced.
Any help would be appreciated,
JD

[Brian R.]

From your description, the two hoses you see are the power steering hoses. They should have a bolt on the top of each fitting to the pump. They can be tightened (38 ft-lbs) and/or replaced. If you loosen them, you will need new gaskets.

[JDBord]

No, this pump has a round module with 2 small hoses attached to it. It is screwed in or sandwiched in between the high preddure hose and the pump. My repair manule shows this pump on 4 cyl. 93 and 94 models, but doesn't give you any info on it.

[JDBord]

I called the Toyota Dealership and they said it's called a Vacume Switch. I asked what does it do and he said, "I don't know".
He told me that it is held in place with the bolt that holds the pressure hose to the power steering pump and there are Orings on it but you can't replace them you have to buy a new switch $115.00 (OH MY GOD)!!!!!!!!
I can't believe you can't replace the Orings, where did I put that bottle of fluid. OH there it is!

[jennner]

I had a leak in my power steering and it cost me $500+ to fix it all.... I have a 1991 Camry

[mlin]

Hi,

I am pretty new here. Great forum!

You guys were ripped off pretty badly. Don't trust the mechanics, especially from a dealership. Because most of them are greedy and want your money bad, it's very unlikely they will tell you the truth. Borrow a Chilton repair manual from the library and do some study first. This way, even you can't do the repair yourself, you know what it probably takes to get fixed.

My 88 Camry got a serious problem couple months ago and died on highway. It turned out that the alternator was bad. The dealer wanted $300 for the parts and $150 for labor, $450 total, plus a long list of stuff they want to replace, sum up to be over $3500. For a 16 years old car, they probably want to replace everything.

My dad stopped by over the weekend and called AAA to tow the car home from the dealership. He took off the alternator (3 bolts), took off the back cover (couple bolts), and pointed to me that the 2 brushes were worn out. He bought the brushes from a local hardware store (yes, hardware store, not auto parts store) and replaced them, put the alternator back and, like a magic, it worked again !!! The car has been running without any problem since and it's over 8000 miles already. How much for the brushes? $3.00 a pair!!! Can you believe it!!! And it took him about 5 minutes to get the alternator off the car, another 5 minutes to dis-assemble it, 15 minutes to put everything back and install it back to the car. Without repairing, it probably takes someone less than 10 minutes to replace it and the dealership ask for $150 !!!! That's even more rewarding than robbing a bank. He told me to check the repair manual first before asking anyone to do a repair and always ask for 2nd opinion.

The leak should be from a seal. I don't believe there is any seal that can't be replaced, how did they put it in then? It's just that a seal probably will make them only $2.00 profit, and a new pump can make them $75 or more. Of course they want to do the latter.

Just my 2 cents. Good luck with your repair.

[ramblinjack]

yes mlin, that was a glorious post-- fixin my lil toyota myself feels like taking a withdrawel out of fort knox...I hate dealerships so much, I now go to them for all kinds of FREE(I said free)advice..Just go there and act half naive works everytime-- what the hell, theyre gonna laugh at you anyhow!!! the scum, and the best part- often the mechanics' will come in and argue the best way to do the particular job--- more freebies!!

[Toysrme]

Posted by mlin - 12-20-2004 at 10:59 PM

Posted by ramblinjack - 10-26-2005 at 08:03 PM
Digging for gold man!


Just for future reference. Some fans are hydraulically powered. 92-95 v6's are. The two hydraulic lines on top power the radiator fan. The electrical plug on top of it is a solenoid to output either low, or high flow.

[typesix]

That vacuum switch with the two hoses introduces a small vacuum leak when the steering wheel is turned to either the right or left extreme limits. The vacuum leak will speed up the idle rpm to reduce chance of stalling.

[Picky Flicky]

Thank you for clearing this up. I removed a '90 Camry V6 power steering pump and now feel safe throwing it into a '93 4 cylinder Celica, even though it does not have the vacuum hoses.