arielb1

I need some karma here...thank you.

My 94 4Runner has been leaking at the steering pump for many many years. While looking from underneath the car, I could see a small drip forming from the back plate of the power steering pump. The cap that sits on top of the reserviour is loose also. It freely spins. Not sure if this spinning is normal.

Bug1961 did a great writeup on rebuilding the pump for $30. The rebuild kit is $49 at my local dealer. Im thinking of just replacing it with a lifetime pump from AutoZone for $69.99. I have to use my existing reserviour though. However, I just discovered that this leak can be from an o-ring between the reserviour and pump.

Question:

1. Once I get the pump off, should I drain it to get new fluid? Ive never changed the pump fluid..just keep adding. It has 119K miles.

2. Once I get the new pump on, do I just fill the reservoiur with new fluid? Anything else I need to watch out for?
Gotchas?

3. If I dont take the pump off and it is the oring, should I still drain the old fluid out?

Many thanks..

myyota

It would probably be easier to just replace it. Your not using power steering fluid in the power steering are you ?, if so thats might be why its leaking, toyota uses ATF for power steering fluid.