Oil Pressure Switch

[tDR]

My Supe started leaking like a fountain, turns out it's the oil pressure switch after having a good look. I've ordered the part from Toyota which was £18.51 + VAT and am going to be changing it at the weekend. It looks a right b*stard of a job as the power steering pump and air con condenser are in the way. Anyone got tips / diagrams etc. on how to change it over quickly and easily? Do I really have to remove the above as I suspect to change the oil pressure switch?

TIA,

Brian.

[richardharmon]

Yes, afraid so!

I had to change mine not too long back. Best thing to do is to get stuck in. When I changed mine, I found that Toyota had altered the design of the new switch and you need a smaller socket for the new one, had to go out and buy another long reach socket. Before you remove the AC and power steering pump, make a note of the path the serpentine belt takes around the pulleys, I didn’t and had to work it out afterwards. The easiest thing to do is just take all the mounting bolts (and one nut if I remember) off both pumps and just move them out of the way, no need to disconnect hoses or anything. After moving the pumps you should be able to get to the switch from the top. I looked at it for ages before deciding it was just going to be easier to take these bits off. I found it could be a bit of a sod lining up the bolt holes afterwards, thread all the bolts in loosely before tightening any of them, I found that if you tighten one before putting another one in they don’t line up correctly.

Didn’t take too long when I got stuck in, pretty easy job really I would say.

[tDR]

Cheers Richard,

That's just the advice I was looking for :)

Roughly how long did the job take you?

Seems like a small weakness of the mkiv supra, oil pressure switch going seems fairly common now. At least Toyota saw fit to redesign the switch. There's also a seperate part no. for the VVTi engines so they must have accepted it as a weakness.