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Coupes & Convertibles Toyota Solara Toyota Solara
3934 messages, Last post on Nov 23, 2009 at 10:27 AM
You are in the Toyota Solara Forum. Your Host is claires
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Hi- I bought I 2002 Black SLE Solara in October. Took it in yesterday to Firestone to have tires rotated (12,000 Miles). They called and told me that the front tires were badly worn on the outside (alignment/toe issue). Since I bought the car, I too have noticed that it drifted side to side (drove me crazy) but got use to it over the past 9 months and assumed it was normal based on other comments from Solara drivers. The dealership is looking at the front end this week. 1) Has anyone had this problem with the front end alignment balding the tires? 2) Should Toyota replace my front tires since their alignment issues caused the balding? I don't want to spend money on new tires in 2 years due to premature wearing. Thoughts? Other than that, 0 issues with my car. I agree, paint is soft and scratches/chips easier than most cars, but oh well. |
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| I'm here. I lurk more in this topic than I post but I'm here. As for the transmission delay, that actually is something I am aware of and it is normal. The tech in question overstated the time, but if you jump in, start the car and immediately put it into gear, it will crawl. If you let it idle for long enough to put your seatbelt on, it will not happen. I discovered this while selling cars and moving them around the parking lot. Minor adjustments to driving habits overcome it. | |
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If you think that is normal, it's time to test drive another car! I have never had a car that had that problem, not even with a Chrysler transmition!?! Good thing none of us seem to be using our Solaras for get-away cars, cuz while waiting for the tranny to warm up, nobody would get anywhere! ;^) IMO, there giving you the shaft! Tires bald at 12,000 miles!?! My input about the drift/pull, and alignment issue is it will never go away, as I have found at 38,000 miles. I did not get premature wear from it, as it was aligned about every 6-8 weeks for the first year, and I just gave up. Michelins are shot at 40,000 miles, but what did I expect!?! They retail for around $130.00 to replace, per tire, if I chose to use the same brand. I posted about my last alignment, with the dealers new $80,000 something $$ machine,which gives them a printout of the specs using lasers, etc. The "SAI" (I believe) was out of spec (see GOOGLE), and highlighted in RED as it was recommended by the new machine that those specs were dangerous and could cause loss of control of the vehicle. That was after the alignment!!! The service advisor told me they could not fix it, cuz they did not know what it was. I drives straighter for a few hundred miles after alignemnets, but never like any of the loaner cars I get, or renatl cars I use frequently. My 2 cents, get used to it, or sell it. Cliffy, since my transmition does not seem to have this crawl, is there something wrong with it????When I returned from Europe after being there a week, I had the taxi drop me at my car, I jumped in, and headed out for a soda with ice, as I had difficulty find ice cubes in Europe (Super size Coke Lite)! My car started and moved with no hesitation. There was a loud bang when starting, but no tranny hesitation! |
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| I'm not talking about the 30 to 60 second lag that the poster's tech described. I'm talking about shifting into gear IMMEDIATELY after starting. You will note the the RPMs start out fairly high at start up. If you shift during this time, something happens in the transmission that causes it to crawl. It is not a defect. It is a design characteristic. Most likely, you have never shifted into gear this quickly and would be unaware of this. | |
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I picked my car up and had another discussion with the tech. Cliffy's description is perfect. If the car has been unused for 5-7 days, it will crawl for a while until it operates normally. The tech actually said a few seconds to a minute. He assured me that they checked the tranny out and all is well. They may be right, but know I have the beginnings of a record in case it does develop into trouble late. My car is basically great. No left pull, no hesitating, booming base fixed, rides, drives and looks great. I'm planning on keeping it a long long time so I need it to be good for a while. |
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| The longer it sits, the longer this "warm up" will take (again, we're talking a few seconds here). Another thing I can suggest if this ever happens again is to stop, take the car out of gear momentarily and put it back into gear. You will hear the engine RPMs drop. When we are moving the cars on the lot and they have sat a while, we find this gets it back to normal function. | |
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| Does anyone have any information on the new redesigned 2004 Solara due out this spring? That is exactly when I intend to buy and I need to know which model I want to get! The only info I can find so far (which is basically nothing is at consumerguide.com). | |
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cliffy1- Thanks. I still keep my eyes open in here because my 80+ year old aunt still has her 99 SLE with every option except the moonroof. Not one problem. Think she only has about 13 or 14,000 miles on it. She still wants to sell it and get a Camry because the Solara doors are hard for her to handle in her 1 car garage getting in and out of the car. This car would be a gem for someone. fastdriver |
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I too have to add that I'm also extremely satisfied with this car. The hesitations, or chugging, that I referred to in my previous posts, have been checked out at the dealer. No problems whatsoever anywhere. I had the chance of driving it again lately for a long period of time, and I noticed that it only does it at 70 km/h, and according to Toyota techs, this is the point where it goes into overdrive, so if you cruise steadily at this speed, it would probably start "gear hunting", not knowing if it should downshift or not. I'm still amazed at how quiet and comfortable this car really is. Whenever I get into other cars and then get back into my Solara, I realize how serenely quiet it is! I wonder if the new Camry is as quiet as the Solara. Did anyone get the chance to compare? On a completely different note, I saw this Aerostar proudly bearing a giant "NOS" logo in the back glass. Hmm, it just looks weird on a minivan. |
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Your tranny searching gears, is then similar to what I refered to before. Cruising at a constant speed, then out of nowhere, RPM's drop(you posted not noticing this), then after collecting ones whits, it drives fine for a little while. Mine doesn't seem to do this frequently, but after reading thrugh your posts, the problem seems more similiar than I thought before. I had a chance the last time my Solara was in for service to drive the all new Toyota Camry. Sorry, the time before last. Last time I had the Corolla. Felt like a new car, but Camry LE model felt "cheap", like too much sheet metal upfront, and nothing under the hood, but space or air. I remember being able to see under the hood, near the windshield as I was driving. Between the new Camry, and the old Solara, I would of course go with the new, simply cuz it's new! As far as quiet or serene, it smelled nice like a new car, and the windows went up faster than my Solaras. It did not seem to have as much sound dampering, as the Solara did, when it was new. Anyone know how to get rid of the "spots" in the rear window of the Solara??? The green tinted window, isbeginning to look like bubble wrap. They are getting progressivly worse, and don't come off with Windex. Any suggestions? |
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