I'm one of those 'Tacoma refugees' who sold their
Tacoma back to Toyota for 1.5 times the KBB. I decided not to get another Tacoma (since I don't need a truck anymore) so I opted to use the money from Toyota to pay off the existing loan on my truck and use the remainder of the $$ to buy something something outright (because car payments suck) ..I had my mind set on some sort of mid size 4 cyl. (Accord or something close to it) but I didn't find much that I liked. Luckilly I noticed an '01 Solara on a dealer's lot (after hours) ..I'd never considered the Solaris until I noticed the price tag. I also noticed that the door was unlocked so I sat in it and it felt very comfortable. I went home and did a bunch of research on the Solara and found out as much as I could and I was sold. The next morning, I contacted the dealer the and found out that the '01 that I had been looking at had already been sold. Fortunatley, they had an '03 with 78k available for a little bit more. I'm not too crazy about the fake wood grain around the gear shift lever, but it's my only complaint. Needless to say, I bought the car and I love it.
My lurking (here and at solaraguy.com) tells me that the timing belt and water pump should be changed at 90k. In the Toyota 'Passport to Performance' Maintenance schedule book it doesn't mention anything about the Solara or Camry needing to have the timing belt changed at 90k. The page regarding the 90k service has a footnote that refers to the
"Highlander with IMZ-FE, Landcruiser, Sequoia, Tundra Tacoma, with 5VZ-FE and 4-Runner with2uz-FE." No where does it mention the Camry or Solara, so I'm only going by word of mouth as far as when to have the timing belt etc replaced. I had planned on replacing it ASAP but if I can get another 12k out of it I'll hold off on changing it right away. I talked to my mechanic regarding the cost and he told me that he thinks that the 2.4 liter engines have a timing chain instead of a belt. Can anyone confirm this and can anyone confirm the 90k belt change?
I've read some reveiws where people complained that their car had a problem with their car pulling to the left. From what I gathered, the dealerships had a hard time fessing up to this complaint and that allignments on the Solara were kind of a pain in the neck (if not impossible) ..Anyway, when I'm driving in a straight line the steering wheel isn't fully centered. It's turned towards the left a little bit. It not so noticable when I hold on the the outside of the wheel but it's more apparent when I hold on to the spokes. I'm wondering (asking) if this is correctable, or is this the dealerships solution to the problem of the cars tendency to pull to the left.
The car holds a straight line when I let go of the wheel, but I don't like the idea of wearing out my tires. Is there a solution to this problem?
The only pic I have of it was taken by the dealer. I'll take some better ones when I have more time.
Thanks in advance for any replies to my questions.
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