New Toyota Owner

[solaraheat]

Hi all, I have recently purchased a 1999 Toyota Solara. It now has 110,000 miles. It is a 6 cylinder auto. . What is Gen 1 Gen 2 etc. ? What is the litres of this engine ? I'm female and don't know alot about cars. The car started running weird the other day. It runs fine at idle and revs up fine when in park or neutral. But on the road, it runs good if you don't acclerate to hard. But if you give it to much gas it runs like it is missing. kinda like it is falling on its face so to speak . I took it to auto-zone and they ran a check on it. He said it showed a mis-fire in number five then in number 2. What does this mean and what could be the problem? He never gave me a code number like I have read in these forums like you guys talk about. He did say it could be a coil pack or a Eletronic Control Module. But he said that I have 6 coils (1 per cylinder) at $ 68.00 a piece. Or $345.00 for the ECM . My neighbor looked under my hood and said he could just find 3 coils all on the front side of the engine. He said it looked like 2 cylinders ran off each coil pack . That made me think the guy from auto-zone was trying to sell un-needed parts. Does anyone have any suggestions ?

[toyomoho]

This car is the same as Camry with a V6.

The ign most likely has 3 coils, one for each 2 cylinders. Each 2 cylinder plug group would fire once each crank revolution. One spark would be wasted because the piston would not be at TDC on the compression stroke.

See link below for how the system works.

http://www.gill.co.uk/products/digit...wast_spark.asp

The codes are stating your posted cylinders are misfiring.

Have your neighbor check the coil wires and determine if the cylinder 2 and 5 fire the same cylinder.

See link below for cylinder layout.

http://autorepair.about.com/library/...bl-fo-2737.htm

[solaraheat]

ok plug wire 5 and plug wire 2 go to the same coil..

Originally Posted by toyomoho

This car is the same as Camry with a V6.

The ign most likely has 3 coils, one for each 2 cylinders. Each 2 cylinder plug group would fire once each crank revolution. One spark would be wasted because the piston would not be at TDC on the compression stroke.

See link below for how the system works.

http://www.gill.co.uk/products/digit...wast_spark.asp

The codes are stating your posted cylinders are misfiring.

Have your neighbor check the coil wires and determine if the cylinder 2 and 5 fire the same cylinder.

See link below for cylinder layout.

http://autorepair.about.com/library/...bl-fo-2737.htm

[Akfahad]

To answer some of your questions....

You have a Gen 1 solara. it's a 3.0 Liter V6 with a base horsepower of 200 at the crank. Gen 1.5: http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/a/asc/...yotaSolara.jpg; have the same body lines as the Gen 1's, but the headlights and tails are different. Gen 2's: http://www.findbestsellingcar.com/im...amrySolara.jpg; have completely different body lines.

The misfire codes very well could be the coil packs, and as stated above, one coil pack per two cylinder's. However, a much cheaper alternative to try first is to replace the spark plugs. And since you have over 110K now, it's about time to switch them out anyways, unless the previous owner was able to tell you when they replaced them. If not, I would definitely do that first, I'd recommend an iridium plug...usually last longer, although a little bit more expensive. Auto zone or adv. auto parts should have an iridium plug, tell them Denso IK20 for your car (there are others brands, but this is what I use and always been good)...might have to order them tho. My Maxima had the same misfire codes, replaced the plugs, no more problem.

**Also, if you can't find answers to your questions on here, you can also go to solaraguy.com. strictly a site just for solara's.

[solaraheat]

how much does it cost for labor to change plugs and wires? Any idea what the norm is . I can't hardley see number 5 plug much less get to it .. thank you so much sweet .

[Akfahad]

unless you have really small hands and know where to go/what to feel for, you won't really be able to change the plugs yourself. the intake manifold (big silver thing next to the firewall, underneath the strut bar) will need to come off in order to do the job without any real pains. I'd get the plugs yourself (cheaper that way), then take it to any ASE certified repair shop to have them do it. In fact, I just asked my local dealership to quote me for the same job and I think it was around $160 I think.

the shop that did my maxima (just because I was too lazy to do it myself), with plugs (the more expensive kind) and labor was $170.