Solara is Pi$$ing me off......

[TqMnster]

Ok well i finally started to see it idleing rough like my g/f had told me it was doin. Well i get to thinking and say hey why isnt the CEL flashing when you turn the key to ON???? Sure enough i take it to autozone and 12!!!!!! codes. Only 5 and rest are repeats though. Anyways he says its the o2 sensors, coolant temp and misfires on 3 and 5. Well i was talking to a toyota tech and gave him the VIN to check and see whats up. After i had bought the Bosch o2 sensors and temp sensor he tells me i cant use the o2 sensors i bought and that theres nothing wrong with the coolant temp. Well i changed the sparkplugs and found a wire on 5 that the metal clip was loose in and stuck on the plug so i fixed that and no more misfires. Soooooo on to the confusing part. My car was bought new in Maryland. Sold to a person in South Carolina and now to me in North Carolina. The shocker is this damn thing has Cali. Emissions........ WTF??? Well to my question? The toyota tech who has 23 yrs under his belt with toyota says its the A/F sensors. Are they different than o2 sensors? Whats the deal? He says not to use them. Is he just tryin to sell me high $$$ toyota parts? We're talkin 130 & 170 versus 200 a piece for these things. Thanks and sorry for the long post.

[Ruski]

Yes theres two diff types of sensors . For cali specs you need A/F for Non Cali you use a o2. and yes these sensor cost a S$$$ load of money
I had all three replaced

[Dawgz]

Cali spec vehicals use Air to fuel sensors, not o2. The only o2 sensor a cali spec uses is the down stream (located after the catallitic converter)

A/F sensors go for 200-220 a pop.

U gotta do wat u gotta do.

[TqMnster]

Yeah i had her call the dealership and ask for a price. 206.80 a piece.... The guy I've been speaking with said he can get them for me for 160 a peice. Found him on TundraSolutions.com and have been emailing him back and forth pretty prequently tryin to get this figured out. So i'm breaking out the multimeter tonight and checking them and if they're shot which i'm sure they are after 190k miles then looks like i'll be replacing them and tearing the dash apart to get the gauge cluster out and replace the CEL that some ignorant a$$hole took out. The dealer i bought it from wrote me a check for 300 so i wont be dishing out too much money.

[Ruski]

o wow 190k i had mine done at 60k Good luck man

[Dawgz]

Yeah i had her call the dealership and ask for a price. 206.80 a piece.... The guy I've been speaking with said he can get them for me for 160 a peice. Found him on TundraSolutions.com and have been emailing him back and forth pretty prequently tryin to get this figured out. So i'm breaking out the multimeter tonight and checking them and if they're shot which i'm sure they are after 190k miles then looks like i'll be replacing them and tearing the dash apart to get the gauge cluster out and replace the CEL that some ignorant a$$hole took out. The dealer i bought it from wrote me a check for 300 so i wont be dishing out too much money.

are they original Denso A/F sensors with the correct plug?

[TqMnster]

I would think so coming from the dealership. Hes just gettin an employee price i reckon...

[Dawgz]

I would think so coming from the dealership. Hes just gettin an employee price i reckon...

sweet!

[TqMnster]

Anyone familiar with Hindlay or maybe Findlay Toyota in NV? That's the dealership he works at and sent me a credit card autorization order form from.

[aleki2424]

calif spec solaras suck not to mention the deprived power . i have been battling the same thing ever since i bought mine.
did the autozone guy mention which sensor it was, coz i think theres three. two before, and one after the converter.and yes they are boatloads of $$$
With the idling, u could also check the tps sensor just to make sure it isn't contributing to the issue.

[TqMnster]

Yeah i just wanna know how in the Heck a car thats been on the east coast and i mean THE COAST lol can come up with Cali emissions.......

[Jakecallun20]

Yeah i just wanna know how in the Heck a car thats been on the east coast and i mean THE COAST lol can come up with Cali emissions.......

It must have made a road trip

[aleki2424]

Yeah i just wanna know how in the Heck a car thats been on the east coast and i mean THE COAST lol can come up with Cali emissions.......

dealers do trades between dealerships, if they do not have the vehicle with a combination of features that a customer may request , including trim, and stuff. seldomly the last thing people's mind is differences in emissions regulations when buying , and thus wouldn't notice until its well past the warranty and then you have the crappy fuel and idling issues.
b.t.w this has been listed as the most prolific problem withh 99-00 solaras apart form sludge.

[PXLpainter]

Anyone familiar with Hindlay or maybe Findlay Toyota in NV? That's the dealership he works at and sent me a credit card autorization order form from.

Yes - you must be talking with Victor (Mustang67408 on TS) at Findlay Toyota in Henderson, NV. He's a really honest guy whos one of the head techs there and won't give you any BS.

I took my Solara there for some warranty work and he hooked me up really - even got me some employee priced parts and a rental for the day. You can trust what he's telling you!

[nj99solara]

Yeah i just wanna know how in the Heck a car thats been on the east coast and i mean THE COAST lol can come up with Cali emissions.......

I'm in NJ and I have a Cali spec solara too so it's not just you.

The fact that somebody disconnected the CEL would make me very weary of dealing with that dealer ever again,they knew that there was a problem and just ignored it. Even if it wasn't done by them they should have caught that before they sold the car to you.