My 05 Solara

[dougdangger]

I finally got around to shooting pics. Pardon the quality. It's a camera phone about about 20 minutes before the sun went down last night.

Before with stock rims


Passenger front strut was shot. Replaced it with KYB, closest to oem I think.


The replacements.


Stocks are in the shed.


New shoes.


Let's try that again with out my dog photo bombing.


Rear end


Another rear


Front


My previous ride


My the tC, might put it in the Solara


Wife mobile


Wife's rear



I know there's a bit of a gap between the tire and wheel well, but I don't think it's that bad. Besides, the 18"s with low profiles stiffened up the ride a bit. I was going to TRD springs it and stiffer KYBs but I have an infant boy I drive around. I don't want to shake him up.

I'm thinking about putting the magnaflows in the Solara. But my concern is that when I put it in my tC, I lost low end torque. I had to rev higher but the 2.4 motors don't really like to rev high. I do like the subtle growl of the exhaust.

I don't really plan to mod my car by much. Besides the exhaust I maybe will change the head unit soon. I also would like to add amber fog lights. I can't find an amber bulb that goes into the stock fog lights. I like amber lights because they illuminate road signs better. So I may squeeze in a pair of amber fogs to both sides of the front plates.

[yaddadaimsayin]

nice pics! welcome to the forums and belated congrats on the baby. what's goin on in your TC collage? looks like a pretty bad head on collision

[dougdangger]

Thanks Yadda. The wife and I were rear ended in the tC pulling into our driveway. The other driver was a 14 year old girl who was driving her younger siblings around without a license or even insurance. Where was their mother? With her new boyfriend. Sad isn't it. Anyways, the body shop ruined my tC. They couldn't match the color properly so you can tell that the rear was repainted. They also didn't properly install the side skirts. They used plastic clips, instead of bolting them on. They left hand prints on the side airbag panels in the rear that wouldn't wash off. The center tail lights didn't have the proper connections, wouldn't go on. I complained to my insurance company and they attempted to fix it but the paint job was still a mess.

I got fed up and traded in the tC for a Rav4. Baby was born and gave the Rav to the wife and her Solara is now mine.

I really never got to appreciate the Solara until recently. It won't win you drag races or carve canyons like an S2000 but it's really a good car. I get 22 city and 30 highway mpgs. It's very comfy and the body is super sexy (sorry gen 1 guys, i'm partial here ). It's really too bad Toyota killed it and didn't build one with the newer generation Camry especially with their killer 3.5L V6. But oh well, I plan to keep the car until it falls apart

[SteveSolara]

Great looking Gen2. Nice pics, and sorry about what happened to you tc.

[Biggi_e]

get some trd springs or eibach and lower it. spacers to push the wheels out and be flush and youre good to go!

[sle-pur]

Got a set of new TRD springs for our cars off eBay TRD brand new opened no for 105$ shipped
From
Cali. Guy got em overstocked at dealer. Put on a bid. He has another set and pm him and ask if he will take 105$ for em.

[dougdangger]

I just changed my struts to "OEM" spec KYB. Will I bounce around like a pogo stick if I put TRD springs?

[GzNutz]

Most likely.

[DriDed]

That is a sharp looking Gen II Solara you got there, and nice RAV4!