'04 Solara T.S.B. issued!

[Samster]

Well I took my car in this morning. I didnt feel good from the beginning. I told the guy I had a vibration at 70 MPH and he said he couldnt drive it that fast because the speed limit on the hwy there was 60 MPH. What a moron or he thought I was a moron. Anyway I told him I didnt want him to drive it AT ALL. I told him I wanted him to rebalance all my wheels. I also told him it was pulling to the left and he started telling me about road slope. So I explained to him that the road sloped to the right. So I had him check for TSBs while I looked over his shoulder. There was none relating to the alignment. There were about 10 in all but were minor things but it still makes me wonder why they are not on the Alldata site. So anyway they did an alignment. The result is my vibration is gone but I still have the pull to the left. Maybe not as bad. It was off some and they gave me the printout of the differences (very minor). But I did notice that even after the aligment they are not still exactly on the spec on some but they are within tolerance. So unless the tolerances needs to be reduced then there is a problem and we may just have to wait for a TSB to come out that re-specs the aligment numbers.

[fotodad]

I told the guy I had a vibration at 70 MPH and he said he couldnt drive it that fast because the speed limit on the hwy there was 60 MPH. What a moron or he thought I was a moron. Anyway I told him I didnt want him to drive it AT ALL. I told him I wanted him to rebalance all my wheels. I also told him it was pulling to the left and he started telling me about road slope. So I explained to him that the road sloped to the right.

I get so irritated when sales or service people treat customers like they are idiots. Even if a person isn't that knowledgeable about cars, that doesn't give these guys the right to treat us so disrespectfully. I can't stand it when service people cop an attitude. They should try to work WITH the customer not work against them by being arguementative! I'm taking my car in this Saturday with pulling left issues and an intermittant rattle. If I get even the slightest amount of attitude, I'm going postal!

[DavPak]

If I get even the slightest amount of attitude, I'm going postal!

yeah, that's a good way to have warranty work denied.

[slingshot]

Agreed. Your best bet with service departments is don't go postal unless you see they are obviously ripping you off or messing your car up.

[Buckeyegirl]

I called my dealer today to find out if my camber bolts were in and to find out what the number was on the T.S.B. The service writer who I normally deal with was out to lunch, so the guy I talked to, I asked him if there was a T.S.B. on this alingnment thing and he said yes, so I asked him for the number and he acted like it was top secret information. He told me the service writer who I deal with would call me back with the info. Well guess what, she never returned my call. Surprise Surprise!!

[got sport]

Sounds like a cover-up for a lemon.

[fotodad]

Okay, so maybe "postal" (can you say sarcasm) was the wrong term. But I'm not going to walk in with a jar of Vaseline, either. Obviously, 80+% of the service people out there want to see happy customers. Hey, they want to keep their jobs, right? But just like there are service people willing to go out of their way to help you, there are service people who are lazy and condescending when dealing with customers who have genuine problems. They look for ways to make the customer feel like an idiot (not hard to do in my case ) so they don't have to do any work.

No, I'll be quite pleasant and cordial Saturday when I explain my problems. But if service starts telling me I'm basically wrong, that there's nothing wrong with the car, that it's all in my head. Postal, baby; postal!

[Blazed04]

OK heres my long story! . . .
So this morning at 7am my dad took my car down to our dealer. I gave him a list of the probelms and so-on. So for starters, the vibration was said to be caused by something with the tires, i believe they called it road variance(?). But anyways what they did was put the rear tires in the front and got new tires for the rear wheels. This is all after balancing the wheels, which were balanced from the beginning.
OK second, my car was making a cluncking noise from a start and also when i stopped. The quicky figured it out that my springs were not totally in the bushings, so thats that problem.
Third...the pulling to the left thingy they couldnt figure out, so they gave my dad a rental and said they were keeping it over night and having the factory rep from NJ figure it out. So 5pm tonight my dad gets a call from the factory rep saying that it is the camber of the passenger side which needed to be adjusted. So they ordered a camber bolt and are having it done for tomorrow. By the way, my alinement was dead on.
I'll post back tomorrow and let you guys know what the deal is/was. But theres some info for ya, that if you talk to the right people youll get the right answers and dont let anyone BS you. Hope it somewhat helps...

[samster]

Sounds like you have better dealer support than I have here. I will wait and make sure that the camber bolt/adjustment fixes it. So let us know and then I will make my dealer contact the factory rep.

[bigpow]

I will take mine to the dealer this Tuesday, I think I will get the a$$h0le service rep. again - from prev. my experience with the dealer
Yesterday, they finally fixed my trunk cargo hooks (they were missing from the factory, replacement part was incomplete, etc.).

[Buckeyegirl]

OK everyone, here's the scoop from someone different at my dealership. Toyota does not officially have a T.S.B. out on the alignment issue but they are aware of the problem with 17" wheels only. There is no adjustment for camber from the factory, just a toe adjustment. Toyota has told all the dealers to do a field fix if a customer has this complaint for now until Toyota issues the T.S.B. The field fix is ordering the bolts with eccentric washers built into them so a camber adjustment can be made. People with 16" wheels are not having this problem according to Toyota.
I'm sorry for starting this thread based on the wrong information I was given at my dealership originally.

[fotodad]

Okay, took the Solara to the dealer for the second time regarding the drift left. Here's what they did as they wrote it on the service order after I picked the car up.

"Customer states vehicle pulls left. Set all 4 tires to 32 psi. swapped front wheels. Test drove vehicle. Vehicle pulled left. Rec alignment. Performed 4 wheel alignment, adjusted rear toe, rf camber, and front toe. Drove vehicle. Steering wheel was 10 deg. to the left. Realigned vehicle. Test drove. Pull is gone."

I have absolutely no idea what all that means, but the drift is still there. I must admit, the drift is ever so slight that I'm probably just going to live with it. The service guy said now the car will pull right in the right lane and left in the left lane due to the pitch of the road...Makes perfect sense to me. But I get drift left in the left lane and straight or left drift in the right lane. Since I'm never fighting with the wheel, I'm just letting it go as is.

[angelo]

did anyone figure what causes the left pull?

[Buckeyegirl]

did anyone figure what causes the left pull?

I don't know, but I do know that a 1" bigger wheel diameter has nothing to do with camber. I could see a change in camber if you changed the springs to lower it. I'm still waiting for the parts to come in for mine. The dealer said their on a slow boat from Japan, I said but the car is made in Kentucky. Go figure!!!

[bigpow]

Just got back from my 4th visit to the service dept.
(first three visits were to fix/replace trunk cargo net hooks)

Here are the result:

Concern 51: Customer states the vehicle pulls to the left
Cause: Front toe out of specs
Correction: Performed alignment, center steering wheel
==============================================
I will return ASAP. It's now worse than before.
It 'dangerously' pulls or drifts to the left now. (instead of the slow pull/drift as before)


Concern 52: Customer states there is a rattle from left rear speaker area
Cause: Rattle in rear
Correction: Ordered rear package tray
==============================================
I will wait and see


Concern 53: Customer states there is a rattle from RH front Passenger compartment
Cause: Ordered parts
Correction: Ordered parts will call owner whan parts arrive
==============================================
I will wait and see. Not only the problem was not fixed, now the LH front driver door panel IS rattling!



Possible Concern #54: on the way home, I noticed the tire pressure warning light lit - stopped and checked the tires, no problem.
So I also got the infamous tire pressure problem! Geez, enough already!



The only reason why I'm posting this is because I think there are other Solara user who suffer these problems who can benefit from this information. Not to bad mouth (my 2nd) Toyota or its dealer.

I tell you, if this Solara was a TV purchased from BestBuy - I WOULD HAVE IT RETURNED!

I really don't have the time or energy for these problems...