Top 5 Problems Toyota Solara Coupe 1st Generation 1998-2003

Hey, friends, it's Len here from 1A Auto. So, today inside the studio I have a first generation Toyota Solara. I wanna go over some of the top problems that we've come to find. So let's get started. To get started, let's get under the hood. For the first problem, we're gonna talk about a faulty IAC valve. Now, the IAC valve essentially stands for idle air control valve and that's gonna be very important to the runability of your engine, especially when you're idling. To locate it, it's gonna be located right under here and it's gonna have three hoses coming off of it and one electrical connector. It's not very hard to access, but of course you would have to take all this apart to get to it and then, of course, you'd have to replace the gasket. I don't personally have the gasket, so I can't remove it to show you. Now, if you were having an issue with the IAC valve on this, what you would probably notice is while you're sitting idling, the idle is gonna go up and down, or the engine's rpms are gonna go up and down. Typically where your rpm should be at when you're looking at the dash should be approximately 500 to 700 rpms. That's just when you're idling though. Essentially, as you go ahead and step on that accelerator, the rpms are gonna go up as with the speed of the car itself.

Unfortunately, if the IAC valve had an issue such as maybe carbon buildup or any other type of debris built up inside of it causing it not to function right, your rpms might end up going up and down, up and down, up and down. Essentially just fluctuating. Now, if you find that this is happening to your car, I don't wanna make you think that this is the only thing that could potentially make your rpms fluctuate like that, but it is definitely something that will cause this issue. So if you find that you're having this issue, if it was me personally, I would just get right in here, I would go ahead and take it apart and I would attempt to try to clean out that IAC valve. What you might happen to notice when you take it apart is a whole bunch of black stuff inside there. Essentially, that's gonna be carbon buildup and it's something that needs to be taken care of. Now if you're still having the fluctuation of your idle after you go ahead and clean this out, more than likely it's just a good idea to go ahead and try to replace that IAC valve.

Now, for our second problem, we're gonna talk about O2 sensors. For this particular car, it's a V6 engine, which essentially means it's gonna have six cylinders. There's gonna be three cylinders on the front side and three cylinders on the back. The reason why it's important to know that this particular engine has two banks is because each bank has to have its own O2 sensor. What I mean by that is right up along the top area here, you're gonna be able to see that it has an upstream O2 sensor. Down underneath the car, it's also gonna have a downstream O2 sensor, and that's typically gonna be after the catalytic converter. There needs to be an upstream O2 sensor on both banks, and of course there needs to be a downstream O2 sensor that's gonna be able to take the reading after the catalytic converter.

Now, the job of these O2 sensors is essentially to try to meter the amount of oxygen that's getting pushed out of the car's engine and out the tailpipe. Essentially what we want is to have the proper mixture so we have the least amount of contamination or pollution getting shot out into the environment. Another thing that these O2 sensors are supposed to do is talk directly to the car's computer. So, essentially, what it wants to do is say, "Hey, you're either adding too much fuel or letting too much air in to the amount of fuel." So, essentially, you have to have the proper air-fuel mixture, which, overall, is approximately 14.7 parts of air for one part of fuel. If there's an issue with the O2 sensor where it's not reading properly, or if there's another issue down the line, essentially, you could have a running rich condition or even a running lean condition. Running rich would mean you have too much fuel. Running lean means you have too much air.

Now, if you are having an issue with one of your O2 sensors or multiple O2 sensors, some of the symptoms that you might happen to find might be a check engine light that comes on on your dash. If you were to go ahead and pull out your little scanner and pull the codes, you might find something that says that you're having an issue with one of your O2 sensors, and of course that's gonna lead you down the road that you need to go. Another symptom that you might happen to find might be a runability issue coming from your engine. Maybe it's spitting and sputtering, maybe it's misfiring, or maybe it just doesn't seem like it wants to run well at all. Another symptom that you might happen to find if you're having an issue with your O2 sensors might be poor fuel economy. This is, of course, gonna hit you in the wallet because, well, we fill up our gas tanks almost every week or at least I do. So, essentially, what you might happen to notice is maybe you're getting pretty good gas mileage for a while there and things are great, and then over time, they just kinda seem, your fuel economy is going down and it's definitely hurting the wallet. Maybe you don't necessarily find that you have a misfire or maybe you don't even have a check engine light, but if you're getting poor fuel economy, an O2 sensor is something to pay attention to.

All right. All right. So now let's talk about a fix. For these particular O2 sensors, the best thing to do would be to go ahead and replace them. There really isn't anything that you can try to do to them. You can't really try to clean them out and there really isn't anything else that you can try to do. Overall for me, if I had an issue with one of my O2 sensors, I'm gonna try to replace all three. You don't necessarily need to do it. It all comes down to your own penny bucket, but for me, like I said, I'm just gonna do all three. Now, for problem number three, we're gonna talk about ignition coils. You're gonna find all three of your ignition coils located on the front side of your engine right up along here. So now you're probably gonna think it's strange that you only have three coils for a six cylinder engine. Well, the reason why that is is because you have these wires right here. These are gonna go from each coil and then they're gonna make their way to the back side of the engine where you're gonna have three other spark plugs. Now, the coil's overall responsibility, essentially, is to go ahead and give your spark plug the power that it needs to ignite the fuel-air mixture that's located inside your engine. If for some reason there's an issue with one of your coils or multiple coils, you're of course gonna have a runability issue.

Something else that you might happen to notice if you're having an issue with one of your coils might be a check engine light on the dash. That's gonna be a very common thing if you're having an issue with an engine type component. Other than that, what you might happen to notice is you have a runability issue. Maybe you have misfiring down the road, or even it kinda seems like you're running on four cylinders instead of all six. That might be an issue. Now, what could go wrong with one of these coils that might actually cause this issue? Well, let's have a look at one. This isn't the one obviously for this car but it is one that I have in my hand. Essentially, the coil is gonna come down into the engine area and then, of course, it's gonna go right onto that spark plug. So, like I said, you're gonna get power that gets shot in right through here, it gets all generated and then to the spark plug, creates a spark, and then big combustion inside the engine. If for some reason you happen to notice inside of the coil area, inside that boot, that there's an issue with the spring that's supposed to be located inside there, of course it's not gonna be able to get the ignition that it needs to get down to the spark plug and you're gonna have a runability issue.

Other than that on coils, this boot right here should be fairly pliable. Essentially, you wanna be able to squeeze it and it needs to be nice and soft rubber essentially. The reason why that is, of course, it has to try to keep moisture out and away from here. If moisture can make its way up inside there because this is dry rotted and cracked, you're, of course, gonna have an issue. Other than that on coils, what typically can tend to go bad is up along the connection point. You're gonna notice that you have those on all of your coils. That's where the power is gonna be coming from, but if moisture makes its way inside there, you're gonna have corrosion and it's gonna cause an issue with restricted voltage. And of course, if we were to go ahead and grab onto this, what you might happen to notice is down inside this area, some green, blue, or even any other color fuzzies. Once again, that's probably gonna be corrosion, and essentially it's gonna cause an issue where you're not getting the power that you need to to come through this wire and power up the other side spark plugs. Now, if you happen to find that you're having an issue with one of your coils, typically it's a good idea to just go ahead and replace it. Generally, if there's a little bit of corrosion on one of the connection points, you can go ahead and try to clean that up and you might be able to save it, but more than likely it's just gonna be a temporary fix. So, generally, if I'm having an issue with one of my coils, I'm just gonna go ahead and replace all three of them at the same time. But that's completely up to you.

All right. So now for our fourth problem, we're gonna talk about engine oil issues. Now, one of the first places I'm gonna go ahead and look at is underneath the oil cap. If you were to look down in here or even up along the top of the oil cap, you might happen to find a lot of sludge or goo that's on the inside there. This is of course due to moisture being inside the system. This typically comes down to poor engine oil maintenance, or even going too long for your intervals in between oil changes. This one isn't actually very bad but it is something that we would wanna note for particular issues on these cars. A couple other symptoms that you might happen to notice is maybe in between intervals when you check your oil level, it's frequently low, or you might potentially have black smoke coming out your tailpipe which essentially means that your engine is burning oil. And then we're gonna move along to engine oil leaks. Common areas that you might find engine oil leaks on these particular cars would be along the valve covers. There's gonna be two of them, one on the front side here and then one on the back side.

In between the engine and the valve cover, there should be a gasket that comes in between here. Those typically go bad and you're gonna find engine oil just kinda making its way coming down and across the front or even rear of your engine. Obviously, as you can tell, you have your exhaust manifold right here. The exhaust manifold is gonna get very hot, upwards of 200 plus degrees typically, and of course that's gonna cause an issue if you have engine oil that's running out and coming down onto the manifold. Now, the valve cover isn't gonna be the only area that could potentially leak oil on these engines. Of course, you're gonna have an oil pan, you're gonna have several other gaskets that could potentially leak. So, of course, go ahead and check over your engine and check for any other leaks. You don't wanna just go ahead and fix one leak and not fix all of them at the same time. And if the issue is that you're having sludge build up inside your engine, obviously that's something you're gonna wanna take care of. Typically, if you wanted to, you can get yourself an oil system cleaner of some sort, go ahead and run it through the system, and then after maybe about 500 to 1000 miles, make sure that you do your oil change. Okay. So now for our fifth problem we're gonna talk about internal engine valve issues. So now, like I said, the valves are gonna be located inside your engine, essentially underneath your valve cover. That's this area right here.

You're gonna have two valve covers, one on the front and one on the back like I told you before. Underneath these valve covers, you're gonna have valves. Those valves are supposed to operate so your engine can breathe in and out properly. If you're having an issue with the actual breathability of your engine, it could potentially come down to the valves, and it's not necessarily the valves that are the issue, it's more actually the valve adjustment that's the issue. Other symptoms that you might happen to find for this might be a loss of engine power, or even backfiring coming out through the exhaust or even through your air intake area. So Toyota actually has a recommended interval of when you're actually supposed to get inside your engine and go ahead and adjust those valves. Now, who really thinks about adjusting their valves on their internal engine? Not really anybody, right? Of course, if you were thinking about an oil change, you got a little sticker to help you remember, maybe your transmission service, everybody kinda remembers that, or even maintaining other general things that usually you're gonna have to do every three to five thousand miles, something like that is very easy to remember. Adjusting your valves, nobody even really thinks about it.

Unfortunately on these Toyota engines, they actually need to be adjusted. Like I said, there is a specific interval for this and it should be done. If for some reason it's out of adjustment, you might notice runability issues, a check engine light, or even poor fuel economy. So, as far as fixes for this, of course you're gonna wanna get inside the engine and adjust those valves to the proper specifications.

Okay, friends, so that's what I've got for you for top problems on a gen 1 Toyota Solara. Of course, every car has its own problems, these are just some of the common ones that we've come to find. Overall, I hope you liked the video and I hope you learned a little something. If you got a story to tell or something to say, leave it in the comment section below because I always love to hear from you. Of course, if you like the video, smash on the like button for me, it'll mean the world. While you're at it, go ahead and subscribe and ring the bell, that way there you can be kept up with all of our latest content. Thanks.