03 Camry Poor MPG

[rcoolman1024]

My Camry has always gotten me somewhere in the area of 32mpg on the highway and 27 in the city. Almost overnight this dropped to 22mpg overall. I used to get somewhere around 415 miles per tank and now I am lucky to get 315. Has anyone had this problem? My mom works at a Toyota dealership and she cant seem to find the answer for me. Please give any suggestions. Am willing to try just about anything now that gas is like 3.15/gallon.

Someone told me that if you remove EFI fuses, this will reset engine's memory of how the fuel is burned and will reset mpg. Any validity in this?

[liquidi3ladz]

It would relearn your driving habits, it probably wouldn't help much. 3.15 Is better than 3.50 And I get worst mpg. You have an i4 right?

[MrSo0h0o]

did you change your driving habits at all? did u drive more city possibly? its possible the gas stations could have switched to their winter blend, but i see you are in tennessee so i dont know if they do that down south..

[kenny1773]

change the air filter
run some seafoam through it
change the plugs

I assume the CEL would turn on if the oxegen sensors were a problem
pull the battery or fuse to reset the ECU - will take a while for it to relearn so mpg might get worse at first

colder weather causes lower MPG too

do you have the same tires? some models have more drag than others, that can cause it, check PSI too

[Rapid Roy]

Originally Posted by rcoolman1024

My Camry has always gotten me somewhere in the area of 32mpg on the highway and 27 in the city. Almost overnight this dropped to 22mpg overall. I used to get somewhere around 415 miles per tank and now I am lucky to get 315. Has anyone had this problem? My mom works at a Toyota dealership and she cant seem to find the answer for me. Please give any suggestions. Am willing to try just about anything now that gas is like 3.15/gallon.

Someone told me that if you remove EFI fuses, this will reset engine's memory of how the fuel is burned and will reset mpg. Any validity in this?

Just take your car in and have it checked/serviced at the dealership your mom works at. If your mileage changes suddenly and nothing else has changed, somthing is wrong.

[TRD VVTi]

Originally Posted by Rapid Roy

Just take your car in and have it checked/serviced at the dealership your mom works at. If your mileage changes suddenly and nothing else has changed, somthing is wrong.

Bringing it in without an MIL will get him nothing but a diagnostic bill.

How many miles are on the car? What have you done for maintenance up to this point?

The more information you can offer, the better chance you will have of someone here coming up with possible helpful information.

[Punks_Not_Dead5]

do you have any "TRD" badging on your car? the extra HP from them will kill your MPG

[Rapid Roy]

Originally Posted by TRD VVTi

Bringing it in without an MIL will get him nothing but a diagnostic bill.

How many miles are on the car? What have you done for maintenance up to this point?

The more information you can offer, the better chance you will have of someone here coming up with possible helpful information.

You have a good point. His mileage drop was significant and he didn't really give any details. It wouldn't take very long for the increased cost of gas to cover the diagnostic cost. I was also thinking that he could get a bit of free diagnostic because his mother works at a dealership and she might be able to get on the mechanics to take a look.

[TRD VVTi]

Originally Posted by Rapid Roy

You have a good point. His mileage drop was significant and he didn't really give any details. It wouldn't take very long for the increased cost of gas to cover the diagnostic cost.

The point is that without an MIL, there wouldn't be anything out of specifications. If there were something out of range, the MIL (check engine light) would be on.

[Gellenole]

I have the same issue, though I have a V6 -- I just checked tonight, while filling up to full. 16.6 miles/gallon. The week before I had 17miles/gallon with 14.5 gallon fill out at 246miles. I don't know if this is normal or not either. I'm quite surprised at the amount of mileage I get myself (not to hi-jack your thread).

I now have 62k miles and I just ran 257 miles on 15.5 gallons.
I mostly run city streets.

Nothing really is wrong with the car, and I just got the 60k mile service about 2 weeks ago.

[TRD VVTi]

Here are some possibilities:

Restricted/dirty air filter
Lazy (slow operating) oxygen sensor(s), that would be sensor one
Dirty fuel injectors (doesn't atomize the fuel properly)
Low tire pressures
Change in driving habits
Lower ambient temperature (cooler air, it's that time of year)
Change in fuel (it's at/near winter blend time also)
Low engine temperature (sticking thermostat allowing vehicle to run more rich)
A bunch of dead people in the trunk making vehicle heavier

It could also be a combination of any of those things and more. Try driving it for another tank or two before you jump to conclusions.

[importcars]

Originally Posted by TRD VVTi

A bunch of dead people in the trunk making vehicle heavier

[Gellenole]

Originally Posted by TRD VVTi

Here are some possibilities:

Restricted/dirty air filter
Lazy (slow operating) oxygen sensor(s), that would be sensor one
Dirty fuel injectors (doesn't atomize the fuel properly)
Low tire pressures
Change in driving habits
Lower ambient temperature (cooler air, it's that time of year)
Change in fuel (it's at/near winter blend time also)
Low engine temperature (sticking thermostat allowing vehicle to run more rich)
A bunch of dead people in the trunk making vehicle heavier

It could also be a combination of any of those things and more. Trying driving it for another tank or two before you jump to conclusions.

Definitely will take a look at all of that.

I dropped in a couple of bottles of fuel injection cleaner in the previous fill ups, to see if that helps.

Since i'm not an expert on engines, I won't quite mess with sea foam yet, until I get more information on how it would clean out the targeted areas as well as have myself more familiarized with the machine.

I doubt filter, since i've just changed those either -- but definitely thanks for all the info.

[aSiAnRiCk]

So what is "average" from full to empty on an equally mix of driving between city and highway?

Mine is at 360'ish and I thought it's sucks!

[kenny1773]

Originally Posted by Gellenole

I dropped in a couple of bottles of fuel injection cleaner in the previous fill ups, to see if that helps.

I will probably get laughed at for this, but I have noticed that certain fuel system cleaners give me lower MPG on the tank they have been added to. I have no idea why it seems to happen, but let's say I am normally getting 21mpg, I add in a cleaner, I get 19-20, go on to the next tank and I am back to 21. I could be imagining things, it is not very accurate to only use one tank of gas to compute mileage. It just seems oddly consistant.