Fuel gauge, economy

[5MTcamry]

Greetings everyone,

I'm driving a 2007 camry 2.4 l manual transmission.

Tires with high psi
not accelerating fast
easy on the throttle
mostly city driving

I roughly got 125 miles on first half of tank based on the fuel gauge reading and was wondering: Does this seem normal to you? Do you usually get more miles on the second half of the tank before the fuel light comes on?

It kind of seems low to me, thought I'd ask...

[kenny1773]

You can't judge accurately off the fuel gauge.

I have topped off the tank at the halfway point on mine a couple times and it varied by a gallon or so.

What you need to do is fill up no less than 3 tanks, at the SAME gas station using the SAME pump. Calculate your MPG based on all three tanks and the miles driven. Even though this is still inaccurate, it is much more accurate than what you are trying to do.

BTW - I have a 2005 4 cyl SE auto with about 50K on it. My mileage varies due to certain conditions, but overall stays about the same because I drive the same pretty much all the time.

In winter (ambient temp below 35F), all in town driving, I get about 18-19MPG. All highway (70mph average) I will get about 32-33.

In summer (ambient temp above 60F), all in town driving, I will get about 20-22mpg. All highway, (70mph average) I will get 33-34.

What you are saying does sounds a little low *IF* we assume your half tank is 9 gallons and you got 125 miles. You are at 13.8.

Try it over 3 tanks, no jack rabbit starts, don't apply the gas when you can see in the near distance that you will need to stop, try to coast to the stop.

REAL City driving seems to eat fuel no matter what you do.

[camryen08]

Originally Posted by 5MTcamry

Greetings everyone,

I roughly got 125 miles on first half of tank based on the fuel gauge reading

It seems a little low to me too for your driving style.

For me, it is about 220-260 miles to hit the line in the middle.
But be careful, it also may range from 20-50 for me to hit top line.
So different station and different bump differs a lot.

And i think it is correct about half of tank , but not half to the light comes out. Usually i expect i can go about 480 - 500 miles with same style if i
get about 240-250 miles on the first half.

But as already mention several times in this forum, the light come on at
about 14-14.5.

my experience is the light comes on at about 14 - 15 gal used ( or 3.5 - 4.5 gal left ) at 390-440 miles.

Oh, my 50k miles average is 28.4 miles/gal, you can use as a reference
to adjust your calculation. I almost double you mileage, so 15-16 miles/gal
for a I4 manual city driving i think still low except you always do short trip like 3-5 miles each way every day.

BTW, warm up also kills mileage , i saw you are in Cold area.

Search the forum for a lot of fuel efficiency discussion.

[5MTcamry]

Something must be seriously wrong with my car, it just does not add up.

I'm already down to 1/4 of a tank and only have 217 miles driven. I'm driving like a 95 year old grandma, coasting in neutral on downhill, watching lights, etc...

car has 87000 miles on it. I have 4 things in my mind that could be causing this:

1. air filter?
2. spark plugs?

I doubt above two could have such dramatic affect

3. brakes?
4. transmission?

I noticed a small wining sound when i drive. I know that car grinds gears when i downshift to 3rd so maybe it has something to do with the tranny?

However, what I did, was coasted in neutral on flat surface and notice that speed is decreasing noticeably fatser than on my old jetta, so i have a suspicion that it could be brakes (or possibly transmission)

Do you guys think air filter or spark plugs have such dramatic affect? if not, then it must be brakes or tranny for sure. I'll take it to my mechanic to have a look at brakes some time...