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I have been trying to figure out why the gas mleage has dropped on my wifes '09 Camry XLE 4 cyl. The car was averaging around 30 mpg until about 2500 miles. I first noticed the drop after changing oil. I had put Valvoline 5w20 in. I asked at the dealer and they told me others had said the same thing. I switched to Mobile 1 0w20 for the next oil change at 5000 miles, thinking the synthetic might help. Gas mileage has dropped to around 24 mpg. The car has just over 7000 miles on it now.
The mpg first dropped during the summer, so it is not related to cold weather driving. Tires are at 30 psi. When I checked the brakes I noticed the front rotors are extremely groved on the outer half of the rotor. The grooves are so deep they will catch my thumb nail. All of our other vehicles have 150,000+ miles on them and don't have anything like this. We live in the country, by a small town. Our cars do not get driven hard at all, and neither one of us brakes with our left foot so I know the brakes have not been dragged by us.
Their was one other gen 6 Camry in our church parking lot and it apeared the same way. I don't know haw many miles are on that car because I haven't had a chance to talk with the owner yet.
I haven't seen this, but I suggest you jack up the front of the car, or each front wheel if you don't have a floor jack available, put the car in neutral and try to rotate each tire/wheel combination by hand. If they rotate freely, draging brakes are not your problem.
Toyomoho: HerCamry has an appointment at the dealer tomorrow morning. We have four vehicles and the Toyota is the only one we have seen the reduction in mpg so I do not suspect it is gas related.
Mike: The tires got siped last week and I felt for binding while the car was on the lift, and there was none. This does not mean the brakes are always free. The car does pull to either side at different times. Sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right. There could be a traction control problem.
One thing that bothers me while driving this car: When I let off the gas pedal to coast it shuts off all fuel to the engine until the engine is down to idle speed. (I connected my Scanguage II to it on Thanksgiving Day.) (Maybe traction control is applying brakes?) This makes the car decellerate very quickly. On our '98 Town & Country, '97 Ford E350, and '99 Tahoe, the fuel does not shut completely off unless the engine RPMs are over 2000, which makes a vehicle much more pleasant to drive. This is probably why my wife said she wished she had her Tahoe back on the first icey road day. I haven't driven the car on icy roads yet. This will be discussed tomorrow with the tech.
The transmission shutters sometimes when under light load (between maybe 40 and 35) before it downshifts.
I guess the only thing I really like about this car is its reputation for reliability. Now that is suspect.
Thanks for your responses guys, I will post after I meet with the dealer.
Wow, that is really interesting. As stupid as this sounds, disconnect the battery for 15 minutes. This will reset the ECU. the Drive By Wire on the I4's is AWFUL (My mom has one which I often drive). I've heard people resetting the ECU and making it "learn" again has made a difference. IT;s worth a try if all else fails.
Please keep us posted.
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Employed at Toyota in Parts, again.
My riced out crapmobile Camry: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/228043...y-xle-sedan-4d '96 Camry: 2MZ Supercharged.....
'95 Corolla AE101: JDM Tails/Trunk Panel/Grill/Headlights with BiXenon Projectors. JDM Lighted Ignition Keyring and Cabin Air Filter
5 Lug Corolla WHAT?
Someone else complained about vibration on down shift on this car, others have posted about a major drop in MPG. Think the fuel shutoff is typical these days.
"The car does pull to either side at different times. Sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right. There could be a traction control problem."
More likely an alignment problem.
"The transmission shutters sometimes when under light load (between maybe 40 and 35) before it downshifts."
There was a TSB out to correct this on 07's and 08's. It requires a simple program reflash to the car's computer. It should be in the original programming on your 09, but I would mention this to the dealer when you take it in.
Rereading your original post, 24 MPG strikes me as about normal, depending upon what type of driving you are doing. It's about right for mostly city driving. Highway driving should be around 30-31 INHO. That 30 MPG may have been an anomaly, or you may have been doing more highway driving when that was figured. Also, I would expect about a 10% drop in mileage when the Winter weather arrives.
Update: Dealership had no sure explaination of why the brakes would look so bad. They hadn't seen any complaints of this. The caliper is on the forward side of the rotor and the only part of the rotor that is grooved is where the pads have a taper on them. The pads themselves were tore up pretty good also. (Grooves or tear marks are in the pads for about the first inch from the taper on the leading edge where the tapered portion is. There is no grooves on the leading edge portion that has no taper.) The service manager looked at it and figured it was caused by rocks because of the pads being on the forward side of the rotors, when rocks get in there, they stay. I don't think so. Up here in Minnesota the roads are covered with sand about half of the year. The problem should be more common. They are going to replace the rotors and pads under warranty.
The drivability issues will be addressed when they road test the car after installing the brake parts. I was told that all of the cars decellerate the way I discribed and that they will check on the down shift shudder.
I'll post more as needed. Thanks for all of the input.
"The service manager looked at it and figured it was caused by rocks because of the pads being on the forward side of the rotors, when rocks get in there, they stay."
I can see a rock getting in between one pad and it's corresponding rotor causing this, but you seem to be talking about both front rotors exhibiting this problem. If it is both rotors, the odds of a rock getting wedged in between both is highly unlikely. Anyway, your dealership seems to be handling the problem for you.
As far as your transmission shudder, refer your dealer to the following 2 TSB's:
TSB-0068-08 ECM Calibration: Enhancement to Shifting Performance and Smoothness, and
TSB-0069-08 Vibration Between 35 - 45 MPH
Both are dated May 21, 2008 and apply to 2007 - 2009 Camrys with the 4 cylinder 2AZ-FE engine. Your car may be an early 09 and did not get these new enhancements in their original programing.
I had the exact shudder in my 07 and these TSB's took care of the issue.
How long have you had your Camry? We have had ours since this July. I'm not liking the car as much as I thought I would. How do you like yours?
We have driven two Chrysler Town & Countries, a Chevy Tahoe LT, and a few Jeep Cerokees as family vehicles over the last 12+ years. I would take a T&C any day over this Camry. I still have a '98 T&C (with 170k miles on it) and I like it much more than the Camry. It loses about 5mpg compared with the Camry but this van and the previous one were very reliable. We bought the Camry for the gas mileage and reliability and I don't think I'm getting what I had hoped for in either case.
I guess I am hoping to hear some rave reviews or words of encouragement regarding this car. My wife and I were actually talking about trading it off on the way home tonight.
How long have you had your Camry? We have had ours since this July. I'm not liking the car as much as I thought I would. How do you like yours?
We have driven two Chrysler Town & Countries, a Chevy Tahoe LT, and a few Jeep Cerokees as family vehicles over the last 12+ years. I would take a T&C any day over this Camry. I still have a '98 T&C (with 170k miles on it) and I like it much more than the Camry. It loses about 5mpg compared with the Camry but this van and the previous one were very reliable. We bought the Camry for the gas mileage and reliability and I don't think I'm getting what I had hoped for in either case.
I guess I am hoping to hear some rave reviews or words of encouragement regarding this car. My wife and I were actually talking about trading it off on the way home tonight.
HerCamry,
We have an 07 XLE I4. We have had it a little over 2 years. Should be exactly the same as your's, except for the color of the fake woodgrain. We have had a few initial problems with this car, but they have all been taken car of under warranty. The earlier models of this generation 6 Camry exhibited dash rattles under 30 dgrees. That was taken care of when a TSB came out that required removing the dash and reinsulating the plastic clips. Hesitiation on excelleration. That too was eventually taken care of with several TSB's that required reflashes of the computer. A shudder in the transmission when driving steady at 35-45 MPH. This is the one I mentioned above that could be the problem with your car. That too was taken care of with another TSB requiring another reflash of the computer. Finally a problem with the radio display dissapearing from time to time. That was taken care of and replaced recently under warranty. Now that these irritating problems have been corrected, we like the car. This is our 4th Camry. We have had an 86 DX (base model) that we eventually donated to a charity with 173,000 miles. We also purchased new and still have a 94 XLE that is still going strong at 87,000 miles (just a baby) with very few problems. We also had a 98 XLE that was totaled in a crash at 102,000 miles. We credit that car with saving our lives, as we were rear-ended by a full size cargo van moving at a high rate of speed while we were completely stopped. That car would still be going strong today, if not for that horrible accident. All of our Camrys have been purcahsed new. I have to say that this 07 hasn't been up to par reliability-wise with our other Camrys, but now that the irritating problems have been corrected, I expect this car to be reliable long term, as most other Camrys have been. I am glad you have had good luck with your Town and County models, but everything I read about them in Consumer Reports and hear about them from other owners has not been that positive reliability-wise.
I would continue to work with your dealer on getting your problems fixed. Then I think you will begin to enjoy the car and you will probably have it long term.
I do all of my own repairs on the T&Cs. The tranny is the only serious common defect I know of. I flush them out and put International Harvester Hy-Trans in the trannies and they perform awsome. I tow a three place dirt bike trailer with them and never worry about being in overdrive.
Well, it has been awhile but we got HerCamry back from the dealer this week. My wife wouldn't even drive it home. I bought a super clean '00 Ford Explorer (for her to drive on the "bad" days) and she wants to park the Camry until spring. I had to tell her to take it to work tonight so I could put a new thermostat in the Explorer. Hopefully she will get back to driving the Camry on the nice days.
The dealership put in the new rotors and pads. They also did the two TSB's Mike recommended. I had them change the oil and put in the Toyota 0W-20 synthetic oil. I probably will not try to figure out this gas mileage thing until spring. HerCamry drove really nice on the way home. The shuddering transmission has been cleared up.
I have been on the look out for other Camrys and have seen a couple of XLEs (it's hard to see through the steel wheel holes on the LEs) and one Hybrid that have had the same brake problem. I'm going to keep a close eye on the new rotors for signs of grooving. If it starts again, I will probably put on a softer aftermarket set of pads.
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. I bought a super clean '00 Ford Explorer (for her to drive on the "bad" days) and she wants to park the Camry until spring. I had to tell her to take it to work tonight so I could put a new thermostat in the Explorer. Hopefully she will get back to driving the Camry on the nice days.
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