You would have a "check engine light" on if the fuel management system has a fault. If not, maybe the tank is leaking.

 

Doesn't Quebec have mandatory pre-sale inspection certificates to be able to register it? if you smell gas it's coming from somewhere. If you don't see any on the ground and the smell is more obvious when driving. Leave it running when you've driven it an bit and get out and "fruit loop" it (follow your snoot). from tank to the injectors. where it smells more is where a leak is.

I'd suggest scanning first before guessing on other possibilities

Also, Don't assume the fuel gauge is working properly. Only way to be sure is to fill it up and see how much was needed but that's not a good idea if the tank is leaking. Find the source of the leak and resolve it.

Hope you find it.

 

Doesn't Quebec have mandatory pre-sale inspection certificates to be able to register it? if you smell gas it's coming from somewhere. If you don't see any on the ground and the smell is more obvious when driving. Leave it running when you've driven it an bit and get out and "fruit loop" it (follow your snoot). from tank to the injectors. where it smells more is where a leak is.

I'd suggest scanning first before guessing on other possibilities

Also, Don't assume the fuel gauge is working properly. Only way to be sure is to fill it up and see how much was needed but that's not a good idea if the tank is leaking. Find the source of the leak and resolve it.

Hope you find it.

I bought it from a garage with cash. It is probably one of the dumbest things I've ever done in my life. No contract no paper to prove that I bought it. Just cash and the government blue paper that gives me ownership of the car. What's done is done and I have to deal with the consequences of my actions. I will try the "fruit loop" and see if I can get a whiff of where it is coming from. I have filled it up for 100$ to the exact limit. The pump stopped and I kept pumping a bit more cause it was at like 98.30$. Thank you for the advice!

 

If it's leaking at the tank seem you may not notice it now that you're down to 1/4 tank. If you fill it up you may discover where it's leaking. Gas will evaporate fairly quickly so unless it's leaking quickly you may not see a wet spot like you would with an oil leak. It will usually leave a bit of a stain on concrete but you may have to look to see it. Or it may evaporate on the tank before hitting the ground. Look at the tank with a light and see if you can see anything unusual (an area of the seam that looks cleaner or different than other areas)

If you're only driving it in town with stop and go traffic you won't see terrific fuel mileage. But, you should be getting roughly 2-3x what you're seeing now if the fuel gauge is indeed accurate.

 

2004 Camry has a metal gas tank?! I know this is a web-grab picture here, but almost all if not all tanks for quite some time are plastic. Even my 1998 GMC Yukon had a plastic tank. It was huge, but plastic. Your problem is elsewhere. Do a fuel pressure test up in the engine bay. You're probably loosing pressure from a leak somewhere and if you have white smoke coming out of your exhaust, you're burning oil too. The piston rings are shot somewhere. Pull out the plugs and visual check them then do a pressure test on them as well. The test kits are really inexpensive.

 

don't go by the fuel gauge, keep a gas can in your trunk, and see if it actually stops running when the gauge gets all the way down... could be the fuel float sensor stuff. or other gauge. if it burned that much fuel it would really be choking on gas and the plugs anf exhaust would be black with soot. if it leaked that much it would smell like gas, everywhere... Not sure where you park, or even if it could be stolen. Wait and don't put any gas in until it runs out.

 

No DON'T run it out of gas. Bad idea. It's an 18.5 gal tank, so if it's at say 1/2, fill it and it should take approx 9 gal or so. That would verify the gas guage.

 

Mostly fuel tank will develop slow leak as car is 18 years old. I had an 05 Camry, replaced the gas tank on October 2021, now the gas tank price have increase by an $100 compare at that time when I bought. I suggest Spectra Premium for gas tank corrosion resistant steel (T034A) with new strap, new fuel filter, fuel pump and strainer as it has need to be remove and is better to have old parts replaced. Just be careful sometimes fit and finish is not so great with Dorman Gas tank, Liland Global or Auto Kool (Radmod consumer division in Lachine, Quebec only 1 year Warranty) might be cheaper but quality might be inferior and be sure who is replacing to transfer old gas tank rubber pads anti -vibration.
Also be prepare, that's not an 2h job at the garage. It took my small garage an 1 day + 1/2 morning to complete the repairs & suggest to bring to garage for this job with an close to empty gas tank.
Suggest go at shopping mall empty space at night more safer and use a flashlight like me, to check under car for exact leak location.

My Car Gas Tank leak area discovered sample photo:

 

You should have used less than four gallons of fuel but your gauge indicates you have used nearly 14 gallons (these are rough estimates). And you smell fuel. So you have leaked about ten gallons of fuel in six or seven days, if I am reading your posted information correctly. You estimated the mpg based on the gauge indication rather than dividing miles by the refilled number of gallons, right? It's not a very accurate or repeatable method, but fine in this case.

10 gallons = 2.7 L = 2700 mL
divide by 10,080 minutes in seven days

That's about 0.25 mL/min which would be about 5 drops per minute. You should be able to find this, presuming it is a single leak and not from multiple places, when you take the time to do an exhaustive search.

 

10 gallons = 2.7 L = 2700 mL
divide by 10,080 minutes in seven days

10 gallons = 37.8 L = 37,800 ml
divide by the 6 days as originally stated that's
1.6 gals/day or
.00011 gals (1.4 ozs.) (41 +/- ml) per minute.
if that much were leaking it would be very noticeable.

Fixed the unit conversion for you, 2.7L isn't even 3 qts.

 

I suspect the leak is in the fuel line; if it were in the tank it would leak all the time until the fuel level was below the elevation of the leak location. And the O.P. would see a puddle of fuel on the ground. If it were in the fuel line, it wouldn't be leaking while the engine is off, and it would leave only several drops of fuel on the ground while the car is in the process of being parked...

I had a leak about that bad one time when I didn't reassemble the fuel filter with the correct configuration of washers. Hope it will be something that easy for the O.P. but it could also be corroded lines or connections in Canada.

 

Could also be the both and or more. He's in Quebec. Hence in the salt belt and obviously the car wasn't well taken care of. I just hope for him it's nothing major.

 

I have edited the post and updates are in the reddit link posted below

 

My gas tank leak didn't have any puddle on the floor, but if you sniff sniff carefully, there's a strong gas smell from the rear driver side, found the leak with an flashlight. When I replace the mechanic told me and show me, the filler neck is an thick rubber attached with an screw clamp and that parts usually last an lifetime. You could go to Rockauto to check for some sample photo, the gas tank leak he told me is the seams and edge, doe to salt corrosion here in Quebec Canada .

 

I've had two 1999, 2000 and a 2001 in a rust belt area and they all leaked at the filler vent tube or the fuel lines right in front of the rear wheel. I don't know if the 2004 is laid out the same but it might be worth a look. I think salt water spray from the tire gets in these locations. The brake lines also rust through at the same location.

 

Well its been over a year and the mpg has gotten a bit better by only filling up to half the tank and never going over it, I now have found that there is gas leaking from the side of the tank after filling it to the max for a road trip. I will be attempting to research and see if I can change the tank myself or try to seal the crack or leak. if i am not able to I will be bringing it to an garage to do for me.

 

Glad to hear you got the situation at least somewhat figured out. Best of luck with replacing the gas tank. You may want to get a friend and a jack to help you hold of when you take it out, as they can be very heavy and hard to maneuver with even a little gas in them.

 

Thanks for the tips, I now go around 480km 60%highway 40%city before the light for gas turns on and I got myself some jb weld puddy that is a two step mixture and am planning on sanding down the tank to find the leak when I gas it fully and then putting it on and hope that it holds. In the meantime around 2 weeks ago I was on a road trip 1h15 away from where I live and the tank strap rusted off. I was trying to find one online but because of shipping it would have costed me around 55 from rockauto. I ended up going to the scrap and got one for 20$ and it wasn't rusted at all. I live in Montreal,Qc,Canada with alot of snowy winters going up to 40cm of snow during blizzards