Camry Gas Milage

[SGrysman]

I bought a new 2004 Camry LE, 4 cyl, last July. Since the beginning my "city" mileage has been in the 13-15 MPG range. This seems VERY low to me given that the advertised mileage is 28 city. It was checked by the dealer at 2000 miles and "everything was already tuned within specs". I now have 3200 miles and the mileage remains the same.

The dealer's service manager referred to varying driving habits as a culprit, but mine are not wasteful of gas, i.e. I let the car warm up, do not jackrabbit from red lights, accelerate reasonable gently, etc. (I get 20 MPG on my 1988, 4000 lb., 8 cyl., station wagon!)

Has anyone experienced a similar situation? Found a way to correct it?

Do others get better mileage?

I bought THIS car because of its reputation and expected mileage. As of now I'm very disappointed and upset.

I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks

[fidgits]

Have a look at This thread, it might help to explain your low gas mileage, although for a different model.

[stevelaw]

I have two suggestions for you to try:

1. Have you heard of the TORNADO? My Camry is a 2002, and I love the car, but it also gets a few MPG less than advertised. So what I did was install a TORNADO---it's a piece of cake. You put it in the air intake. It's a ring shaped metal device that causes the air coming into the intake to swirl and it gives you better mileage and a few more HP to boot. VERY noticable difference in just 3 weeks of using it. They are $65 at Pep Boys, NAPA, and you can buy them online as well. No moving parts: nothing to wear out.

http://www.tornado.com

2. The Iridium-tipped spark plugs that TOY recommends are $13 each and don't give any extra mileage to the engine. Denso makes another double-Platinum plated plug for $10 that works better--I think I picked up some mileage by using them.

Also, I wonder if the K&N air filters are out yet for our Camrys.

[fidgits]

Hi Steve,

Now, i don't mean to doubt you, but personally I can't see how a piece of metal to 'swirl' the air in the intake can do anything at all, let alone improve gas mileage.

[stevelaw]

The thing works. In fact, if you go to the website for the tornado folks, you'll see how and why it works---and they used MY year of Camry for one of the test vehicles. I am not going to suggest that you will see a phenonenal increases in mileage: but I got a gain of about 2 MPG. This think really works: as long as you don't change your normal driving habits. No---I am not a shareholder of the company. :)

[D0UG]

The dealer's service manager referred to varying driving habits as a culprit

The service manager is an idiot that wants you to go away. Find another mechanic.

Unless you are driving around in first or second gear, that car should be getting 20+ miles per gallon in the city.

[Odycee]

Clean your MAF sensor located behind the air filter. Given nobody ever clean it since 2004, the sensor gives info to the ECU computer to control fuel/air mixture. If sensor is dirty, sensor send wrong info to ECU which uses more fuel (running rich) resulting poor MPG.

Buy MAF cleaner at store only cost $6 to spray it, remove it gently and do NOT touch it (thin wire).

[Kyled]

There are a few other things you can do, like check tire pressure, park in garage (covered/shaded), check filters, but regardless of those things, no new or used Camry should be getting 13 mpg. I might have it looked at again.