Sudden poor mileage-2002 Camry

Sorry,

This is an '02, 4 cylinder, automatic, made in Japan.

I think you need to wait for a couple of tankfuls before pushing the panic button. Single tankful averages can be very misleading (even if you are very very careful). You keep a book - do a comparison over three or more tankfuls. Three is usually enough to detect a trend, five is better.

It may be that you just didn't get the tank full on that particular fill-up. It is also possible your station switched gasoline blends. Is there any chance you got some gasoline with 5% or more alcohol? Or maybe reformulated gasoline originally intended for another jurisdiction? With the current "shrtage" it is possible blends have been shuffled around. Your car might have reacted badly to a sudden change.

Ed

Could be a faulty ECM dumping too much fuel into the engine and/resulting in a bad catalytic converter. There is a TSB on this. Does the car sometimes give off rotten egg smell? If so get the ECM and cat replaced under the emission warranty.

Big Kahuna wrote:

Air filter is a good place to start. How many miles on it?

Get the car to a mechanic, and have him perform an "exhaust gas analysis". This will provide mixture information and emissions. All will be revealed with this 5 minute test.

Jason

Wait. Now you have my attention.

My 2002 Camry is now belching sulfur (rotten egg smell). I am having NO issues related bad mileage (get around 33 MPG) or otherwise - just the smell. Are you suggesting that the emission warranty is longer than the normal warranty, which I am way past? You also seem to be suggesting that a car should NEVER have a rotten egg smell, and if it does, something needs fixin. Correct?

There is a tsb -- EG003-03 -- on the smell, but it just says too bad, mostly....

True, earlier on Toyota was saying no problem with the rotten egg smell and they won't pay for the repairs and that it's the fault of the gas companies. But the later TSB's are advising reprogramming ECMs and replacing catalytic converters. Looks like Toyota still hasn't learned anything from the oil sludge public relations debacle.

I can't remember if the TSB I came across was for the Lexus ES/Toyota Camry but can't find it now. Here are the ones for the 4Runner and Solara. In it says the warranty is 8/80? Looks like they've extended the rotten egg warranty like the oil sludge warranty?

Some customers may complain of excessive sulfur dioxide odor on

2002-2004 model year Solara vehicles equipped with the 2AZ-FE engine under the following conditions:

Stop and go driving. Heavy acceleration.

In order to reduce the sulfur dioxide odor, the Electronic Control Module (ECM) (SAE term: Powertrain Control Module/PCM) fuel cut control logic has been modified and a new catalyst is provided. Follow the repair procedure to reflash the ECM and replace the catalytic converter assembly.

TSB EG020-04

Some customers may complain of excessive sulfur dioxide odor on

2003-2004 model year 4Runner (2UZ-FE) vehicles under the following conditions: Stop and go driving. Heavy acceleration. In order to reduce the sulfur dioxide odor, the Electronic Control Module (ECM) (SAE term: Powertrain Control Module/PCM) fuel cut control logic has been modified and a new catalyst is provided. Follow the repair procedure to reflash the ECM and replace the catalytic converter assembly.

TheDoctor wrote: