Sudden increase in fuel consumption?

[Wendell]

Alreet,

I drive a bog standard 1.8 Avensis (yes it does get tiresome of all the ladies throwing themselves at me)

I normally get 35-40mpg when driving about town.

Tonight I stuck in £20 of fuel (4 gallons ish?) and after driving about 20 miles noticed that the onboard computer says I only have 32 miles left in the tank.

I have had a sniff and I cant smell petrol outside the car. Sadly its too dark to see if it is leaving a trail behind it but I recon if its losing it as fast as it seems to be I should at least smell something.

What could cause this other than the censor/onboard computer reporting worng, or someone replacing my engine with that of a Veyron whilst I was in the shop?

Cheers

Edited by Wendell on Sunday 28th February 00:46

[Jonleeper]

Must be something in the air as i am currently borrowing my mothers Avensis Est and last Mon it took me over 200 miles on £30 of petrol but has drunk £50's worth pootling round dropping the kids off at school since!

I would love an answer or it will be going into the dealers to diagnose the fault.

[sinizter]

Perhaps a problem with the computer rather than your car being incontinent ?

[ringram]

crapped out o2 sensors can do that.

[Simon Says]

ringram said:

crapped out o2 sensors can do that.

get a diagnostic scan carried out,takes away all the guessing

[Wendell]

Cheers for the replies.

I put it in for a service and it turns out it was the lambda sensor (oxygen/fuel ratio sensor).

They say its £200+ for a genuine Toyota replacement and £180 for an after market one, ouch :\

[dilbert]