Check Engine Light For Charcoal Canister

[ZFORCE]

I have seen this issue often enough to wonder if anyone has come up with an inexpensive solution.

We GS 300 owners have a check engine light issue that is triggered supposedly by either a loose gas cap, bad gas cap gasket or fuel in the charcoal canister.

I have that issue. A few days after purchasing my car last Jan ('08), I got the check engine light. I went to Auto Zone, they read my code as being caused by a loose gas cap, bad gas cap gasket or fuel in the charcoal canister.

I changed my fuel cap gasket, my fuel cap and reset the codes by disconnecting the battery. It worked for a couple of days. Reset it, it worked for a couple of weeks, came back...etc, etc.

From everything I read, the cause is overfilling the fuel. When a person tops off the tank too much, it sends fuel down the vapor line going to the charcoal canister (which isn't supposed to happen.) When fuel goes into the canister, it activates the check engine light.

So now the questions. Short of replacement, has anyone come up with a good fix for this issue? Seems like a bad design as the charcoal cannister is located above the axle (a major pain to remove to get to it) and seems to be too low.

Does anyone know of a cheap swap with another vehicle that works? Maybe a toyota or any other vehicle???

The service manual shows the cannister and it seems way to complex with several hoses and electrical connections.

Has anyone blown it out with compressed air??

Has any one taken one apart and dried it out??

Please post your experiences, solutions, replacement model/year canisters.

THANKS!

[GuyTelefunken]

I would suggest that you get the car properly diagnosed by a competent mechanic. As you noted, the system is fairly complex and easily misunderstood. Lexus specifies a procedure to check components based on the specific code(s) found in the ECU. Unfortunately, diagnosing Evap issues is way beyond the expertise found at the typical Autozone.

[ZFORCE]

I would suggest that you get the car properly diagnosed by a competent mechanic. As you noted, the system is fairly complex and easily misunderstood. Lexus specifies a procedure to check components based on the specific code(s) found in the ECU. Unfortunately, diagnosing Evap issues is way beyond the expertise found at the typical Autozone.

Thank you for your response. Does anyone else want to address my questions?

[SKperformance]

If you can find a way to repssurize the system you will find a leak.

If it is the charcoal is spent from being overfilled you will need to replace the tank or the charcoal inside.

[RVACowboy]

Wow, was hoping this was going to lead to some good ideas. Guess I’ll keep searching. If you ever found any, can you add them here?