BOSTON4RUNNER

I recently had a check engine light, and thanks to MTL_Runner. BADLNDS and some others who posted their questions and advice.

From that I hammered out what it could be, and a possible solution.....thus far it worked for me (hopefully wont jynx myself).

I had P0441 coming on every third start up or so, when I first took the cannister out and removed the lines it wreaked of fuel. I figured that it was a good alternative to the stealership and for about 60 bucks in materials including a new vacuum switching valve this appears to have worked! I bought the vacuum switching valve prior when first trying to eliminate the check engine light and accompanying P0441 code. I actually had the palmolive soap, the rtv and three 3/8 pipe plugs anyway but that stuff would only cost about 10-12 bucks anyway if you had to buy it.

I took the Toyota Charcoal Cannister diagram and worked from that to make up some quick details of what I did.

http://sfaboston.bizland.com/charcoal.htm

I hope this helps, and I appreciate everyones guidance in figuring out what was wrong. Please feel free to PM me with any questions you may have, I wanted to post this in hopes it helps others with this annoying CEL!

BOSTON4RUNNER

I had the digital camera at work, went and took pics as recommended by MTL-Runner

hope it helps

BOSTON4RUNNER

Here is a pic of the top....pretty basic and straighforward

MTL_4runner

I am impressed!!!.....very well done.

BOSTON4RUNNER

thanks

I just wanted to be as helpful to others, as those have been helpful to me on yotatech!

94x4

BOSTON4RUNNER, got the PM and checked out your post.

I find it interesting for two reasons...

(1) The canisters on the 3.4 obviously do not match the ones on the 3.0 as your's is rectangular, whereas the one's on the 3.0 and some earlier models, are circular (sorry for not having the bugs worked out on the picture posting) implying the necessity of your hole drilling method to access the separated (?? I thought that they were interconnected ??) chambers for flushing and/or cleaning;

(2) Your use of "Palmolive" dish washing liquid ("softens hands as it cleans the dishes") implies that you're applying a "conditioner/lotion" to the charcoal element, as well as water, either of which I am uncertain of their ability to prolong the life of the charcoal element (have you ever doused charcoal with water and checked out the water's effect on the charcoal ??), as it seems that they would prove to be detrimental to the charcoal's life.

It is for that reason that I chose to use the "brake wash" as it's inherent evaporative properties, accellerated by my usage of 40psi. of air, seemed to insure that the charcoal, unfortunately having to be subjected to moisture in the first place, would not be "wet" for very long at all as the moisture appeared to be detrimental to the charcoal in other instances.

Be that as it may, these are only my observations and as such, are based on my experiences and understanding of the properties of the materials that were used and/or abused, as the case my be.

Someone such as say, Roger Brown, (a demonstrated and proven authority on the enigma known as "4Runner") may have a completely opposite perspective on the usage of any sort of a liquid on the charcoal elements in our charcoal canisters as the usage of "air" does appear to be the only cleaning method approved for usage on the canisters.

Suffice it all to say that what I did worked for me, what you did worked for you (and perhaps MTL 4Runner as well), and only time will tell if either of us were right or wrong for doing so.

But it was an awesome write up there, BOSTON4RUNNER, kudos to you for a very descriptive and clear post.
"It is only through trial and error that man makes any progress at all." (I forget who said that, but it seems fitting here. Good luck and keep up the good work).

BOSTON4RUNNER

"(1) The canisters on the 3.4 obviously do not match the ones on the 3.0 as your's is rectangular, whereas the one's on the 3.0 and some earlier models, are circular (sorry for not having the bugs worked out on the picture posting) implying the necessity of your hole drilling method to access the separated (?? I thought that they were interconnected ??) chambers for flushing and/or cleaning;"

they are interconnected chambers, however in order to flush it as I did, needed to drill each of the chambers to get all the water out

a week after it was cleaned, the handful of charcoal I retained, that didnt go back in the cannister, as I wanted to keep it to monitor, make sure it didnt break down from the soap, water etc

it is in great condition still and you can actually smell the difference between this clean charcoal and the stuff I removed which I also retained which wreaks of gas still,,,a week after it has been sitting on the work table

regarding the second part of your post, I also think brake cleaner would have worked well, but I figured hey I want to remove foul smelling odors, chemicals that may be present, I figured take a chance and use soap / detergent of sorts over using a brake or carb cleaner...I am sure that would also have worked well, but again wanted to get the foul chemical smell out.....I also used 40PSI of air during this process, as I had read your previous posts, I figure why not use 40PSI

my only risk was actually having to go buy a new cannister, this was all a gamble

94x4

Yeah, my fingers are crossed, too.

p.s. My exhaust smells pretty nice as well... If nothing else, we've given the members here a couple of different alternatives to spending the $4-500 that it would take to replace the canisters which, all in all, means that we've done good !

Tacoma Dude

I occassionally get a p440 and p446 CEL. It used to be accompanied by a p441 but I haven't had that in a while. Do you guys know if this fix will work the other 2 mentioned codes?

MTL_4runner

If you are getting both then likely all you need to replace is the VSV.
If you do that and the code still comes back, then do this canister fix.

Tacoma Dude

hmmm... that's what I was afraid of.
Thanks Jamie

BOSTON4RUNNER

I agree with MTL, do the VSV

see what happens....the replacement one I put in is loud as a mofo, couldnt even hear the old one, I thought it was faulty but most likely that was not my problem as I still kept getting the code after the code was cleared and the VSV was replaced...