Ok, the check engine light has been on for about a month now, but have not had any time to take it in to do anything about it (I work from dark to dark). I'm assuming it is the charcoal canister just because of all the rain we have had for the past month... pretty much every day.

Anyway, the car is running fine. What would be any detrimental effects of a bad charcoal canister?

 

I'm not good with cars nor do I know anything about charcoal Canisters, but if your check engine light is on it might be serious. On second thought if you have been driving on it for a month now it might not be serious, but just to be safe better get that checked out asap.

 

It is most likely be a loose gas cap. One way a charcoal canister can go bad is when you keep pumping gas after it click indicating that it is full. If you have done something to the engine like a intake check if any vaccum hose is unplug. Check engine light most of time ,when on, mean emission related problem. Ok to drive.

 

Mine light went off when i left the gas cap on loose. So i took it to my friend at the dealer. I asked him to run the computer on it just to make sure. What came back was two error messages one for the gas cap and one for the charcoel canister havent brought it back to get it fixed yet though.

 

Just stop by a local auto parts store, shucks, als auto supply ect ect. They all have the scan tools and will read your codes and tell you what the error messages are for free. Just takes a couple minutes and its a lot faster than going to the dealer just to get the codes read. I'm going to get a Scangauge II for my XA so I can read my own codes when they pop up but also watch my water temp, mpg ect while I drive .

Hodakaguy

 

Cool, that Scangauge looks pretty cool. I was gonna put a water temp gauge in the car, 'cause I like monitoring that stuff... this will work great.

 

I have only had my car for about one year now and twice in one year my check engine light came on and both times it was the charcoal filter. This is getting pretty annoying…

 

Scangauge arrive last night... this thing is pretty cool.

It's got so many functions and it monitors so many things... I can't believe that it only cost $170.

When the built motor is finished in the Lightning... I'm sticking it in there. Super Duty don't need one... it has it's own.

 

Post a picture up of where you mount it. I noticed there is a really cool mount for the scangauge II on e-bay that holds it above your rear view mirror. I still need to get one ordered, I've been getting my street bike ready for riding season so my money has been focused elseware.

Let us know how you like it.

Hodakaguy

 

LOL... right now it is just sitting on the steering column, until I figure something out. Don't know what I'll do for a semi-permanant mount, but I'll post up what I do.

I got a trip up to Austin this weekend, be neat to see what the mileage thing does, and how accurate.