DIY : P0446 Charcoal canister VSV replacement

[Maim Menu]

Okay so I figured it would be a good time to finally change the VSV for Vapor Pressure Sensor while the paint was drying on the door so here goes. I did not remove the canister, as I originaly planned to do.

My car is a '98 Gen 4, so I think it's the first year the canister is at the back of the car. My father has a '97 and the charcoal canister is somewhere in the engine bay, underneath the battery I think.

The main problem is that these parts are usually very rusty by the time they need to be changed. I actually broke the harness on the old one, and the new VSV it's temporarily soft mounted to the canister.

You will need a new VSV (paid about a hundred bucks CDN at the dealership), and maybe a small metal saw if the bolt/nut/screw is rusted. Mine was rusted so bad I couldn't figure out wich of the 3 it was, tried different sockets, screwdrivers then gave up and cut it out. If yours is not rusted you'll be able to unscrew it but I have no idea whatsoever what kind of bolt/screw it is since it just didn't look like any of these anymore.

1. Securely jack the back of the car with jackstands or back it up on ramps. Yes, the side moldings are off my doors right now for painting purposes.





2.The VSV has 3 rubber hoses and an electrical connector. Unplug the rubber hose at the back of the VSV and the electrical connector by pushing on it's tail pin and remove the old VSV. Unplug the remaining two rubber tubes on it, it's easier to get to them when the VSV is loose. Good luck with the rust. I cut the bolt with a small metal saw and wiggled the VSV until it came off. My problem is that the vsv harness broke off and the bolted part of the old VSV is still glued to the canister. You can see it on the picture I've circled the filthy canister harness in red.





2.Grab the new vsv and plug the two hoses that go next to eachother, then put it back on the harness and screw it back up. Replug the electrical connector and the remaining rubber tube. I secured mine with a tiewrap, I don't think the heat will be enough to cause any problems.





3.Disconnect your battery to get rid of that pesky P0446 or erase it with a code scanner and you are done. Bye-Bye sucker.






If you have any idea on how I should remount my poor VSV please drop me a line I don't wanna keep a tiewrap in there for too long. I will report back in about a week to let you know if the code came back.

EDIT : The code did NOT come back

[max909]

Thanks a lot ... I will be trying this soon.

[Eye8Pussies]

^ no worries, it's very easy....except for that rust part that he mentioned lol

I ziptied mine back on my solara with 4 zipties just to be safe lol

[Maim Menu]

Originally Posted by max909

Thanks a lot ... I will be trying this soon.

Hey, no problem, whenever I do something worthwhile on my car I make a DIY, let us know how it turns out, always good to get some feedback.

[freeyellow2000]

How about using one of those metal hose clamps.. as a permanent solution

[Maim Menu]

Great Idea, if I still had that car, I would've done it.

[-SCWEET1-]

I have a canister for a gen4 if you need it...... let me know...

[jrgl]

Hi,

Thanks for your DIY instructions! I have had this code for more than a year, so recently I decided to get ride of it after reading some posts in this forum. I just went to the dealer to order a EVAP VSV valve, but they charged me about $100 bucks. The price is much higher than everyone else mentioned in this forum, which is about $50~$60. Does the price vary on different dealers? Or it's standard and they just raise the price for 100%? The price sounds crazy!

[Maim Menu]

I paid about 100$ CDN for mine, that seems reasonable. Let us know how it turns out!

[jrgl]

I didn't have a chance to go to other dealers since they are a little bit far away from my place, but I just found the same part sold on the RockAuto Parts for about $50 bucks. This is about the price the others mentioned in this forum. Unfortunately, I already paid twice to the dealer. I put the link as follows for reference and hope others won't make the same mistake as I did.

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/rafr...1357488k817604

However, the worst thing happened in my case is the check engine light came back with the same code, P0446, less than an hour after I replaced the EVAP VSV valve. DAMN!!!!!!!!!!
I guess the next step is to replace the charcoal canister, another 200 bucks. Sigh... I'll try to follow other threads to see what else I can do.

[Maim Menu]

I'm seriously sorry this didn't fix your problem, but at least your car has a brand new VSV wich is one less thing that could fail down the road. And P0446 does not really damage your engine. Replacing the whole canister always seems excessive to me unless you have a cavalcade of evap codes showing up at once.

Did you inspect your vacuums before getting the VSV?

[johnny42]

I joined to try to troubleshoot my 0446 code and this post was a godsend. A couple things encountered during my repair.... The "screw" holding the switch was rusted into a mound of rust. I had to rock the switch back and forth several hundred times until the steel mounting bracket tore. Once that was done I could test it according to the shop manual. The first few tests indicated it was OK but the "air" test told me it was bad. I blew through one hole and air came out the other one. That means vapor is escaping. When I powered it up, no change. So it was stuck "open". Next, the part shown in RockAuto Parts for the 2001 Camry is NOT the one that was on my car. My part number is 90910-12264. The 2 tubes outlets/inputs are like a "T". Their diagram shows 2 parallel outlets/inputs along with a "brass" type tube sticking out the front. The RockAuto guy thinks my switch is a "late" 2001 switch. One local Toyota dealer told me they did not sell the switch separately and I had to buy the entire canister. When I confronted him that another dealer would, he said "oh wait", came back and said $79.00. I bought it from the first dealer where it listed for $72 but he was nice enough to knock off 10%. He admitted, "we go through a lot of these". I had to use the zip-tie method of mounting it. There's just no way to get a drill in there to hard-mount it. I can't see spending money just to see if the CE light stays off so the repair won't be tested until I use the car. But I will post back.

[johnny42]

The fix worked!!!

[ckyle29]

Folks, unless you have over 150K miles on your vehicle, stop throwing your money away on the evaporator system parts when you can get them free.

Here is the link to the EPA website regarding the settlement with Toyota. At the bottom of the first page is a link to the vehicles covered, including codes for the engine family and evaporative family. On the inside of your hood is a sticker that lists the codes for your particular car, which is basically all camrys between 1996 and the first three months of 1998. If your car code is on the list, you are covered for 14 years or 150K miles on the entire evap system, including the charcoal canister. I just got mine replaced free of charge last week, although the dealer was going to charge me until I showed him this website.

http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resour...aa/toyota.html

[wtftoy]

Thanks for pointing that out ckyle. I've bookmark it in case I ever have a problem, my cars still a baby at 93k miles.