CEL P0441 "purge flow fault"

[jjanari]

Guys,
My car: 1996 Camry 5sfe (4 cylinder)
I

need your help on this check engine light that's throwing code "P0441" known as "purge flow fault." I replaced the VSV (the one located above the charcoal cannister), but the light came back. I have it at my local toyota dealership (since I didn't want to spend any more $$ and time chasing this down). I just got a call from the dealership and they said that the charcoal cannister and EVAP (presumably the one I didn't replace, i.e. the EGR one?) need to be replaced at the tune of $750.00!!! According to the advisor, the "charcoal cannister broke up, which ruined the EVAP." I told him the CEL has been on for almost a year and the EVAP is about 2 days old.

In any event, I told them thanks, but no thanks. Quite frankly, I don't think they necessarily know what's wrong and want to charge me that amount to cover themselves for the # of times I will need to take it back. While I know the cannister alone costs $300, $750.00 is ridiculous. My questions:

1) if I've already changed the EVAP, what is the next thing I should look at to get the light off?

2) in doing a search, I found references to an extended warranty for possibly 96-??? camry in regards to emissions related components. when I called Toyota, they said it only applied to folks in 2 states (I cannot recall which ones he mentioned), but that doesn't make any sense. as always, I appreciate your guys' help.
-Jimmy

[jjanari]

While I didn't get any responses to my question (which is a bit unusual for this great forum), I was able to solve my own problem after doing some more research on the Net.

Ultimately, I needed my charcoal cannister replaced as well as a "duty valve." I presume this is the VSV for the EGR since I already replaced the VSV for the EVAP, though I haven't checked under the hood to see what was replaced (though the CEL is off, so that's all that matters!).

More imporantly, I found this link:
http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resour...aa/toyota.html

You'll remember I originally called Toyota about a reference I originally found here in regards to an extended emissions warranty. However, when I originally called Toyota, they said my car wasn't covered, which didn't make sense. Afterwards, I stumbled upon the above link and tried again with success. After a little going back and forth, I got the $750.00 repair bill covered by Toyota. Hope this helps.

-jimmy

[BlueFusion6851]

at least you got it solved on your own
but you didnt have to pay so that is cool

[Bob86ZZ4]

Great post here with that link. I just got the p0441 code the other day on my '97 Rav4. I cleared the code and it came back a bit later. I'm thinking (hoping) that this should be covered under that settlement. I cleared the code again and if it comes back I'm going to the dealer armed with this knowledge.

[jjanari]

Hope it helps. If the dealership doesn't seem up to speed or slow to respond, your best bet is to simply call Toyota's customer service.

-jimmy

[Phi]

Great post! This affects alot of Toyota ownwers and the dealer always brushes it off claiming it's not covered because the original warranty expired. Good to hear you got your car fixed and reimbursed by Toyota. Thanks a bunch for sharing your experience with the rest of us
in for l8tr . vsv

[tacojet]

jjanari,

Thanks for the help. I got the purge flow fault on our '97 with 107k miles on it. I called the dealer armed with the above knowledge and they replaced the charcoal canister under the extended EVAP warranty. I thought it was just the VSV for the EVAP which was stuck open, but that was not the case.

I actually unstuck the VSV with a little bit of spray lube, and a couple of whacks on the workbench to unstick the solenoid

Thanks again for the info.

[jjanari]

your welcome. btw, nice use of the search function