Vapor Canister Vent Solenoid

[BlueOvalFitter]

A few days ago I stopped to get gas. When I started pumping the gas, the gas pump handle kept kicking off. I thought I might have had the nozzle in the tank neck too far so I pulled it back. Same thing. Luckily I had a half tank and was not empty. I didn't think anything about it until my dash lit up with a CEL. I called my sons boss (shop foreman at the Ford dealership) and told him what was going on. He told me that the VCVS was stuck in the closed position. It's located above the spare tire on the bottom of the bed. He said to remove it and blow into it. If air passes thru then it's fine. If air doesn't pass thru it, replace it. BUT, a temporary fix, until I can get a new one ($60 from RA + shipping), is to spray the plunger with throttle body cleaner and blow it out with air. So, this Friday, my truck goes up on my cousins lift and we operate.
Has anyone else had this problem before? This is a typical emission design on ALL gas engine makes of trucks and cars in America.

 

[Hall]

My G35 had it fail not too long ago. For the 3 years I've owned it, there were a handful of times it would click off the fuel nozzle like yours did. Removing the nozzle, not inserting it very far, etc didn't allow any more fuel to go in though. Never threw a check engine light though until a few months ago. I posted about it here and a couple of people indicated that the fuel nozzle stoppage was a pretty good clue as to which emissions part was to blame. A P0455, which is what I was getting, could have been a few different things including a faulty gas cap.

Mine had a slightly different layout but had the same turn-and-click connection and the simple hose barb connection.

 

[Leo99]

My old rav4 had that problem. But the vent solenoid is integral with the charcoal canister and had to replace the whole unfit. Luckily, found one on ebay from a Toyota dealer for $225 instead of the normal $350. The gas line connector is tricky but I got it off without drama.

 

[clinebarger]

Replaced hundreds of them over the years

 

[WyrTwister]

I have replaced the purge solenoid on a Silverado and a Chevy Sonic . But they were under the hood .

 

[BrianF]

Yep, yep and yep. My 2011 ram 1500 had it replaced under warranty which put it under 100,000km. Caused air locks when fueling but this one only showed up in the winter.

I have been having the same issues off and on for a few years on my 2006 Trailblazer. Eventually the issue got worse and I pulled the vent solenoid and proceeded to knock a pile of dust and dirt from it. This temporarily fixed the issue. But it reappeared and it was followed by a large evap leak code. Another cleaning did not fix the issue.

I got a new solenoid, which fixed the large leak code but the thing still air locked. I ended up changing the evap canister as well. That fixed everything.

What I found was a mess. This is for all those guys who drive grid roads and see all sorts of dirt and dust. The valve and canister were chalked full of dust. No wonder they failed. My backwoods fix was to use some old pantyhose as a makeshift filter for all that unregulated air entering that vent solenoid. Now time will tell how it will work.

 

[Hall]

Replaced hundreds of them over the years

You're the one that suggested the fuel nozzle stoppage was a good sign that the solenoid was the culprit in my case (vs a faulty gas cap, etc) I bought an SMP/Intermotor and so far, so good.

 

[Silver]

Trailblazers have this commonly too.

 

[dudemancool1904]

Common failure on mazda3 but you have to drop the rear subframe and tank to get to it.

 

[zzyzzx]

Replaced hundreds of them over the years

They go bad on every car pretty much.

 

[BlueOvalFitter]

That solenoid wasn't bad so I returned the new one.
I had a CEL on and had codes P0451 and P1450 stored. The shop foreman at the Ford dealership where my son works, fixed the problem. The vapor canister was bad. Instead of installing a new one he bypassed it. So, no more CEL, no more gas spitting back while filling, and my old great gas mileage is back again.