Have you noticed that even the most basic things that becoming complicated these days? Take fuel cans…you know from time to time you need to buy gasoline or diesel fuel or kerosene for whatever purpose well they now have different types of cans for different things. The red is for gasoline the yellow is for diesel and blue is for kerosone.  Now one thing all of these have in common is that they have some kind of control device that well it's supposed to make them easier use but most of them are a pain in the tail. 

The big thing here these were designed to help prevent spills and fires and of course vapors. And speaking of vapors here we have vapors for a car. The gas tank is full of gas that produces fumes or vapors as the gas sits there, so we have to control that we can’t emit it into the atmosphere. That's done through this system right here. This is a paper storage canister and it has all kinds of control  devices and so on to go with it. Now the thing that this does it stores the vapors that come out of the fuel tank once the engine is started the computer trips a valve here. This is the purge valve that allows those fumes to go into the engine and be burned with the gasoline.  

Now this purge valve has different names for different manufacturers but generically it’s a purge valve and they fail they fail on a regular basis.Well apparently vehicle manufacturers got wind of this realize that they're missing the boat so now many manufacturers make it a component part of this entire assembly. No longer you buy an inexpensive purge valve and put it on, you have buy the expense assembly and install that with a lot more labor. So big thing, if you have the check engine light or warning that says check gas cap begin by checking the gas cap make sure it's tight make sure it's good then proceeds on to the test procedure for the evaporative emissions control system on your car and you may find that you have to buy one of these vapor storage canisters.

And if you have a question or comment, drop me a line right here at Motorweek.