Charcoal canister refresh?

[DenverB]

so... charcoal canister issues here. 2000 EVC, canister is full of gasoline when removed. purge valve is good... still, it's causing major gasoline smell and pressure issues in the van.

problem is that there's a mid-production charcoal canister for late 97 - 2000 EVCs that is NLA and hard to find used. Bummer, as I can't find one right now even used... (p# 7DO 201 801 A)

so, the problem of not finding parts likely isn't going to get any better as time goes on, so is there a fix? I know with my baywindow charcoal canister I was able to open it, pull the charcoal mud out and use activated charcoal from a fish supply store to basically rebuild it.

Has anyone ever done this with a eurovan canister? If so, what tips do you have?
_________________
-------
'77 Transporter/camper (Bussy - Reef Blue/Pastel White)
'67 bug (Santos - VW Blue)
'84 Vanagon Westfalia (Pink Flamingo - Pastel White/Pink)
'88 Vanagon GL Westfalia (Frankie Says - Wolfram Gray)
'02 Eurovan Weekender (Green Apple)
'95-'03 Eurovan full campers and weekenders (rental fleet)
'84 -'91 Vanagon full campers and weekenders (rental fleet)
'72 Porsche 914 (Greta - RIP)

www.RockyMountainCampervans.com

[Abscate]

Try blowing air through it for a few hours/days to get the gas out. Is it wet with gas or just smells of gas?
_________________
.ssS!

[Zeitgeist 13]

I'd want to further investigate why gas is getting in there in the first place.
_________________
Casey--

'89 Bluestar ALH w/12mm Waldo pump, PP764 and GT2052
'01 Weekender --> full camper
y u rune klassik?

[DenverB]

tried that with the compressed air.

gas gets in there when renters overfill the tanks, mostly. purge valve failure is another reason, apparently.

the problem is that all the charcoal in the cannister turns to powder over time. when gas gets in there/collects as vapor and gets it wet, it's like mud inside with no ventilation whatsoever.
_________________
-------
'77 Transporter/camper (Bussy - Reef Blue/Pastel White)
'67 bug (Santos - VW Blue)
'84 Vanagon Westfalia (Pink Flamingo - Pastel White/Pink)
'88 Vanagon GL Westfalia (Frankie Says - Wolfram Gray)
'02 Eurovan Weekender (Green Apple)
'95-'03 Eurovan full campers and weekenders (rental fleet)
'84 -'91 Vanagon full campers and weekenders (rental fleet)
'72 Porsche 914 (Greta - RIP)

www.RockyMountainCampervans.com

[JMB3]

How does one remove the metal strap that holds the canister?

[DenverB]

Update:

I did it. I tore one of these things apart out of necessity. Pics to come, but I pulled it out and basically dremmel cut the top of the thing off. It's held together inside which meant I couldn't remove the top completely but I was able to do it enough to remove the springs inside and the cloth-style filter that holds the charcoal pellets in place. Those filters are the problem.

Pellets came out fine, cleaned up niceley over an od window screen. the cloth-style filter was BLOCKED up with fine dust though. it took a lot of compressed air and carb cleaner to get them completely open and free again.

plastic welded it back together and slapped it in the van -- and it sort of helped. Van is running better now with less gas fume buildup. there's still one more vent on top of the tank but i've got to drop it to get to it...

I've also talked with several people who have said they've replaced ENTIRE FUEL SYSTEMS in the van from gas cap to tank and all associated parts and the problem persists. The heat that gets under there is too much for some of the vans (maybe a heat shield put in incorrectly somewhere?).

SO.... the charcao fix, a new evap purge valve did a lot to remedy the situation. Best thing though? Taking the belly pan off the van and a little help from mother nature here in Denver with cooler temps and rain. Van has no gas buildup (beyond the ordinary) after an hour of driving today.
_________________
-------
'77 Transporter/camper (Bussy - Reef Blue/Pastel White)
'67 bug (Santos - VW Blue)
'84 Vanagon Westfalia (Pink Flamingo - Pastel White/Pink)
'88 Vanagon GL Westfalia (Frankie Says - Wolfram Gray)
'02 Eurovan Weekender (Green Apple)
'95-'03 Eurovan full campers and weekenders (rental fleet)
'84 -'91 Vanagon full campers and weekenders (rental fleet)
'72 Porsche 914 (Greta - RIP)

www.RockyMountainCampervans.com

[jjvincent]

The thing is, many van's don't smell like gas and if they did this when new, there would have been a million posts and customer complaints about it when they were new. I think that many give up and blame heat as the problem. Think about it, the heat hasn't changed since the van was built.

[DenverB]

i don't doubt what you are saying at all and I'm not entirely blaming heat..c.

It is clearly a function of age and use, therefore one would think wear and tear on parts, right? worn-out parts, clogging we aren't catching somewhere in the system, a vaccum leak nobody can seem to identify, something shifting under the hood (a heat sheild rusting out and deflecting wind the wrong way), etc..

but...

removing the belly pan, lifting the van, ensuring good gas(91 octane) and colder temps have all coincided with the gas fumes/pressure dropping in the van this week.

At least anecdotally, it seems to be working for now.

and shit, since I can't seem to find half of these parts anymore, I'll take what I can get in the form of small victories.
_________________
-------
'77 Transporter/camper (Bussy - Reef Blue/Pastel White)
'67 bug (Santos - VW Blue)
'84 Vanagon Westfalia (Pink Flamingo - Pastel White/Pink)
'88 Vanagon GL Westfalia (Frankie Says - Wolfram Gray)
'02 Eurovan Weekender (Green Apple)
'95-'03 Eurovan full campers and weekenders (rental fleet)
'84 -'91 Vanagon full campers and weekenders (rental fleet)
'72 Porsche 914 (Greta - RIP)

www.RockyMountainCampervans.com

[markcm2]

Where is the evaporate canister located? Preferably on the 2001-2003

Did you happen to take pictures?

[mvaska]

it's immediately behind the gas fill door under the car. it's just a few bolts and screws to remove the entire evap system. two valves with wire harnesses and a few tubes. disconnect wires and tubes to/from and take it all out as one unit; then bench disassemble from there.

i also had this problem after overfilling. the canisters should be able to recover i imagine but the floss that keeps the charcoal pellets from entering the system got clogged with scaly residue. once there is gas in there it can't breath at well as it needs to (let it sit for months after blowing all the gas out).

i suppose you might be able to put some sort of vinegar or something to dissolve the scaling. i dremmled off the top replaced the charcoal and floss with fish tank products for $20 from amazon. put carb cleaner through valves while clicking with a 9-volt until they worked with a solid click every time. jbwelded the top back on (once to tack and again to create air tight seal.)

put it all back together and it's been fine since. air was moving through the charcoal before i started so i wondered if i was over-repairing. after i finished though the difference in ease of air movement was dramatic.

[Abscate]

[pinetreeporsche]

[quote="Abscate"]

[xEVC]

[Endopotential]

I know this doesn't apply to your model year, but maybe this can give you some food for thought. I did it on my '02 to no avail - though mine doesn't have any potential "filter bag" that may get clogged.

If your CC is built like mine, I imagine "top" refers to how it is mounted in the car.

But before you hack into a CC that is no longer sold, maybe try disconnecting as many of the lines as you can and blow air or run a wire through them.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=764115&highlight=charcoal

Or as our resident master mechanic @EuroTec suggests, try filling your car with the nozzle sideways

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=765748&highlight=fill+this+way