so had my emissions checked 3 weeks ago, passed,
then a week later my engine light comes on and VSC turns off.
Took to my mechanic of 20 years and tells me I need to replace charcoal canister and it costs $950.
Mechanical manually inspected it and said the valve wont budge and there
is an emission leak.
WTF toyota.....
2008 V6 4runner sport edtion, 64k miles
What codes is it showing? P0456 alone? Other possible ones include P043E, P043F, P0441, P0450, P0451, P0452, P0453, P0455, P0500. The attached PDF shows on the second page the system and the rest tells you the EC charcoal canister cycle that runs and throws the codes. Once you get your head around it it is not too difficult. The problem is that if it is the VSV on the canister, well that is not a separately available part, so you need to get a used canister with a good VSV on it.
I went through this with a Camry some years back and the first thing i did with my 08 T4R v6 was get the schematics on the Emission Control vapor system and read them. I finally feel like I have the system understood (famous last words I am sure) If you know the code you can track the matter down using a littel testing and logic and confirm what EXACTLY is wrong and replace just that. The easy fixes are the VSV at the engine bay driver side and even the r&r with a used charcoal canister is straight forward once you drop the spare. There are other odd problems like loss of gas tank seals or broken/brittle lines and such that can be figured out.
PM me if you like and we can try to figure your issue out as even
IF it is the canister, well it is not something to just throw a grand at and hope. Too many folks get new canisters and then STILL throw a code, as the mechanic,
sometimes does not take the time (and it is a time consumer if you are running a shop) to do a complete evaluation of the system and make sure the DTC code and the manual diagnostics match up. Given
this listing on ebay for a used one, it is SO easy to replace I think you'd kick yourself for spending a grand on it.
Hope this helps.