On Sat, Jul 22, 2023 at 05:42 PM, Michael Diehr wrote:
The evap system was redesigned for the 2001-2003 years, which don't seem to suffer this issue as much or at all
Please let me share a data point: We have a 2002 EuroVan (Transporter T4 with the 2.8l V6) with about 50k miles on it. ?A few days ago we topped the tank off in Kernville CA at about 100 degrees F, and at the gas station our internal LP gas detector started beeping from all the gas fumes in the van. ?We had never had this problem so I assumed we just spilled some gas at the pump. ?A few hours later, after crawling up to the top of Sherman Pass at 9200 ft, we smelled strong gas fumes and heard boiling gas sounds coming from a little black plastic canister about the size of a coke can, located on the driver side of the van just below and slightly back from the fuel fill location, sitting above a piece of metal shielding, just in front of the propane tank. ?Upon closer inspection, the little black plastic canister had what appeared to be a weep hole on the very bottom outboard edge, a perfect circle about 2mm in diameter. ?Gas would drip out and fall onto the metal shielding immediately underneath it. ?There was intense heat being emitted from what appeared to be a transmission component sitting a few inches ahead of the black plastic canister and also being shielded by the metal, such that one could see the visual manifestation of vapor waves in the air, like at the output of a porch heat lamp.
We let it cool off and it eventually stopped boiling. ?I was not sure at a the time if it was a fuel filter, and assumed the presence of a hole was a failure caused by a pebble that I saw had lodged perfectly against the bottom of the plastic canister and the metal shielding underneath it and. had been vibrating away for who knows how long. ?So I put a hose clamp around it to block the spillage, and we carefully drove down the hill a ways; and then the next day, on to Mammoth, where I stumbled across this fantastic group (Hi! by the way) and realised this is probably the evap canister, and that the hole I saw that was conspicuously perfectly circular was more likely a weep hole, than a failure caused by a vibratory errant pebble; and so this morning I have removed my hose clamp. ?
I am very concerned by the emission of unburnt liquid fuel from this component and its atomization in close proximity to very a hot engine component (transmission thing?), and the potential for it to combust into flame while driving, unnoticed, with flames being pushed back by the wind onto the propane tank a few inches away. ?
