If you’re suggesting shop must repair whatever else is wrong that’s causing the p0456 on their dime, hmmmm, not sure whether or not they are required to do that.
No, I’m not saying that. I’m saying that the diagnostic fee I paid should cover them re-examining the problem and finding what else might be wrong. Obviously if there’s a second issue that needs repair that would be a separate charge. But if the purge valve is faulty, then they should replace it at no charge, since it’s under their repair warranty.
Say you had a leak in your swimming pool. Pool experts come out, diagnose the situation, agree it is leaking, and repair one obvious leak. If that doesn’t stop the pool from leaking, would they be required to come back and find the other leaks, no-charge to you? I guess it depends on the language of the work agreement…
Sorry you are having all this emissions testing related problems. Very frustrating. At least you still can drive your vehicle. One of my cars was forced off the road, been parked for 3 years now, due to a disagreement between me and state politicians whether the emissions testing process is Covid-safe or not.
If I said “Hey, my swimming pool is leaking water onto my patio,” and I pay them to come out and fix it and they charge me $125 to diagnose the problem and then an additional fee to fix the problem, then, yes, if it’s still leaking I would expect them to come out for free and diagnose it again, since I would have paid them $125 to diagnose the problem.
If they didn’t charge me to diagnose the problem, but just say, “Hey, looks like here’s where your leak is,” and charged me to fix the leak, but without a diagnostic fee, then that’s a separate issue.
Sorry to hear that. I don’t know what that’s all about. But since Covid restrictions are mostly lifted now, hopefully you can get it resolved?
Why can’t you put it back on the road now ? Not forced , you made a choice while other people probably took precausions . Just like I did when the wife person had to have heart surgery.
Hopefully. Covid levels down considerably in my area, but waiting to see if they spike in November as school’s start up again. Big spike last November. I expect eventually that Covid levels will go down and stay down enough that I’ll find the emissions testing process Covid-safe enough to meet my safety standards. It’s not much of a burden in my case b/c I have another vehicle to drive.
Couldn’t you just give your vehicle a good cleaning afterwards to eliminate any possible contamination?
BTW, about the cruise control not working, I found this online:
Will the cruise control work if the check engine light is on?
The cruise control function will be disabled when the check engine light is on in most car models, even if the cause of the check engine light is not the cruise control itself. This is mainly due to safety reasons.
Can a vacuum leak affect cruise control?
Older vehicles use vacuum to control the throttle for the cruise control, and in this case a vacuum leak can heavily affect the cruise control. However, modern cruise controls are fully electric and in most cases will not be affected by a vacuum leak if the check engine light is not illuminated.
I didn’t know that cruise control will stop working if the check engine light is on! So that might explain why it’s not working (though I’m pretty sure it stopped working before the light came on).
Either way, that would be great if it’s just a temporary thing.
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UPDATE.
I picked up my car today, talked to the mechanic. He said he didn’t do a smoke test when I first brought it in because he saw there was a problem with the purge valve. But, he said, he did a smoke test yesterday and found a “tiny hole” in the gas tank, near where the fuel filter is. He said he plugged the hole with glue.
So that’s where it’s at. Hopefully that will resolve the small evap leak issue.
Did he use Flex Seal?
We do not recommend using Flex Seal on foam. Some foams may react poorly with Flex Seal, and may warp or dissolve. We also do not recommend using it in situations where it is subjected to high heat or pressure (such as engine radiators) or gas tanks. We do not recommend the use of Flex Seal spray on vinyl.
Tester
I don’t know. He said he used “glue.” That’s all he said.
I asked him if there would be a problem with the glue remaining, due to the heat of the fuel tank. He said that part doesn’t get very hot. His words.
THE LATEST
So, as noted, originally the mechanic replaced the cannister purge valve and the gas cap to deal with a P0456 code, minor evap leak.
Then the code came back and I returned it to the place, and this time he did a smoke test. Said he found a “tiny hole” in the gas tank near the fuel filter, and plugged it with some glue.
Now, 3 days later, I have a new code: P0455, large evap leak.
So I’m really worn out by this. But, at least I’ll be able to register my car, which was the big pressure situation. I have an appointment Thursday with DPS to get a low mileage waiver.
After that, I guess I’ll bring it back to the place and leave it with them again? I was hoping to never have to go back there again. But it seems I should go back until the evap situation is dealt with, rather than paying for an additional diagnostic.
I guess that the small hole was letting off pressure and it kept the other leak from blowing out. Things like that can happen.
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Good to know. Thanks for the insight. That’s very helpful.
“Fixed First Visit” was one of Chrysler’s mottos when I worked at the Dodge dealer. An evaporative emission system leak should not take more than one visit, but it could. There are those who say to never visit a car dealer after the warranty has expired so looks like you will need to go through the meat grinder. These grease monkeys are going to replace parts until you stop returning.
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On the positive side, that sort of leak should be easier to find with another smoke test at least. Your car’s evap system probably has a dozen or more interconnected hoses, any of which could be leaking (most likely at a connection). Or one of the evap system functional parts could be leaking too, canister, purge, and vent valves, pressure pump and pressure sensor, all should all remain suspects.
My guess, a hose came loose in the fuel tank area, could even be the fuel filler hose, when they dropped the tank to fix the small leak. I presume the gas cap was screwed on tight, and the gas cap has been leak tested.
Good plan to focus on just getting the plates renewed and solve the evap problem later, on a schedule of your convenience.
You might try the forum search feature to see what others have said about large evap leaks.
They put a new gas cap on when I first went in.
I saw something online about cleaning the place where the gas cap screws in with WD40, and spraying some on the gas cap itself. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to that, though I doubted it would solve anything. So I did that, and now the gas cap screws on a lot easier. So that’s good! LOL
I wonder, though, since the gas cap was brand new, if the rubber gasket inside the cap was still stiff and needed to be broken in. Probably not. In any case, probably not the case cap.
And, yeah, it’s a relief to soon not have to worry about the car registration anymore!! That’s what was putting so much pressure on this situation. And also to no longer have the need to continually drive it around to get the monitors ready (either by them, with me waiting for them to do it, or, more recently, by me) after every series of incidents with them.
Now, whatever happens next, I’ll be able to just wait and see if something comes up again, rather than having to drive X number of miles. So that’s good too.
And I just want to say thanks for sticking with this thread! It’s been really nice having you and the others chime in here as I’ve gone through this – both for the advice, as well as just for commiserating with me. I appreciate it. 
As part of the emissions testing process in my area they have to check the gas cap seal. They remove the cap from the car and screw it onto a special test fixture, which they pump up with air and watch the psi scale to verify it doesn’t leak. First time they did an emissions test on my Corolla, everything else passed, but the gas cap test failed. The emissions shop wanted me to buy a new cap, they had a big shelve full of them. The same shop that does the test selling gas caps seemed like a conflict of interest to me. I took a look at the failed cap. It just had a little grit on the seal. I wiped the seal off with a tissue, took maybe 5 seconds, asked them to test it again. Big frown. It passed … lol …
Glad to help. In way of analogy, misery loves company, and sense of proportion, here’s a true story: Commercial airliner , probably 737, from Cyprus to Athens. Short flight, around an hour. Before allowed to take off the ground techs inspect all the door seals, b/c of complaints ice was forming on inside of one door during previous flight. Techs find door seals ok visually, but pressure tests the entire plane (sound familiar?). They have a method to manually pump up the pressure and make sure it holds for a certain length of time. Tests ok. They had to turn off the automatic air pressurization function to do this test, and made a big mistake in the process. They forgot to turn it back to “automatic” mode for the flight to Athens. The cockpit crew doesn’t spot the switch in the wrong position, takes off, intending to fly at 34,000 feet. About 25,000 feet alarms start going off. Alarms say there is a “pre-flight configuration problem”. Captain and crew have no idea why, and phone the company ground engineers for help. Ground engineer asks Captain if switch is set to “auto”? Captain ignores the engineer’s question. Engineer doesn’t repeat the question. Captain works on unrelated issues. Plane runs out of air, captain along w/everyone else on plane passes out from lack of air, and plane runs out of gas & crashes, killing everyone on board.
Honestly, I don’t know how thorough of a test they did. When he tested it, I asked him to run it through the machine twice, because I needed to have two failed inspections to get my waiver. He was done with the whole process, including running both tests, in about 5 or 10 minutes, which surprised me. So, honestly, I don’t know if he did anything but check the tires and wiper blades and lights and run it through the machine. Maybe not even the first items!
That’s a really sad story about the airplane. 