I recently had to change the “purge control solenoid” at 81K in my beloved 2007 Camry 4-cyl. At $241 it was acceptable but still stung a bit. Here’s my question: Would it affect my car or fuel economy if I didn’t change this solenoid? I feel like I just paid $241 to turn of the check engine light. Emissions tests are not required where I live.
It won’t affect the way the car runs. Over time, a bad purge control valve will cause your charcoal canister will become saturated with gasoline. It will fail emissions but that’s it.
If you are in the habit of adding gas to the tank after the handle clicks off the first time (topping off), you will get this code again.
The purge valve is part of the system that tests to make sure your car isn’t emitting gasoline vapor into the air. Even it it did have a small leak, I don’t think it would affect the fuel economy to any significant degree, but it would affect the amount of pollutants your car emits. So besides turning off that annoying CEL, it is a good thing for the enviroment to get it fixed. Is it $241 worthwhile? Who knows? Here’s a link to a tutorial on this subject.
Ehh, I’m going to disagree a little bit here and say that it may affect the way the car runs, if it fails in an open position. That would allow fuel vapors and/or air to enter the engine when it’s not supposed to. Bottom line, a system on your car was not working properly. It should be fixed.
You didn’t pay $241 to just turn off the engine light. You paid $241 to fix a broken part on your car. Surely there’s value in that.
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No it will not effect the way the car runs. The only time it could, and it’s very rare, is if you top off the gas tank to the point where the charcoal canister Is filled with gas. Then every time that valve opened to purge vapor into the intake , it would dump raw fuel and cause a stall. It’s very rare that it went bad did you have a p 0441 or 0446, or p0456,55,42 ? Having bad purge valve will not effect the ovrv valve on the tank, and that’s what shuts off the fuel when refueling. The ecu looks At several different evap references when determining malfunction. The purge, CCv, and the tank bypass vsv. It also looks at slow changes like loose gas cap. Bottom line: you could’ve went without if. But if your cel light is always on , how do you know what other issues may be happening ?
fatrat: Was the coil “open” on your solenoid? These plungers sometimes “stick”. The purge valve (called outer-vent control valve) on my 1979 Celica was stuck in the closed position. After a few raps, I spread some Aeroshell # 7 aviation grease on the plunger. No problem since in three years. I had tried to buy a replacement valve at $95, but Toyota no longer makes them (surprise, surprise)
P0441. I don’t know if it was stuck open or closed.
It could affect the vehicle operation if it is in a stuck open position. After fueling the vapors can cause a flood condition. I have also seen vehicles stall after leaving a fuel up.