QuestionDear Sir
I have a problem with my Toyota RAV4 and would like to ask for the advice. I imported the car – model 2007, manufactured at the end of 2006, from USA 2 months ago (I live in Poland, Europe). After a month of using the car with no problems the problem appeared - 3 lights came on: VSC, Check engine, traction. The Toyota dealer can not find the reason of malfunction as the American RAV4 differs comparing to European one. However they managed to read error codes by ECU: P043E, P043F, P2401, P2402 I P2419. Due to lack of proper documentation of the American RAV4 they are not sure what that means.
They have done few tests and checking – first of all they have done active test of the pump in the charcoal canister - during the test the pressure detected by the sensor shows 96,975 kPa, but after switching off the test the pressure drops rapidly to 100 kPa – in their opinion that can prove lack of tightness in the EVAP system (the system can not keep the right pressure). The service team tried to find the leakage by disconnecting particular elements of the system – with no success. Subsequently they covered all openings in the canister and pipes of the system getting to the canister. Unfortunately the problem of the rapid drop of the pressure stays the same, which suggests them that probably the canister is damaged – they are not sure however.
I would like to know if there are any other potential sources of such problems, and what is the most probable solution to all this malfunctions.
Thank you in advance for any piece of advice
Ania from Poland
AnswerIt does sound like the problem is the evap canister, there is a vacuum pump inside which seems to be malfunctioning, the warranty from toyota for emission control components is normally 3yrs/50,000 miles, tell the toyota dealer that they need to take care of this problem even if it means to start replacing parts to see what will work since they are not capable of diagnosisng it because of the difference between the import models from the US.
