Toyota Repair: Stumped.........., toyota corolla ve, emission control system

Question
I am helping a friend with her 2000 Toyota Corolla VE and personally I'm stumped as to what the mechanical problem is.

For the past few months the check engine light has come off and on, now -on again. We took the car to an automotive shop and had a computerized diagnostic done, these were codes we received.

PO 440 EVAP system malfunction
PO 441 EVAP system incorrect purge flow detected
PO 446 EVAP canister vent control valve circuit fault, and
PO 1310 Igniter No. 3 circuit fault

Toyota told us that these codes could possible be the signs of a missing or faulty gas cap. Granted I did misplace the original gas cap, thus the current gas cap is not the original; yet could a faulty gas cap actually cause the engine to shut off?

As of recent the car appears to be getting gas, the battery is pretty new, and upon letting the car sit for awhile; it will start for a second or so, but then it will shut down.

When the car was running it felt weird, almost as if it was running on three cyclinders.

Could this be signs of a charcoal canister, camshaft sensor, an oxygen sensor, or a fuel pump gone bad.

Someone told me that newer cars are required to have a fuel pump shut off protocal in the case of a severe accident as such there may be a reset button in the trunk or under the hood.  If this is true could a malfunction have triggered the switch?

Any information you can share with me would be greatly appreciated.


Answer
The first three codes are related to the emission control system, they are normally tiggered if there is a gross leak somewhere in the evap system, most of the time it's because the gas cap was left off, try replacing the gas cap with an OEM part from the dealer and clear the trouble codes, if the light comes on still, take it back to dealer for further diagnosis, the evap system leak will not make the engine stall and causes no driveability problems but the Po1310 will, it indicates there is a single cylinder misfire, this could be because of a bad coil, wire or spark plug, make sure there is no water  inside the spark plug tubes and check the spark plugs for any rust deposits or cracks on the insulators, if you can't resolve the problem let me know, I also advise you to have the dealer check for any service bulletins concerning all of these trouble codes.