Emissions are hard. Boxster content. #@!@

Good thing I'm nearly bald already, otherwise I'd be pulling out even more hair. I'm stumped. Help. Here's the rundown....

2003 Boxster base 5spd. I bought it several months ago. Had a leaking heater core when I bought it. Changed that, no problem (though I have no a/c and tried the hack fix for the blend door...unsuccessfully).
When I got the car, it wouldn't take fuel. It would spit it back out, I had to go at a literal tiny stream, took 15 minutes to put in 5 gallons. It also gave me check engine light. Friend had a used vent valve he gave me. I installed it. Fueling is much better, but still not quite "normal", I can go about 70% of normal. I suppose I need to just go buy a brand new one and put it in. However, the check engine light is out. I have zero codes and zero pending codes. I have driven the car maybe 200 miles or so since reinstalling the battery and changing the vent valve.
Scanner says SAI (secondary air injection) and Evap aren't ready. Tried the driving cycle...Tank 1/2 full. From cold start 2.5 minutes at idle. 20-30mph for 3.5 minutes. 40-60mph for 15 minutes. Idle for 3 minutes.

Still in not ready mode. No codes, no pending codes. ????

During the 15 minutes of 40-60 I did have to come to a brief stop and reaccelerate. I did NOT go above 3000rpm and went right back to 58mph. Did the brief stop mess up the cycle? I made sure I had a full 15 minutes total of 40-60mph.

Of all the cars I've ever owned...and it's a damn lot...the Boxster is unquestionably in the top 3 favorite, I am smitten with it.  I'm also getting frustrated trying to get it through emissions.  Maybe time for a quick run to Florida and figure out how to register it there....

My first swag is the charcoal canister is berkeleyed.

You may need to just drive more. My understanding is modern ecus may take 200-400 miles of usage before they see the right cycles to flip to "ready".

In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :

It isn't necessarily number of miles, but the correct kind of miles, and the correct number of drive cycles, which usually gets defined as a full warmup and drive with coolant and air temp sensors reading within a couple degrees of each other when you started the engine.

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

My first swag is the charcoal canister is berkeleyed.

This forum post seems to show the charcoal canister is near filler neck but also near front suspension.  

Is your rebuilt title the result of some RF damage?   If so,  is it possible that damage  to canister was overlooked? 

I was looking up engine torques in the factory manual a couple days ago and think I saw the specifics of a drive cycle. I'll check it tonight and see if there's anything you might have missed.

For AC I have seen a couple things that you could still check. Have you confirmed that the AC compressor clutch is engaging? Are the radiator (AC condenser) fans both working correctly on high and low speed? Under the dash and just to the left of the glove box there are two actuators that move the blend door for AC and diverter for windshield defrost. I think one had a purple arm and the other was green. See if they move properly when you adjust the controls.

Here's one of my old pics of the HVAC unit out of the car. You can see the actuators bottom center ...green/purpleish. They changed the style of actuator at some point, probably '03 with the facelift. If you use replacement parts from an earlier model the connector will be wrong.

I hate working on the the fuel vent/evap system. I still have one car that it's an issue on and it's literally the last thing that I want to work on out of all my projects. I have replaced everything except the charcoal cannister, but all my replacement parts were used and not known to be absolutely good.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :

It isn't necessarily number of miles, but the correct kind of miles, and the correct number of drive cycles, which usually gets defined as a full warmup and drive with coolant and air temp sensors reading within a couple degrees of each other when you started the engine.

 

Exactly- the rule is that all test happen during a 10 mile FTP75 test. 

John Welsh said:

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

My first swag is the charcoal canister is berkeleyed.

This forum post seems to show the charcoal canister is near filler neck but also near front suspension.  

Is your rebuilt title the result of some RF damage?   If so,  is it possible that damage  to canister was overlooked? 

The damage was on the left front.  Though it is possible the canister is just used up...the car does have 162k miles.

In reply to AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) :

Yep, I tried the "hack" repair on that blend door.  When I pulled it out, there was absolutely zero foam left.  I'm not sure I put it back in correctly, it's kind of hard to wedge it in.  

Getting the readiness codes to set on 996/986 cars is notoriously hard.  You need to drive it at least 200 miles in city stop/go traffic and then see if the monitors are set.

In reply to docwyte :

Yeah, or just say berkeley it and get it registered in Florida.  I do have a rental home we recently bought down there.  Has to be a way I can register it to that address.

AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) said:

 

 

This makes me sad.  My1986 GTi suffered from this.  My 1997 Jetta suffers from this.  And in 2003 VAG was STILL doing this?  *sigh*  And probably still is doing this.

Sorry, back to your emissions problem.

docwyte said:

Getting the readiness codes to set on 996/986 cars is notoriously hard.  You need to drive it at least 200 miles in city stop/go traffic and then see if the monitors are set.

I found a post about it on Rennlist.  It was about 50 miles and 70 minutes or so of silly, but it always worked for me on my 986 and 996.  

2nd the need for a new canister. 

Fought similar on a Subaru. 

Where is the rental home, I need a vacation.

akylekoz said:

Where is the rental home, I need a vacation.

Davenport, FL.  

New charcoal canisters are expensive as a mofo, I'm going to search for a used one and hope it works.  I just need to get one of the two systems in "ready" mode, not both.  Evap is likely the much easier one, as there is easy access to it.

Drive the car more before you spend money on a part you might not need.  Several local people have had to take their cars to the dealer, who are able to force the ECU to run a test sequence to set the monitors.  Even with all the driving etc, the monitors just wouldn't set....

In reply to docwyte :

I agree with this - drive drive drive for a week or so and then see what happens. 

Also, I didn't think charcoal canisters got used up... they just store the vapors temporarily until you run the car and you suck them back out and burn them. 

I have seen youtube videos where folks 'restore' older ones (I think the video I saw was John Twist with an MGB) where you dump out the contents, use a torch to burn out most of the trapped vapors and gas, and then reassemble. 

That said, if you somehow managed to fill the canister with liquid fuel, I could understand how it is taking the car quite a while to burn off all those extra vapors. 

I have seen canisters plug up internally when the charcoal balls turn into charcoal dust.  Causes all sorts of interesting things when the internal diagnostics don't factor in that can happen.  (Usually sets a solenoid fault, it doesn't see fuel tank pressure increase when the vent is commanded open)

Failing canisters used to be great for causing purge solenoids to stick open.  The chunks keep them from shutting.

Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to docwyte :

I agree with this - drive drive drive for a week or so and then see what happens. 

The bit of a quandary I'm in is that since the car didn't pass emissions inspection, I wasn't able to get a one year registration.  The state only gives you a 30 day registration.  With all the traveling I've been doing, I haven't had a lot of opportunity to drive it.  30 days have long past, so now it has expired registration.  Yet I have to drive it more to see if the code clears.

I'm not getting any codes at all, or pending codes.  I would think that if there was something actually wrong with the canister that it would throw a pending code at the very minimum.  I have no idea if the SAI is working or not, from my understanding it's not super easy to access.  But if I can get EVAP to be in ready state, I don't need to worry about SAI.

Do you have access to a scanner that will command a fuel tank leak test or a secondary air test?  Secondary air may not run unless the air temp is lower.  Have you put a full tank of gas in it, that may force a tank leak test for the check gas cap light.