Sunday, the check engine light came on:eek: I went to Auto Zone today to have the code pulled; The gentleman found a PO440 code and his computer stated it is one of 4 things: Loose gas cap, vacuum hose on the engine, purge or vent solenoid, or EVAP canister.

Obviously I checked the vacuum hoses' and gas cap, which are perfect. Does anybody here have any opinions as to the likely culprit? And, where are the purge solenoid and Evap canister located?

Is there substantial harm to the environment/engine if it takes awhile for me to get this addressed?

 

Thanks a million for any pointers!

Were you running your car with the gas cap open lately by any chance??

Were you running your car with the gas cap open lately by any chance??

No (but I did run until the light came on last tank), and rust doesn't seem to be any issue with the filler tube. The car runs fine otherwise.

And, where are the purge solenoid and Evap canister located?

What year and model Subaru do you have? Earlier models have the canister under the hood near the ABS pump. Later models with enhanced evap have the canister under the rear of the vehicle near the fuel filler neck.

 

There's several good articles on EndWrench.com about this code.

[...]There's several good articles on EndWrench.com about this code.

Here are a couple:

http://www.endwrench.com/current/02SpringInsiderInfo.pdf

http://endwrench.com/pdf/fuel/MoreP0440TipsInfoW00.pdf

Was the code reset? Does it come back repeatedly, once reset? Sometimes you can reset these and they stay gone.

Was the code reset? Does it come back repeatedly, once reset? Sometimes you can reset these and they stay gone.

'99 Forester SOHC with 145K.

No the code was not reset. I might try doing that this weekend.

I assume the plastic box next to the rear inside bumper is the evap box.

But, where would the purge solenoids be?

Thanks for the endrench links, however, they never open for me, just a blank page.

If the EndWrench pdf's don't work for you: When you get to the endwrench page that has the link to the .pdf, do not click on the link. Instead right click the link and pick 'save target as'. Then save the .pdf file to your hard drive. Next open Acrobat Reader and open the .pdf file. [Try this with the links 99OBW listed above].

 

If that doesn't work, reinstall acrobat reader or install a newer version. The EndWrench articles are very valuable information, especially for this kind of issue, and they tell you where all the components such as purge valve, etc are located.