carbon canister? please identify and advise please

[dirtee-herbert]

hello and thank for your help again

currently stripped my engine bay and im de-rotting the car, well atempting to.

what is this canister in the engine bay? carbon canister??


i have read i can remove these as they are useless. is this true? and if i am removing this what do i do with the pip that goes in to this from the fuel tank. The solid line from the tank to this canister is rotten and crumbled away in my hand, so what do you suggest the best solution is?

thank again

[Motorhole]

I'm replacing the solid fuel line - its a breather for the fuel tank - putting the flexi pipe back on the end and fitting a small filter to keep gunk out. A lot of people just remove the pipe completely though and leave the breather open at the tank end.

[jmc330i]

Yes, carbon canister. Only present on cars with catalytic converters.
Normally just unplug it, although I'm not sure if it will cause any ecu issues. On my engine conversion, the fault code was thrown up because I left it unplugged, but it made no difference to the running and I was told it was fine by one of gurus on here.

The pipe from the fuel tank just gets fed through one of the holes in the suspension turret, so it can vent outside the engine bay.

[dirtee-herbert]

cheers guys. the ecu issues arnt a bother as im fitting a 1.8 engine and ecu from a car which did not have a carbon converter. i think i will just let it vent at the tank end with a small filter on it and shave all of the clips off under the car and remove the solid breather line too.

[Brianmoooore]

Fine to remove it all the way back to the LH side of the rear of the car. No filter required- just leave the end open and pointing straight downwards.
The other hose that leaves the cannister should go to a small electrically operated valve. This can be removed as well, but the pipe hose that goes from there to the inlet manifold must be blocked with a plug in its now free end. The wire that went to the valve can just be left tucked up to the air meter loom on a 1.8 M40, but where more sophisticated engine conversions are involved, the plug should be left connected to the disused valve, or a resistor connected in its place. BMW can actually supply such a resistor, which was produced for countries where the fuel tank related emissions equipment was nor required.
The two most important parts in the above are that the pipe to the tank is left open, and that to the engine is blanked off.