The check engine light is on. Customer comes in and we scan the car with VIDA (Volvo’s official diagnostic program). Code is ECMP044200 evaporation emission leak detected. Having seen and experienced this code multiple times over the years, especially on Volvo P3 S60/ V60’s we have a good idea what the problem is. Still, we have to go through the diagnostic steps. First, we run an evaporation quick test on VIDA which pressurizes the system. As seen on the bottom right of the test results photo, the car detected a leak of approximately 0.64 mm. Now we know that the car has a problem. Next, we must smoke test the evaporation system in order to actually see where the leak is.
As seen in the video attached, we used soap and water for this car because our experience has thought us where to look first. The problem is the fuel filler pipe (the pipe that connects to the fuel tank and where we fill our cars with gas). It is made out of metal, corrodes over time and small little holes start to appear (see photo). It could be on different places on the pipe itself but its certainly somewhere on that pipe.
These pipe have been on back order for the last couple of years and sometimes takes months to receive them. We cleaned out the corroded part as best as possible, sealed it and let it cure. We retested the evaporation system and as seen on the photo the results showed no leaks (0mm). The code was erased and the car was delivered to the customer.
We must understand that this is a temporary fix. We always recommend to change the filler pipe because other parts could start leaking in the future.
