Anyone have a fog machine?

[bellalyssa]

I'm trying to figure out where the hell this "leak" in my emissions is. My car has been throwing the P0455 code on and off for about 6 months. I've changed the gas cap, the tank air filters, the purge solenoid and done a visual inspection of the emissions lines. The CEL goes away for awhile and then comes back like to taunt me as I drive.

So... I need a fog machine. I've been told that if I run fog through the lines and create pressure then I'll be able to see the fog coming out of the leak. If this doesn't work I believe I will require a virgin sacrifice to appease my car. Any volunteers?

Does anyone have any other ideas as to what this could be?

[OCD]

I'm trying to figure out where the hell this "leak" in my emissions is. My car has been throwing the P0455 code on and off for about 6 months. I've changed the gas cap, the tank air filters, the purge solenoid and done a visual inspection of the emissions lines. The CEL goes away for awhile and then comes back like to taunt me as I drive.

So... I need a fog machine. I've been told that if I run fog through the lines and create pressure then I'll be able to see the fog coming out of the leak. If this doesn't work I believe I will require a virgin sacrifice to appease my car. Any volunteers?

Does anyone have any other ideas as to what this could be?

I have something similar, I made it out of pieces from Home Depot for about $10.

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc285/firestonemazda/027.jpg

It works with air instead of fog... but it has helped me many times. Feel free to come by and we can use it if you want

[bellalyssa]

Are you by chance free on Sunday? That's my next free day this week and I have to pick up an SRI anyway so that could work out well since I should be in that area.

[bellalyssa]

Anyone else have something similar to what Eric has?

I really need some help on this one. :/

[movovr]

I have something similar, I made it out of pieces from Home Depot for about $10.

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc285/firestonemazda/027.jpg

It works with air instead of fog... but it has helped me many times. Feel free to come by and we can use it if you want

This piece saved my life.

[bellalyssa]

Eric will be out of town this weekend so he isn't available to help me figure this out.

Anyone have any other ideas on how to figure out where this "large leak" is coming from?

[Ranger]

Maybe a dumb question, but...why do you really need to fix this right away? Is it just annoying? Despite how bad it might sound, that system (Evaporative Emissions Control) isn't critical to the operation of the vehicle. You probably know that though. Even if you need to make it pass emissions, most test stations don't care about check engine lights, so long as it passes the sniffer and visual inspection. At least, that's how it used to be, but I haven't recently tested a car with a CEL.

In doing some research, it seems like this is a common problem on these cars. See this TSB:

http://www.finishlineperformance.com/pdf/mazda3/bulletin/01-052-06-1606.pdf

From what I gather it looks like the "purge solenoid valve" is the culprit. Even though you said you already replaced that, it looks like many people have reported this same problem and it's just because that solenoid repeatedly gets stuck open. I'm not sure where that's located on these cars, but if you can reach it, try tapping it with a screwdriver or something. It might unstick, if that's the problem. Sounds like Mazda used a really unreliable part.

Given all that I HIGHLY doubt you actually have a leak. I could be wrong, though.

[bellalyssa]

My mom is going to be taking my car for a bit so I'd like to have all of the annoying things relatively fixed before she starts using it. Trust me, it's easier that way. My mom knows nothing about cars and will ( I kid you not) pull over and wait for my dad to come get her if a check engine light comes on.

I just had the purge solenoid replaced but I'm checking to see if it's stuck open tonight. If it's that then I'll know how to get rid of it. I'm just concerned that it may be something more than that and if it is, I'd like to know sooner rather than later.

[Ranger]

Fair enough, my mom's the same way :) Hope you find out what's wrong.

[bellalyssa]

Alright, turns out I don't need a fog machine just yet. I need a vacuum pump to check the system first.

My friend looked up the TSB for the code and they have a nice little step by step set up for how to fix it, but it requires a vacuum pump.