The Enigmatic 'Check Engine' Light

[bahamutangel]

Hey all. 2006 Mazda3 5 speed manual 2.0L. So yesterday morning, my check engine light came on when I started her up in the morning. I had gotten home about 9 hours before that with no light.

I drove to work and back, have unscrewed and rescrewed my fuel cap about 4 times, and had AutoZone run their little diagnsotic test, with the result being:

EVAP control leak detected-small leak

Probable cause:
Faulty fuel cap
Canister faulty
Purge valve solenoid faulty
Damaged/leaking EVAP hose
Faulty EVAP leak detection pump

Any of these seem likely to happen overnight? It recently started to get cold around here, dropping to between 40 and 25 degrees overnight. Should I just get the light reset? I'm not seeing a drop in fuel consumption either (drove about 50 miles yesterday).

 

[bahamutangel]

I'm going to throw it up on the ramps to change the oil anyways. I'll be back in an hour or so.

 

[Gothkid]

check all the lines around the evap canister for any noticible problems, with a small leak code, its probably not gonna be easy to see with out an EELD. (EVAP emmisions leak detector) check the gasket seal around the gas cap as well.

 

[BlueMazda3s]

I had this same problem with my 3. I had read that the EVAP problem is very common on these mazda's, so instead of going through the multiple visits to the dealer i figured it could be fixed. If you take off the evap solenoid and look down in it, you will see a little screw slot. I screwed this out as far as it would go and put some penetrating oil into it and blew it out with an air hose. Then I tightened back up pretty tight. Reset my Engine light by disconnecting the battery. No check engine light now. Also my car was missing when at an idle caused by the evap solenoid being stuck open. This fixed my check engine light and the miss.

Hope this helps!!!!

 

[Carlinator]

Did you make sure your gas cap was fully tightened? Loose caps can cause the ECU to throw that code occasionally.