CEL on 2002 Subaru Forester

[tontod]

I got my car scanned at autozone, and it came up with a fault code of P0442 which could be caused by:

1) Faulty canister vent solenoid
2) Faulty canister purge solenoid
3) Faulty fuel cap (already took it off, then tightened it properly, CEL remained)
4) EVAP system hose malfunction

Do any of those (other than the fuel cap) seem like expensive repairs? On a tight budget, so looking to spend as little as possible. I'll probably take it to the mechanic tomorrow, but wanted to see what the wise minds at AT had to say. The car has ~71,600 miles on it.

 

[crosshairs]

PO442 is an evap small leak.
I find it is seldom the fuel cap that's the cause.
A quick look at all the evap hoses might reveal the problem,but there are some that you cant see unless you get under the car.
Also, if you do find a cracked hose and replace it, the light will take a day or two to go out.

A small leak is a 2 trip failure meaning it take 2 failures to turn the light on, and it will take 3 successful evap tests to turn it off.

most cars will run the evap monitor once per drive , but depending on your driving habits it may run twice.

The conditions under which it will run vary, but the normal drive cycle is after an overnight cool down, or at least a 40 degree difference in coolant temp since the last start...meaning the car would need to sit for a while...simply turning it off and restarting it would not qualify the monitor to run again.

 

[tontod]

I parked the car last night and headed out for a few hours. When I came back and drove it home, the light was gone.

 

[Demo24]

It takes the car a little while to register that the fuel cap is back on correctly once it turns that cel on. It does not turn off instantly so that could have been the issue. However if it comes back then you'll know it's something else. Next time you test it reset the ECU by unhooking the battery and pumping the brake pedal for about 30 secs. Just know that will wipe out your radio settings and odometer trip(not the total mileage).