My top guesses for P2450 are something electrically wrong at the valve in the front even though it was replaced or fuel filler or some lines are bad. Maybe I should build the smoke machine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhNQiIRsCCk But the book was going to tell me where to look first.
I'll throw in my guess that it's the capless fuel filler flap leaking/sticking open and defeating the evap system right at the "gas hole." Another maintenance item you didn't expect to have, but your windshield wipers were worn to the nubs so I'll bet nobody ever cared about the flap that seals off the gas tank. FTM shows how to free it up, mentions how common it is, and links to a keyed plug you can put in there, which is $25 but it gives you keyed locking functionality - maybe worth it to you in the city if the price of gas keeps going up. I'm old enough to remember gas rationing during the Carter years with neighbors getting up at 3 a.m. to siphon gas out of each other's cars (it was based on odd/even numbering on license plates) instead of waiting in line before work, which popularized the locking gas cap and made a lot of neighbors into enemies. If anything people are less civil now than they were in 1979.
In the vid. he mentions the 2009 specifically, shows how the design changed in 2013, and uses the emergency fuel funnel, some compressed air, and some actual WD-40 to free it up. He also mentions a PID in the scan tool which presumably is available in FORScan to actually monitor the amount of evap leakage detected by the system. This vid is kind of easy to miss because he doesn't mention the word "evap" in the title. And of course the code itself is only covered in detail in the PC/ED manual.
Also: if you had a lot of gunk/junk in there, that means that some of it made its way down the filler neck into the fuel tank and presumably is still either in the bottom of the tank swirling around or got picked up by the pump. The 2009s, from what I have read, do not have a dedicated fuel filter and instead the filter is in built into the pump assembly somehow, which baffles me from a maintenance point of view. I guess Ford wanted you in the dealership to get the whole pump changed every time a little bit of contamination clogged it up...
I could not find a fuel filter and it's not in the SM or any parts listing. I already did that cleaning and got the cap. I'm now drying the RTV I put on it to see if it makes a difference; plain cap is still letting the code show up. There were regular filler necks available for $69 but they are OOS. If I have to replace it I'd like to see if anyone else still makes one. Get rid of that whole stupid system. Should check which PID he is using but I looked at gas tank vac and its low .01 or something. I need to either smoke it or at least find a good coupler for my hand pump so I can check for holding vacuum. From the stuff I did have it held for a little while going from the canister to the valve in the front. No way to check the other direction as the hose won't mate up. Want to diagnose this better than the a/c before buying anything more than that cap.
My common sense is telling me this could be where my +5 fuel trim is coming from. The intake is sucking extra air.
Last edited by ShadyEscape; May 27, 2021 at 03:33 AM.
My common sense is telling me this could be where my +5 fuel trim is coming from. The intake is sucking extra air.
I agree. And if that fixes it, it would be great to see it documented with a number so we know exactly what it "costs" when it's leaking. "Have +5 LT fuel trim and an intermittent P2450? Check the filler neck, leatherneck."
And 5% of 29 MPG is about 1.5 MPG, so that would take your 26.1 and make it 27.6 which puts you inside the 29 Hwy/27 City EPA estimated mileage range. At that point you're chasing the small numbers and you know the big picture is right and the car should pass emission inspection with no problems. I've always looked at that flap system on the filler neck with a jaundiced eye. I've never understood why they just didn't put a regular gas cap on the thing. I don't like the idea of it at all. What are they trying to do, save people from forgetting their gas caps at the station? Screw that, I'd much rather have one, and if you can't remember your gas cap, you are probably too impaired to drive. But this is all driven by the relentless pursuit of fractions of a MPG in CAFE ratings.
I could not find a fuel filter and it's not in the SM or any parts listing. I already did that cleaning and got the cap. I'm now drying the RTV I put on it to see if it makes a difference; plain cap is still letting the code show up. There were regular filler necks available for $69 but they are OOS. If I have to replace it I'd like to see if anyone else still makes one. Get rid of that whole stupid system. Should check which PID he is using but I looked at gas tank vac and its low .01 or something. I need to either smoke it or at least find a good coupler for my hand pump so I can check for holding vacuum. From the stuff I did have it held for a little while going from the canister to the valve in the front. No way to check the other direction as the hose won't mate up. Want to diagnose this better than the a/c before buying anything more than that cap.
My common sense is telling me this could be where my +5 fuel trim is coming from. The intake is sucking extra air.
Somewhat off-topic, but speaking of the relentless pursuit of fractions of a MPG in the CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) ratings, a prime example is the new F150 with the 3.5 Ecoboost twin turbo. FTM just leased one of those $70,000 Platinum model trucks and on his Part 1 of 2 "show and tell" he says thusly:
"Some technology changes, mainly, probably for the CAFE standards...there's a lot more hoses involved, I mean you can't even see the front cover...there's a lot of extra items on here for emissions reasons, I mean look at this mess over here of harnesses and wiring and tubes and that...and this is the first year that I know of that the 3.5 has EGR setup on here. For years they got rid of it by using the VCT system, but now with emissions getting more and strict, not only do we have an EGR valve and a pipe like the old days - Wow, we're going back in time here - but we also have EGR coolers - see that big ol' box right there? Well, Ford and EGR coolers on any engine just don't seem to mix and eventually they burst and they start puffing a bunch of white smoke out the back there."
The truck also has:
Active grille shutters (electric motors driving around louvers in the grille to open/close) for optimized airflow and MPG
Electric front air dam (goes up and down automatically, again - actuators, switches, wiring) for optimized airflow and MPG
Electric brake assist with an accumulator - no more engine vacuum! $2,000+ serviced as a unit with the master cylinder!
Extra coolant lines to the transmission for warmup - Nothing like more coolant lines, fittings, control valves and sensors to complicate the system and blow/crack/leak.
My impression of their efforts: they are chasing tenths and probably even hundredths of a MPG in their CAFE ratings and emissions standards, and in order to get where they are going, their new trucks now have returned in many ways to the under hood complexity of a mid-80s Audi 5000 Turbo Quattro, except with even more components, all monitored by the computers now, of course, but even more complicated. And I have the sense that almost every longevity problem they've had with their various engines and vehicles in the past 10 years have been traceable to the same pursuit of those fractions of a MPG, costing the American consumer and owner of these trucks hundreds of millions or billions of dollars in out-of-pocket repair expenses, to gain maybe 5% in their overall CAFE ratings.
Wikipedia's entry on EGR is a joke, like so many of their other entries - it makes EGR sound like a tremendous technical advance and a boon to mankind when in reality it was a 70's desperation "band-aid" measure that is now being grafted back into modern cars, where almost everything else that can be done has been done to improve fuel economy and emissions.
Not present on 08+ unless you splice it in. Have the screen and that's it. I haven't had a car with a real fuel filter in forever.
For EGR I think we have a PID that tells you how fouled it is by the measured flow. They are all swearing off ICE anyway in upcoming models. A bunch of companies even said they are not developing any more ICE cars.
Got the book.. BSG has failed us. The book says the fuel vapor vent valve is stuck open and not the valve up front. Fuel Vapor vent valve is #5
It could also be the filler neck but the valve sounds like a good thing to remove and suction test.
Last edited by ShadyEscape; May 27, 2021 at 11:41 AM.
I got the bright idea to also flush the mecs system out using the pump. I think it can be activated from forscan and then it's just a matter of removing the right hose. I had to do the engine coolant twice because at first there was some of the old stuff left over.
Ugh! It's the filler neck. I installed my RTV'ed locking cap and the code is gone. Drive tests are all completed. 27.2 MPG. I need to check if fuel trim went down. Instead of breaking itself, this car keeps fixing itself. I need to hunt down a regular filler neck somewhere. Maybe I'll hit the junkyard monday for 1/2 off day and I can try a few on the hybrids there. Hopefully some other ford has a capped one that fits.
Last edited by ShadyEscape; May 28, 2021 at 10:31 AM.
Ugh! It's the filler neck. I installed my RTV'ed locking cap and the code is gone. Drive tests are all completed. 27.2 MPG. I need to check if fuel trim...
Well, as Meat Loaf has famously sung: "Two out of three ain't bad..." and now you're squarely within City EPA Estimated range off the showroom floor. It's been fun to tune in each day for another spellbinding episode of "As The Wrench Turns" with all the ups and downs. And now you have the printed PC/ED manual for $10, which is not a waste of money. Excellent improvement from nostart/10MPG.
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Re: Just what have I gotten myself into?
Another maintenance item you didn't expect to have, but your windshield wipers were worn to the nubs so I'll bet nobody ever cared about the flap that seals off the gas tank. FTM shows how to free it up, mentions how common it is, and links to a keyed plug you can put in there, which is $25 but it gives you keyed locking functionality - maybe worth it to you in the city if the price of gas keeps going up. I'm old enough to remember gas rationing during the Carter years with neighbors getting up at 3 a.m. to siphon gas out of each other's cars (it was based on odd/even numbering on license plates) instead of waiting in line before work, which popularized the locking gas cap and made a lot of neighbors into enemies. If anything people are less civil now than they were in 1979.
