It all depends honestly as rkw said certain pumps stop at certain points. After the pump clicks and stops, I would set it and forget it and fill up again when needed. If its not broke dont worry about it no need for crystal balling and worrying about problems that have not happened yet.

Charcoal canisters outlive the lives of most cars so I would not worry.

 

Thanks everyone for the excellent suggestions. I know the hose you are referring to as well. Everyone of those conglomerate of hoses I changed myself awhile ago. I purchased everyone of those little hoses as well through Lexus. Came to about $35. There are a number of them and all of mine were brittle and hard as a rock. I carefully disassembled everyone of them and had to use a razor to remove them from some of the connectors.. I have pretty much replaced most of the vacuum and assorted hoses in my engine compartment over the years that have become cooked by the excessive heat and age. I've decided to take my car into Lexus for the $99 diagnostic of the evaporative emission control system. There is a tech at my local Lexus dealership that knows the LS430s very well and he is the guy to go to when there are issues. It's worth a shot and if I luck out to find out it's not the charcoal canister I'll be a hero. If it is the canister, I doubt I'll be changing it due to the excessive expensive in labor and parts. From what I've read it is not an easy replacement.. I'll keep the forum updated. To be continued.

 

The problem with topping off the tank is only an issue when one keeps filling it after the pump turns the flow off. Especially if you think that the pump may have suffered from premature e-closuration. Usually when this happens the person will keep squirting gas into the tank until it gets to the point where it might or even does overflow.

If you drive off from the station and put on less than 5 or 6 miles before you park it you can run into the situation where the gas in the tank expands beyond the normal storage volume. When this happens the gas has to go somewhere and that's usually when it ends up in the charcoal canister.

For example, the tank volume on our cars is 22.2 gallons. Rounding down to 22 gallons for this example since I'm sure the official fuel capacity includes the lines running to the engine, we can calculate the volumetric expansion of that gas pretty easily. Lets assume that the gas that you pump out of the ground is sitting at 60 deg F. (Premium gas tends to sit at the station much longer than regular gas does so it might even be cooler than that). Lets also say that you filled up in the morning and parked it somewhere close by where over the next several hours it gets up to 85 deg F. Using that 25 degree rise you can calculate that the increase in the volume of gas is equal to 0.2915 gallons. Almost one-third of a gallon. It has to go somewhere and Uncle Sam and CARB frowns when it ends up in the atmosphere.

2K, when you're done with RKW's light reading you can finish off with this...

 

Hello Bocatrip. Any update on this issue? I have a gas small inside the cabin while driving and on the outside of the car near the front when I turn the car off.

 

Feliciano.......I never got around to pursuing the issue any further. After I had the problem with the gas smell and the trouble code, I needed to replace my battery. The CEL is off and so far the error code has not returned. I know the issue is still there, but I'm not bringing it in anytime soon. The car runs great, smooth, with ample power. The gas mileage sucks, but always has since purchasing the car 9 years ago. I'm not going to replace the charcoal canister regardless, due to the enormous expense in parts and labor. Learning to live with it. No gas smell inside the car ever. Only after I pull into the garage after a trip and it sits for awhile. No big deal. If anyone finds a fix, please feel free to chime in. It's difficult to repair every item on a 17 year old car.

 

I hear you and thanks for responding.