The other night leaving work the check engine light popped on.I brought it in the next morning and the canister purge solenoid was found to be sticking.The car has never run all that terrible and has always given great mileage.But it's always felt like it was running very lean on acceleration.Now it doesn't so I think the canister solenoid has been acting up for a while but only stuck enough the other night to finally trip the code.The lesson here? If your car feels like it's "holding back" on acceleration(mine's a 08 2.4 5 speed) it might just be the canister valve.

 

Tony-

Good info, Thanks for posting it..

 

Okay...so how does one check the "canister purge solenoid"? :)

 

You'd check for a stored code P0496 with a Tech2 scanner and/or test the evap system.