I discovered there is carbon in the lines between the charcoal canister and the EVAP solenoid. What does this indicate? Should I just blow out the lines and be on my way or do I need to replace the charcoal canister?

 

both

replace the canister and blow out the lines

a temp fix would be blow the lines out and put a filter(one of those cheap plastic fuel filters works) between the canister and the purge valve, this wont work forever, but should last a while

 

You might have had problem with the EVAP solenoid not shutting off and causing the charcoal to get in the lines in the first place (too much vacuum).

 

Good call Rob... in a PM he told me air flows thru the solenoid when he blows through it. Solenoid was already replaced last year. Unless the charcoal canister is replaced, its just going to keep flowing carbon particles into the lines and messing up the solenoid.

 

Update: I inspected the solenoid further and found carbon in it. So I got the carbon out of there and now it seals quite well (a small amount of air gets through when I blow through it, but barely any at all). I also hooked it up to a 12V source and I can hear it auctuate. So, I'm thinking carbon got in there somehow and clogged it up, causing the fault code.

My guess is the charcoal canister needs to be replaced?

 

yes

 

Yep, same thing happened to me... it is time to replace the EVAP canister. It costs right around $40 and will take 15 minutes to replace.

Jeff