Been smoke testing the evap system on the wife's r53 because of a P0455 code, and have it narrowed down to the charcoal canister filter. Filter itself looks like it's in pretty good shape, but it has a small crack on the upper part of the front right at a seam. I can't get the filter down because of the way it's bolted in - looks like you have to drop the fuel tank maybe to get to the bolts. For now, I mixed up some high adhesion plastic epoxy, cleaned the areas as well as I can and spread a layer of epoxy on there. I then put a small piece of gorrila duct tape over the area with a bit more of the epoxy and really plastered it to the seam. That should have the leak solved temporarily. Wondering if anyone ever had to do a replacement on the charcoal filter. Not much in the forums on this, and no one that i've seen in the r53 forums has fessed up to having had this part replaced. Wondering if anyone has and not posted about it?

 

Figured I would close the loop on this one as a lot of questions in the forums have no final answer.

The charcoal filter assembly in the 2006 is not in an easy to get to location and is not easy to remove. Rear fender liner and passenger side undercarriage wind deflector thingy need to come off - that is the easy part. The charcoal filter is attached with two hex bolts from the bottom (the not so hard part) and two pinch type connectors hung from the top of the fuel tank. These are the type of push through plastic and rubber cone-shaped pinch connector that are pretty easy to push on, but tough to get off. I ended up finally getting them to pop off with a long pry bar from the back side and quite some number of individual expletives. Oh, and there is very little space to get your hands in and around the area.


Top side. You can see a bit of leftover epoxy from where I tried unsuccessfully to plug up the leak.


... and here is why the epoxy repair didn't take. See that seam by my finger that is supposed to be welded internally? Yeah, well, it's not. Smoke pours out the entire length of that upper seam. I thought about mixing up some more epoxy and opening the seam up with a screwdriver and just pouring epoxy in there, but then there is the possibility of failure again and then having to do more swearing to get the damn thing out a second time. Found the part (16126766392) cheapest at BMW parts of south Atlanta for $200 shipped.

I know a LOT of people have had the P0455 and P0456 codes and the intermittent gas cap light on this forum, and in addition to checking the connection to the fuel pressure regulator, the seal around the fuel tank filler, and the plastic lines from the engine compartment fuel vapor solenoid back to the charcoal filter (much of which cannot be seen), this is another potential point of failure to check for. When the new canister comes, I'll switch the evap diagnostic pump on the canister over to the new one, and this should be the end of our P0455 - no smoke from anywhere else. Hope this helps someone else out!

 

I'm sorry that happened to be the cause -
Yes, you are right. There is little to no information out there from those having to replace that canister.
I also experienced that code as well as the SES light coming on every so often after reset. This began/was just after I had installed my 15% SC pulley
The error code and what I had read, indicated and led me to believe that the charcoal canister (as shown) was the culprit.
I was terrified when I learned of it's location and had nightmares about having to remove and replace it.

As dumb luck would have it - (in my case) It wasn't the canister afterall. I had inadvertently re-connected the EVAP canister (the one next to the right side SC horn), upsidedown.

Let us know how it goes.
Thank you for posting about this again.

 

Awww, man, that's a bummer! How long did it take to track down? I hate 'mechanical brainfarts'.

When I replaced my rear control arms with adjustable ones - back when they were affordable, I also did the Koni's, new bushings - a bunch of stuff all at once. I immediately had a 'clunk' during my first test drive. I must have put the back end up on jack stands 5 times looking for that suspension clunk. Took both rear shocks off and inspected the upper bushings, re-adjusted my new adjustable end links multiple times. Turns out that when I attached my headlight level sensor to the new adjustable upper control arm on the driver's side I didn't put it in a good place and it was interacting with the new heat shield lip over bumps. It took me like 2 weeks to figure that out! Funny looking back, but I was so mad!

 

About 2weeks.
The fix/revaluation was a pure fluke. Just as you probably have done; I did a search on replacing the "charcoal canister". I must have mis-typed my search term and landed on
one of Pelican Parts tutorials and noticed from one of their image that their EVAP canister had the wire connection end facing down.
I had put mine on facing up and inadvertently switched the tubes/lines.

That had to be frustrating if not aggravating to say the least!
For me: (not having an option), I never enjoy laying on my back under and doing work on my car in a public parking lot. Let alone having to do it several times. Although as ironic and unbelievable as it may seem; I had posted a thread about my "*** end clunking" a while back.
I had completed a lot of rear suspension upgrades and yet the clunk remained for more than a month afterwards. One day I was at a DIY carwash pressure washing the rear inside wheel liners and heard the clunk - It turned out to be a loose section of the plastic under body panel that shielded/covered the charcoal canister! Glued it down and ziptied it for good measure.

BTW: To your point - What the heck happened to the prices for adjustable control arms in the last 2wo years?? I had paid $96 for a pair of aluminum Dorman (Eibach knock-offs) and now they're priced @ something like $489 for a pair (2) on Amazon
crazy.

EDIT: Dorman adjustable control arms now priced on Amazon @ $143/ea for steel version.

 

I know - it's *insane*. Must be demand-based with Amazon's profit algorithm cranking up the price on items that it can. That's pretty much better than the price of gold over the same interval - I paid $45 each for mine in Feb 2021. They are now $148 each... That's a 303% increase!

Gold during that same interval went from $1734.60 in Feb 21 t0 $1957.81 today. That's an ~11.3% increase.

If someone had bought a bunch and are selling them at Amazon rates for a set of 4, the profit per set would be greater than the profit on an ounce of gold if both were bought in Feb of 2021!

Amazon makes their own money by manipulating prices on stuff that they buy dirt cheap from China.