Engine Light P0440 on 2002

Hello everyone. Just looking for advice before I take it to a dealer.

Here's my story.

I took it to a quick lube place and had them change the oil. Usually do it myself. I know, big mistake. I don't think that is relevant to this issue but I am giving you that information because of what I found out later.

About 500 miles later the engine light comes on. The car seemed to be running fine. I disconnected the battery to clear the light to see if it would come back on again.

About 200 miles later it came back on again.

This time I took it to Autozone and had them read the code. It was the P0440.

I know the gas cap is one of the culprits for that code and I have a 2009 Prius so I just decided to swap the gas caps on the cars. But I did not think that was the issue.

At that time I also checked the oil and found that there was too much oil in it. I drained it to get it to full and I didn't measure what I had drained but it could have been 1/2 quart. I disconnected the battery again to clear the code. Forgot to ask Autozone to clear the code.

So I had driven about 700 miles on an engine with too much oil.

The engine light came on again about 200 miles after I corrected the engine oil and swapped the gas caps.

So I have 2 main questions.

First, anyone have any idea on what to check before I take it to a dealer.

And second, this doesn't seem like one of the catastrophic codes. I know the engine light on is bad but do you think I could cause further problems to the car if I keep driving it while I try to diagnose the issue or if I can't get it to a dealer for a few days?

Thanks.

 

Just wanted to let people know what I found in case they run into the same problem. I found that one of the lines wasn't connected. One of the lines runs to a plastic part that sits in the gas tank under the vapor pressure sensor.

The line is connected to the plastic part by a small nipple. It looks to me like the plastic had gotten brittle over time and just broke off. That is what caused the P0440 light to come on. When I showed it to the parts department they said it was called a fuel tank retainer. The part costs $15.

 

I will take some pictures tonight and post them tomorrow.

 

I'll send a couple of replys with pictures.

I took a couple of the diagram of the fuel tank and circled the part that was broken. Then I took one the way I found it. You couldn't even tell it was disconnected because the hose was under a bracket.

 

I pulled the hose out to get a better look. Then pulled the piece off the tank.

You will have to lower the tank a little bit to be able to pull the piece out. It justs sits in the tank but there isn't enough clearance to get it out. You just have to loosen the bolts a little bit to give you more room.

Then put the new piece in. Very easy.

Hopefully this was clear enough

 

I am not well schooled in all the codes and what they mean. My first suggestion would be to check the 12V battery though. I have read that a bad 12V battery can cause all sorts of crazy codes to show up.

How old is it?

In the mean time I would start searching through the forums with those code numbers to see what people have already posted about them.