i had a SES code 1441 Evaporative emission system flow during non-purge come on yesterday and i have no clue what that is or what could be wrong, any help would be greatly appreciated

 

I would honestly recommend that you have a shop diagnose it.

I can point out for you some of the simple stuff though.

Find the evap purge solenoid on the pass side of the intake. Small black solenoid with 2 vac lines and a 2 wire connector. Also since it's a 96 next to is will be a similar but round shaped solenoid. Check to make sure that all the vac lines are not broken, cracked, missing, off etc.

Thats the only real easy visual thing you can do. the rest of the diagnostic takes a good bit of knowledge and skill to perform correctly, but I will tell you that if not a vac line issue, the most common fault for this code is either the solenoid, or the "flow sensor" connected to it.

 

i know this is probably a dumb question but what exactly does this do?? and thanks for posting up

 

it pulls gas vapors from the tank and routes it into the intake to be burnt. The solenoid is like a valve that will open and close when commanded on. When on it will read vacuum, since there is a fault with it somewhere it's reading vacuum when not commanded on and thats what set the code. It's only there for emissions control and isn't really going to hurt anything, but would be a good idea to fix it.

 

I had problems with my evap system a couple years ago. In fact I think I had the same code as you. Once vapors from the gas tank reach a certain pressure, a spring loaded valve opens and allows the vapors to be absorbed by a charcoal canister behind the rear driver side wheel. When the engine reaches certain conditions, the PCM commands the solenoid by the passenger side intake to open, and allows the manifold vacuum to "suck" the vapors from the canister into the engine to burn them off. On my car, the canister started to fall apart on the inside, and charcoal particles got sucked through the line and got lodged in the solenoid and vacuum sensor (round object near the solenoid). This made the solenoid stick open and allow flow through the system when the PCM hadn't commanded the solenoid to open.

I would check the solenoid and vacuum switch for charcoal particles for starters. If particles are present, then you definitely have a bad canister, and you will probably have to replace the solenoid and possibly the vacuum swith also. I think I paid about $100 for all those parts and it fixed the problem.

 

could not putting the gas cap on tight enough be something that could set it off?

 

Other codes yes, but generaly not this one.

 

i had changed some of the lines on the EVAP so maybe i will have to check over them

 

Yes, they are probably wrong or not connected. There are labels on the solenoid ports which tell you what lines go where.

 

I had the same code on my car and it was charcoal particles causing the problem. You need to start there.