I just took my vapor canistor off my car.I`m not running egr or any emissions and I only put about 10,000 miles in 2 years so...it`s gone.My car had a strong fuel smell,and I`ve been chasing a rich problem.After removing the canistor,and plugging all the vacume lines/ports,the smell is gone and I dont seem to be having the rich problem.My idle is a little better and a cold start problem I had seems to be gone.Any ideas?Is it possible I had a vacume leak somewhere in the system or something.Or I created a leak.I cant find one now.Thanks

 

Might have been purging when it shouldn't have been before (at idle or on a cold engine- you don't want it purging under those conditions). For instance, if the purge valve was physically jammed open and allowing vacuum to purge the canister any time the engine was running. Just a guess, but something like that is probably not far from right.

 

So,you think that may have been causing the excessive fuel smell?

 

If it was pulling fuel into the canister, then yes. One way to be sure would be to open the canister and inspect.