I know this is a Porsche forum but
 

The selective mechanical brain trust is tremendous. I have a 2011 Nissan Pathfinder and the dealer is telling me that the charcoal canister is clogged with dirt because we live on a dirt road. But I was under the impression that this system vented the gas tank back to the intake and cleared the charcoal canister with filtered air from the intake filter. So if I have the charcoal canister clogged in just a year with dirt from this road then I would think I have bigger problems than a clogged charcoal canister. What do you all think?

charcoal canisters do vent to atmosphere. I'm not familiar enough with the Pathy's system to say if it would cause an issue or not.
They have a valve in the system somewhere so that when the engine is not running it doesn't fill the inlet with fuel vapour, such as sitting in the hot sun while the car is parked.

So the is it the purge valve or the vent valve that does that? I thought this system was supposed to prevent the fuel vapor from escaping to the atmos

Oh by the way thanks for responding

The dealer is telling you this.

I'd find a good local independent wrench.

^ Second opinion is always a good idea.
The vapour will vent to atmosphere but it does it via the charcoal canister. The charcoal scrubs out the free hydrocarbons. With the engine running, the vapour is drawn into the inlet manifold without passing through the charcoal portion.

I'd imagine symptoms of a blocked one would be a pressurised fuel tank, possibly leaks at the fuel cap and maybe vapour smells around the car. I couldn't imagine it causing any noticable issues when driving the car, and have never had any problems in my personal experience.

Thats what I thought but I have no problems as described no pressure in the tank from what I can find it appears to be the purge line is clogged because the charcoal canister is breaking down possibly but thats not what the dealer is saying it is. I even found a fix on a nissan forum that says to put a small fuel filter inline at the purge valve to catch the charcoal. So when I get it back I will do that.

More likely the NVH from the dirt roads is making the carbon disintegrate lol

Nvh?

Noise and vibration terminology sorry.
The vibration from the dirt road may be breaking up the charcoal.

We will see tomorrow I will go get the truck from the POS dealer I bought it from and I will take it out and see whats up. I say POS because if the dust got in because of a failed valve then the parts that break should be covered by that warranty. in my opinion. And they will probably charge me a diagnostic fee is the kicker

I was thinking isn't this an offroad vehicle by definition :eek: LOL

Emissions warranty issue Call Nissan customer service

No its not! The nissan emission system warranty is only 3 yr/36000 mile can you believe that! And from what I am reading this is a common issue that they have ignored through many model years. I must do better homework before I buy.

Confirmed with Nissan it not covered. The dealer I was at was gonna charge me a ton to take it apart and diagnose until they said that they tried to get something out of the charcoal canister and nothing came out so I pointed out that if it was clogged with dust then something should have come out and pointed out that there is in fact flow through the canister making it a mis- diagnosis and I informed them I wasnt paying for a fishing expedition.

I endorse your opinion on Nissan on being POS dealers/manufacturer. With our Nissan Xtrail(like Honda Crv) it had rust issues within warranty period and they would not honor the warranty. I will never ever buy another Nissan or recommend it to anybody. Our Xtrail is boring to drive like Toyota but at least Toyota lasts and they seem to stand by their products better......

As per the EPA certain emission components should be warrantied to eight years or 80,000 miles.http://www.epa.gov/obd/pubs/420f09048.pdf

Tell that to nissan lol they just laugh

I suppose you could tell the EPA that Nissan is violating federal law.

But they aren't the catylitic converter ecu and the odb are the only things covered to 80000 miles by law nissan follows the law to the letter its the others that go above and beyond