Bought my 2005 EX knowing that it was throwing an intermittent P1454 code. Seems to throw it a lot more during cold weather. P1454 indicates a faulty fuel pressure sensor. When I was trying to learn about this problem and system I didn't find anything very specific about it on this website or on Youtube so I thought I'd describe my efforts.
![207344]( "207344")
The pressure sensor plugs into the top of the charcoal canister right behind the fuel tank. Part 36 in the diagram above. The 1454 code indicates either the sensor itself is bad or there's a problem with the wiring harness. I tried to replace the sensor first. I found a junked 2003 at a salvage yard and pulled the sensor off of it, with the washer still attached. I believe it's pretty rare for these sensors to go bad so I wasn't too concerned about the replacement being bad also.
Perhaps a very specialized tool could undo the clip holding the sensor in place without removing the canister entirely, but considerable effort on my part, on both the donor vehicle and my own rig, did not pay off. I had to take the canister off all the way. There's three bolts on a mount holding the canister to the underside of the car. Two can be easily reached by just taking off the back left tire. The other one you have to crawl underneath and reach up between the axle and the muffler with your little wrench. My Element spent most of its life in the Nevada desert so I've never had a problem with bolt removal. I highly recommend desert cars. Can't remember if the bolts are 10s or 12s sorry. I suppose you could just take off the two by the back wheel and force-bend the mount down and back up with the third bolt still attached. I crawled under.
Once the mount is loose you pull it down far enough to expose the bolts holding the canister to the mount. Then you take off the bolts attaching the canister to the mount, and the plastic shield under the canister, shown here.
Now the canister is hanging from several hoses and wires. Before you undo the big ones, unclip the wire harness attaching the fuel pressure sensor, and the one attached to the EVAP valve. They are similar. This video shows how to do the one on the EVAP valve. Those wires are attached to the mount and you don't want put stress on them when the whole thing is hanging down. Also remove the rubber hose attached to the fuel pressure sensor, for the same reason.
Then take off the rest of the hoses that are plugged into the canister. Two of them are fixed in place and you need to disengage their catches to remove them. One has buttons you can push with your fingers, the other you need to use pliers to dislodge the catch.
Once it's all off you are in the home stretch! Take the canister to your workbench and take a look. You'll see a U shaped clip that holds the sensor to its plastic mount. Here's what it looks like, sans mount:
![207345]( "207345")
There's very little means to get at the clip from the front, as the EVAP valve is in the way. I tried, a lot, to get that U clip off from the backside and leave all the hoses and stuff connected. I tried to get a screwdriver inside the little square dealie you see on the left and force it out. Did not work for me. Finally gave up and took the whole canister out.
Here's another angle of the U clip. This is how the U clip is oriented on the sensor:
![207346]( "207346")
It comes out pretty easy if you push on the two hooks with needle nose pliers, one jaw for each hook. That will dislodge it and then you pull it out with the pliers from the back.
Then you do it all in reverse with the new sensor in place.
I started up the car with great trepidation, but the CEL was still on! I had read somewhere that this type of error won't go away for a few days. Three days later the CEL went off and I haven't seen it since. Just been a couple days at this point. Will post if it comes back on but I'm hopeful that took care of it and I won't need this bumper sticker:
![207347]( "207347")
Total cost for me was $15. The sensors cost upwards of $80 new. I strongly recommend that you go pull it off a donor vehicle yourself. That was a huge help for me - learning from a car I don't care about before putting into practice on one I care about a lot.
The pressure sensor plugs into the top of the charcoal canister right behind the fuel tank. Part 36 in the diagram above. The 1454 code indicates either the sensor itself is bad or there's a problem with the wiring harness. I tried to replace the sensor first. I found a junked 2003 at a salvage yard and pulled the sensor off of it, with the washer still attached. I believe it's pretty rare for these sensors to go bad so I wasn't too concerned about the replacement being bad also.
Perhaps a very specialized tool could undo the clip holding the sensor in place without removing the canister entirely, but considerable effort on my part, on both the donor vehicle and my own rig, did not pay off. I had to take the canister off all the way. There's three bolts on a mount holding the canister to the underside of the car. Two can be easily reached by just taking off the back left tire. The other one you have to crawl underneath and reach up between the axle and the muffler with your little wrench. My Element spent most of its life in the Nevada desert so I've never had a problem with bolt removal. I highly recommend desert cars. Can't remember if the bolts are 10s or 12s sorry. I suppose you could just take off the two by the back wheel and force-bend the mount down and back up with the third bolt still attached. I crawled under.
Once the mount is loose you pull it down far enough to expose the bolts holding the canister to the mount. Then you take off the bolts attaching the canister to the mount, and the plastic shield under the canister, shown here.
Now the canister is hanging from several hoses and wires. Before you undo the big ones, unclip the wire harness attaching the fuel pressure sensor, and the one attached to the EVAP valve. They are similar. This video shows how to do the one on the EVAP valve. Those wires are attached to the mount and you don't want put stress on them when the whole thing is hanging down. Also remove the rubber hose attached to the fuel pressure sensor, for the same reason.
Then take off the rest of the hoses that are plugged into the canister. Two of them are fixed in place and you need to disengage their catches to remove them. One has buttons you can push with your fingers, the other you need to use pliers to dislodge the catch.
Once it's all off you are in the home stretch! Take the canister to your workbench and take a look. You'll see a U shaped clip that holds the sensor to its plastic mount. Here's what it looks like, sans mount:
There's very little means to get at the clip from the front, as the EVAP valve is in the way. I tried, a lot, to get that U clip off from the backside and leave all the hoses and stuff connected. I tried to get a screwdriver inside the little square dealie you see on the left and force it out. Did not work for me. Finally gave up and took the whole canister out.
Here's another angle of the U clip. This is how the U clip is oriented on the sensor:
It comes out pretty easy if you push on the two hooks with needle nose pliers, one jaw for each hook. That will dislodge it and then you pull it out with the pliers from the back.
Then you do it all in reverse with the new sensor in place.
I started up the car with great trepidation, but the CEL was still on! I had read somewhere that this type of error won't go away for a few days. Three days later the CEL went off and I haven't seen it since. Just been a couple days at this point. Will post if it comes back on but I'm hopeful that took care of it and I won't need this bumper sticker:
Total cost for me was $15. The sensors cost upwards of $80 new. I strongly recommend that you go pull it off a donor vehicle yourself. That was a huge help for me - learning from a car I don't care about before putting into practice on one I care about a lot.
