The carbon canister is not white or located in the front wheel well. Usually right rear well except for Syncros. The common failure for them on the Vanagon is for the screen on the bottom to fail allowing the carbon to fall out. If the Evap system and cap are good the common manifestation is fuel starvation after extended runs, (no air to replace fuel) or the tank collapses under the vacuum form the pump. The aftermarket tanks collapse real easy. There is usually tow vapor expansion tanks, white, one under each front wheel well. They also have "gravity" vent valves on top. 

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Rocket J Squirrel
Sent: Monday, July 11, 2011 12:16 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: What the heck is this?

So what's a responsible citizen to do if he suddenly learns he has a 27 year-old evap canister onboard? Ignoring it hardly seems like the right thing to do.

On Sun, 2011-07-10 at 20:54 -0700, Old Volks Home wrote:

> Yeah, you could do that back on the more "vintage" models, but not on 
> a newer "vintage" model like Mellow Yellow.  These are usually sealed 
> and are located in the REAR Right Wheel Well.  Too, bad they're not 
> available new from VW anymore.  Never had to replace mine tho.....