I just recently took my charcoal canister out because I noticed I smelled weird fumes by the front wheel well when the car ran for a long period. I don't know which fixed the issue, but what I did was open the canister up and dump the pellets into a pan of hot water and soak them for 30 minutes. Then I drained them and dried them using a propane torch directly on the pellets. I put them back in the canister added a open cell filter inside to keep the pellets from clogging up the vacuum lines (I noticed that there was pellets blocking the canister line opening). I sealed the canister back up with a thin line of clear silicone on the edges then I used butyl backed aluminum flashing tape on the outer edges. No more fumes. I am unsure if the issue was just to unclog the end or not, the MB manual states the charcoal is self regenerating and I don't particular believe that charcoal being used to absorb fumes in a closed loop system goes bad so soaking the pellets may not be necessary.

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1990 190E 3.0L