when i was doing some work on my car yesterday i noticed that my charcoal canister was cracked, iv got a spare on my other cinq but just wondered if the car is still safe to use with it cracked as you can smell petrol near it
cheers

Its probably best not to have a smell of petrol, but i doubt there is enough in it to ignite. It only contains whatever is spat out the throttle body on overrun. But if you have a spare replacing it would probably be a good idea.

nonono, no it doesn't. It collects excess petrol vapour pressure from the petrol tank and feeds it back in under certain conditions.

If it's cracked, you're venting petrol vapour under pressure. First step is to disconnect and plug the hoses in and out of the canister, then go get a new / second hand one.