Can an aftermarket air cleaner on a ford focus 03 cause an obd p1440 evaporative system code leak?

Looking to buy a for focus 03 hatchback. Owner claims he has been driving on a check engine light for two years that reads p1440. He claims it is because past owner put an aftermarket air cleaner in and can't get rid of code. But p1440 is an evaporative systems leak like your fuel filter or emissions etc. Is this possible. Also would you buy this car if this guy drove two years on that check engine light. Is it really much to do about nothing. He claims car runs great.

If he puts the original air cleaner back on does it go away? But, of course, he probably no longer has the original. Right? If not then it probably needs a purge solenoid, or new evap canister, or something like that. Could get somewhat expensive to fix, in the few hundred dollar range if the evap system has a major problem.

I would bet it has an egr low flow code, common problem on these cars. There are countless fixes in the forums regarding this, everything from new egr valves and differential pressure sensors, to re-routing the vacuum lines to trick the computer. I ran into this a couple of years ago on a customers car and it ended up being expensive and a headache. I think he's assuming the air intake is causing it but it shouldn't unless someone pulled some vacuum lines when installing it.

P1440 isn't a valid code for any 2003 Ford vehicle. Sure it wasn't P0440? Either way, the air cleaner would have nothing to do with EVAP emissions. Read these two posts on the topic

http://ricksfreeautorepairadvice.com/used-car-checklist/
http://ricksfreeautorepairadvice.com/evaporative-emissions-system-primer/