Ford Escort, EGR valve, washer fluid, oh my

Ok this is a pretty strange problem.

I bought an old Ford Escort with 75K miles on it for not much money. The window washer thing didn’t squirt, but no big deal. It seemed to run a little rough so I was checking out the engine. I discovered that the hose from the washer fluid pump did not connect to the squirter ports. Instead it ran … to the EGR valve! So everytime I pulled the lever to wash the windshield, it was pumping water into the EGR vacuum port, which can’t be good. What a bonehead move. Anyway I reconnected the hose to the washer tubing, and at least now I can keep the windshield clean!

But I want to reconnect a vacuum hose to the EGR valve and can’t find where the other end of the hose should go. Can someone here describe where to find the port that this vacuum hose connects to on this vehicle? I have been all over the engine and can’t locate it.

Many thanks!

There should be an emission sticker under the hood that indicates where this hose connects.

Tester

Sounds like a redneck water injection system

Thanks, I found it. There was a rectangular block of metal with a little piece of hose on it that should connect to the EGR. Instead it just had a screw jammed in the end. I don’t know if the valve will be any good anyway with water in it, but at least now I can try it out.

if your car had a screw in the end of a vacuum hose there are other issues of faulty emissions, a bad air pump, a bad exhaust recirculating check valve, or leaking vacuum line. someone did a mickymouse fix by putting the screw in there.

do you need to get an emissions test in your state? i’ll bet it wont pass since someone was fiddling with it. if you need an emissions test you will probably have to take it to you friendly neighborhood mechanic to have it looked at.

Yeah, I know. The thing is, it does have a current emissions sticker that is good until January. Maybe the washer fluid was more important than I thought.

That’s a pretty weird thing to do.
Since there is no sane reason for doing something like that, I agree that some redneck or tuner-type may have been experimenting with a backwoods water injection system.

the current sticker is meaningless. if your car wont pass emissions NOW, the old sticker which was put on 9 months ago is useless. some states dont require emissions tests. does yours? which state are you registered in? some states require emissions on even or odd years. so actually your car may not need it (if the state has tests) untill '09. but… on the other hand, it may have needed it two years ago, and that is why the original owner sold it, because they knew it was going to need work in the '08 inspection.

I am in Pennsylvania, and yes we have to get an annual emissions test starting a couple of years ago. Not much I can do about it now so I will just wait to see if it passes in January. I did put on a new hose for whatever good that may do. Hey, the price was right.