Hello Everyone,

I have a 2004 Ford Escape 3.0 V6 FWD, and the air conditioning has been blowing only to defrost for a few weeks now. After many searches online, most sources seem to agree it is a vacuum leak, as the selector switch is vacuum driven if you want anything except defrost. I popped the hood and within one minute I found one open vacuum line that looks like it has been worn in two. The line in question goes from the vacuum canister towards the passenger side of the firewall, then goes to a T connector, then a line (the one that is broken) continues towards the heater core lines to where the break in the line is. I found a picture online of what it should look like, but I am having trouble accessing the line that goes through the firewall and behind the glove compartment. I am pretty sure this vacuum line continues through the firewall between the two heater lines, but after that I am stumped.
I popped the glove box down out of the way and I see two thin vacuum lines and a small metal "can" nearby. The black line goes from a fitting and into the A/C bundle, and the white line goes from the top of the metal canister and down into the same bundle. My main question is which line controls the AC selector, and how do I pass a replacement line through that part of the firewall to make a good connection, as it seems the break is at the firewall itself with no extra sticking out for me to connect to. Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Doug

 

Well, after a while of not getting any replies, I decided to just get into it and do what I can to get this repair done. I noticed that the vacuum line for the A/C selector broke at the firewall itself. The line was barely poking through a layer of foam, so I got a dental pick and started pulling the foam away from the line, and I noticed that the line continued in towards the glove box for a few inches. I popped the glove box open and down, looked behind it, then just pulled on the black vacuum line, and it came on out. There was a thick rubber grommet there, and once I pulled that out, I saw enough room to pass through some rubber tubing. The vacuum line has a joiner sleeve a few inches from the connector plug, so I pulled it out of the joiner sleeve and spliced the two sections of vacuum line together using some leftover rubber tubing from another project.

Once I got all the pieces joined, I used a section of wire to pass through the firewall and taped to one end of the line, pulled it through the firewall, connected both ends of the vacuum line to where they needed to go, then put everything back together. The Escape started fine, and I turned the AC from defrost to normal AC and for the first time in months, there was cold A/C blowing through the main vents. Repair done, and there was zero cost. Just some time, effort, and some brainstorming. I just wish other vehicle repairs could be done as cheaply and still work as well. Good luck everyone if you have similar problems on your end.

 

You are now a mechanic. Ha. I suspect the repair would have cost at least one hour of professional shop rate to diagnose and possibly repair. I have used 'unions' to splice vacuum lines with good success. If you have a wear spot, I would check to see if there is a way to remove the vacuum line from the abrasion so it doesn't wear through again. You can use zip-ties or bread bag ties to hold the lines away from wear.
tom

 

Thanks Tomw, I will keep that in mind. It has been a couple of weeks of wet and hot weather here since I did the repair, and all seems good. The wife is happy that her ride had good A/C, so that makes her commutes more comfy and happy. As for the vacuum line, the windshield washer fluid line I used is holding up fine, and the area around where the wear occurred has been tweaked to keep it from happening again. At least now I have a better idea of where to look for the culprit if and when this happens on any of my cars in the future. Have a good one,


Doug