PCV Valve?
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From: fort smith, ar
I'm may not do a good job clearly explaining the location, but on the V6 engine, the PCV valve is on top of the engine...drivers side. Pull the air inlet tube off that's between the air filter and the throttle body. It's right under the throttle body. It has a 3/4 inch hose attached to it. It has a square head on it and screws into the oil baffle. I used a 7/8 wrench to twist if off...1/4 turn does it. It is extremely difficult to reach. I used the wrench like a screw driver, turning it once the wrench was around the PCV square head. Some folks use a long pliers or needle nose. If you look on the emmisions label under the hood, it should show the PCV in the diagram.
Last edited by 2fords2; Mar 28, 2006 at 08:22 PM.
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Unless you go along time without changing the engine oil and run dirty oil in your vehicle, changing the PCV valve is usually unnecessary. My mechanic told me once unless the valve is defective from the beginning, there is little chance of it malfunctioning, but heavy dirty oil blowing through that valve could clog it up with particles from the dirty oil. If you change your oil regularly, like every 3500 or 4000 miles, the PCV valve should last the life of the vehicle...
What we used to do and you can still do it today if you want, is clean the valve in a solvent. Remove the valve from the vehicle, and place in bowl filled with gasoline or kersosene, shake it around in the solvent and some particles may be seen being dispersed. As long as you hear the "ball" inside the valve moving freely, there is nothing wrong with it. Re-install the valve for another 60,000 miles or whatever...
PS: Do not use gasoline if any part of the valve is made of plastic, some PCV valves have plastic hose connectors attached to them...Use solvent that will not harm plastics, some carburator (sp) cleaners are safe to use on plastics..
What we used to do and you can still do it today if you want, is clean the valve in a solvent. Remove the valve from the vehicle, and place in bowl filled with gasoline or kersosene, shake it around in the solvent and some particles may be seen being dispersed. As long as you hear the "ball" inside the valve moving freely, there is nothing wrong with it. Re-install the valve for another 60,000 miles or whatever...
PS: Do not use gasoline if any part of the valve is made of plastic, some PCV valves have plastic hose connectors attached to them...Use solvent that will not harm plastics, some carburator (sp) cleaners are safe to use on plastics..
Last edited by tonyford; Mar 28, 2006 at 09:27 PM.
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From: fort smith, ar
I think tonyford is probably right on this topic. I pulled my PCV at 45k. It had a dull rattle. After a shot of carb cleaner, it had a nice, sharp rattle. Had I not already bought a new PCV, I'd have just stuck the old one back in. 
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This from another thread on this board:
Originally Posted by DebB
I really need guidance here... I spent $1500 in one month in repairs on my 2001 Escape because something called a PCV collapsed (around 80,000 miles), and my fuel injectors were heavily... coated with something I can't remember the name of. I don't want to make the same mistakes....
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Originally Posted by GatorJ
This from another thread on this board:
I really need guidance here... I spent $1500 in one month in repairs on my 2001 Escape because something called a PCV collapsed (around 80,000 miles), and my fuel injectors were heavily... coated with something I can't remember the name of. I don't want to make the same mistakes...."
If by some chance this is true, this would be the exception rather than the rule...
The person is not even sure it was the PCV valve. What does this person mean by "a PCV collapsed", I never heard that term used regarding a PCV valve.
I am wondering if this person ever changed the oil in the vehicle in the 80,000 miles that was stated. The only thing that will cause a PCV valve to fail is dirty, sludgy oil getting into it. The valve works on vacuum, there is a ball inside the valve that opens and closes it. If it gets gummed up from dirty, sludgy oil it will sometimes fail, if you change your oil regularly the chances of PCV failure are slim. What you could do is take it out and clean it up every once in a while with some carb cleaner like one of the above posts stated.
But then again for $6.22 we could keep some members on the forum happy by just changing the thing..
Last edited by tonyford; May 2, 2006 at 12:53 AM.
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The Positive Crankcase Ventilation Tube ELBOW (the 45 degree rubber piece-connector) that comes off the Manifold can collapse. After several thousands of miles it becomes mush from the oil and vapor...the vacuum from the engine will literally cause the ELBOW to close in on itself and collapse, not allowing the air to be pulled from the crakcase to the manifold, there is usually nothing wrong with the PCV valve itself.
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PCV elbow
I had that exact problem at 70,000 miles I noticed it being sluggish and sure enough it had melted and softened up with a whole on both sides, always changed the oil and everything. Ford has the part only ford, I tried nappa and autozone no luck. It came to 30 bucks because they would not sell me the elbow but the whole hose connection. Where asking 140 to fix my problem then I did some HW, checked out this site and only had to shell out 30 not bad for 100 + dollars in savings. The guy at ford says he sees this all the time on escapes but its pretty much the only problem with them. vacum line not covered in the warrenty
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From: Round Rock, TX
I had that exact problem at 70,000 miles I noticed it being sluggish and sure enough it had melted and softened up with a whole on both sides, always changed the oil and everything. Ford has the part only ford, I tried nappa and autozone no luck. It came to 30 bucks because they would not sell me the elbow but the whole hose connection. Where asking 140 to fix my problem then I did some HW, checked out this site and only had to shell out 30 not bad for 100 + dollars in savings. The guy at ford says he sees this all the time on escapes but its pretty much the only problem with them. vacum line not covered in the warrenty
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Ford Escape PVC removal
OK I'm chiming in on this. Only because I'm very proud of myself, and I'm going so far is to pat myself on my back and post a pic of my ingenious method in dealing with this dilemma; ( that can't be reached with anything I can grip and turn) As stated b4 by other good men "100,000 miles, this thing is good for" Well the first post inquired in 2003... it's now 2010. So a 100,000 miles has pretty much happened since. And if I recall, the ref books @ like Pep boys and such, didn't even list the PVC as a maintenance part available early on. To my surprise they do now; since when, I don't know. Anyway, as you'll see ( in the proud pics ) I took a piece of 1" copper pipe and flattened out till it was square as the ridge on the PVC to fit over like a socket. Then with pliers ( coppers expensive, so I only had about a 5" piece. If I had at least a 7" piece, it would have reached better)-( That's what she said )...an easy quarter turn... it popped right out! Just so you now, having an extended needle nose pliers is a good idea to be prepared with. Because the reach is just to deep and obscured to even get the hoses back on. Oh, and I do change my oil whenever the weather's good ( and I found it was cruddied up, so it wasn't a total waste of time). Good luck! http://i813.photobucket.com/albums/z...mutt1/PVC1.png
http://i813.photobucket.com/albums/z...mutt1/PVC2.png
http://i813.photobucket.com/albums/z...mutt1/PVC2.png