2005 Ford Escape, 3.0V6, occasional rough idle (Fixed)

About a month ago my daughters 2005 Escape developed one of those 'once-a-week' ailments that can drive 'ya crazy. Shortly after start up it would run rough as a corn cob, sometimes stalling at idle, and then clear up and run fine for several days. She called me at work after one of these episodes a little rattled as it died in a nearby town, just after she got gas. As she pulled over to the side of the street the lack of power brakes surprised her so she stopped by curbing it (she was thinking at least).

It took me about 15 minutes to get there and it was running rough when I started it up, a little smoother as the RPM went up. I let it idle, then turned on the AC and it wanted to stall and my daughter days, "Why did you turn on the AC? Oh, to put a load on the engine! That is why I turned it off.", all without taking a breath

I drove it home and it only took a few minutes to start running fine again. Looking closer when I got home (it was running/idling fine now) I noticed that one of the two bolts holing the EGR valve to the intake was about to fall out, the other was still fairly tight, yep vacuum leak that must have been temperature dependent. The bolt was tightened and the patented ScannerDanner water bottle vacuum leak detection test was performed (no problems found).

It has been three weeks now and no further hiccups have occurred. Thanks to what I have learned from Scanner Danner it was an easy job to diagnose and fix. I would like to fire the crackpot mechanic who did not tighten the bolt up in the first place, but that was me

Way to keep it simple.

Good catch