Okay, enough of the guessing.

Pre 1987, Escort MK3 and MK4 cars have the washer bottle on the nearside wing. It is a squarish bottle with an outlet for the pump near the front of the car. It is held on with 2 Phillips screws to the inner wing.

On later (post 1987) cars, the bottle fits inside the inner wing and the neck extends through a pre-made hole into the engine compartment. This co-incides with the time that Ford decided to fit front arch-liners to their Escort models.

The bottle was also changed in 1989 (90-spec motors) to allow for the EFi models to have their coolant expansion bottles on the same side. Using the 1987-1989 bottle, this would prevent the 2 items locating securely, so the neck and fitting holes were altered slightly.

Pre 1987 (MK3 and MK4 locate the same)


Post 1987 (model shown here is a 1991 model)


Hope this helps....