Chrysler Repair: 2003 town and country rough idle and stall when cold, chrysler town and country, exhaust gas recirculation valve

Question
QUESTION: I have a 2003 Chrysler Town and Country with a 3.3L engine.  When the car sits for a few hours our overnight, when I start it, it will idle rough if I touch the gas, or will stall about five times when I start driving.  After a few minutes, it doesn't hesitate or stall anymore and drives fine until I let it sit a few hours.  I have no check engine lights.  Help!

ANSWER: Hi Jerry,
My favorite candidate is the exhaust gas recirculation valve sticking slightly ajar which can cause hard starting/stalling/rough idle. When it warms up the valve moves more easily and so closes itself. Here is my 'generic' suggestion:
My immediate suspicion is that your egr valve is sticking slightly ajar which will cause the engine to falter/stop at idle speed after slowing down. The valve is located near the throttle body air intake at the end of the engine, mounted in pipe that recirculates exhaust gas from the rear cylider bank exhaust pipe back around to the intake manifold. The exhaust gases have some fumes that can plate out a crud on the valve stem and thus keep it from closing tight when you are at idle. That makes for a too lean mixture so the engine stalls. The valve proper is mounted horizontally with the stem visible in a space between the body of the valve mounted on the pipe and the round top of the valve which is flanged and so if you look carefully you will see a metal rod (stem of the valve) with a slot around its circumference. You can take the tip of flat blade screwdriver and insert it in the slot and then lever the valve back and forth to check if it is moving freely (against spring action in one direction) or not. If it doesn't seem to close easily with the help of the built-in spring, then I would spray the base of the stem with solvent from a pressure can (such as WD-40 or carb cleaner) while moving the stem back and forth.  Then see if that solves the issue.
Roland
PS Sorry for the delay as I just found your question in the pool to which it had been referred by Kevin.

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QUESTION: The 3.3L 2003 Chrysler Town and Country does not have an EGR valve.  What would be your next thought?  Thanks

Answer
Hi Jerry,
The '02 did according to my manual for that year but if you don't see it then it must not have one. I would then check the coolant temp sensor, located near the thermostat housing (two wire plug: black/light blue and tan/black wire colors). Remove its plug (lift tab at edge to release) and see if it reads across its terminals 7K to 14K ohms when it is at 70F. If much lower than that you would have too lean a mixture when cold. You might also want to clean out the throat of the throttle body and both sides of the butterfly valve plate and the air side passageway of the throat. Those are the sorts of things that impact mixture/idle. Also try checking for codes by a plug in reader, free at an Autozone parts store. Let me know if you have any stored fault codes. You could have a code but one that doesn't cause the check engine light to come on. You could try the ignition key to see if any codes come out that way:"on-off-on-off-on and leave on" doing that in 5 seconds or less elapsed time. Then watch the odometer window to see if any 4 digit numbers come up in place of the mileage reading.
Roland