Chrysler Repair: sometimes starts power issues, starts sputters dies, chrysler town and country, exhaust gas recirculation valve

Question
I have a 1997 chrysler town and country mini van lxi 3.8l.  i have been having a problem with the charging system in my vehicle. first my alternator went bad, replaced the alternator.  still had a problem starting. my battery was bad.  going down the road on friday, i was driving and it started to sputter lose power and then die.  I let it sit for about 5 minutes it turned over just fine. went 2 miles down the road and it died again.  Saturday it would turn over but go to put it in gear it would die. And today, monday I went to start it i jumped it using a charger box, it turned over sputtered and died.  I am stumped any suggestions?  Thank you.

Answer
Hi Stephanie,
I would check the exhaust gas recirculation valve as follows: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.
If not, then I would try to see if the engine controller has stored any fault codes in its memory: on-off-on-off-on and leave on with the ignition key (quickly, less than 5 seconds elapses) and then observe the check engine light to begin flashing, pause, etc. Count the number flashes before each pause. Group the numbers in pairs in the order they they readout to form the fault codes (If the check engine light doesn't flash, then watch the odometer window after doing the key routine to see if 4 digit fault codes appear instead of the mileage reading. If neither of those show codes, then go to an Autozone parts store that will do a free readout with a code reader.
Let me know what you learn.
Roland