Chrysler Repair: 95 Intrepid sluggish on acceleration and stalling at idle, exhaust gas recirculation valve, side exhaust manifold

Question
Hi,
Our 1995 Intrepid has been acting very sluggish upon acceleration and in idle and has stalled a few times in idle. I am wondering if you have any suggestions as to what it could be.

Answer
Hi Liz,
I would try two things:
Ask the engine controller for any fault codes it may have detected. Turn your ignition key "on-off-on-off-on and leave it on" within an elapsed time of 5 seconds or less. Then observe the check engine light will be "on" but start to flash, pause, flash, pause, etc. Count the number of flashes before each pause, then pair them up in the order that they readout to form two digit numbers which are the fault codes. Write back with those numbers or you can check
www.allpar.com/fix/codes.html for a list of the code translations. The 55 code is always the last one, it means end of readout.
Then I would take a look at the exhaust gas recirculation valve which is located behind the engine near the air intake throttle valve. It is mounted in a pipe that runs between passenger side exhaust manifold and the air intake manifold. The valve is mounted horizontally and has a valve stem between its round vacuum actuator top and the body of the valve attached to the pipe. The stem has a slot into which you can insert the tip of a flat bladed screwdriver so as to lever the stem back and forth against spring action which should move freely and close tightly. If the stem seems to be sticky so that stem doesn't close all the way by spring action, then you can try spraying some penetrating solvent like WD-40 on the valve stem to freeup its motion.
If the valve is sticking slightly ajar it will make for a rough idle and poor acceleration such as you describe. It is one of the most common causes of this symptom. So see if you can find it and check/lubricate the stem. To check it in motion you can rev the engine from idle to 2500 rpm and back to idle and watch to see if the valve stem moves freely in both directions to the extreme open and closed positions. It may be that the interior of the valve is cruddy so that might require that it be unbolted from the pipe where it it attached and cleaned. But chances are good it will only be a sticky stem. Feel free to write back with the results and other questions you might have.
Roland
Roland