Dodge Repair: 91 Dodge Spirit wont start, quits

Question
Roland,

I have a 1991 Dodge Spirit ES with the 3.0 liter engine. at times it has a intermittent start problem mostly in damp or fog conditions also it will just quit running at times but then may restart in a hour or so or several days. the car just quit running while driving and is at the garage it started doing this about two years ago but not bad and problem has developed in to a more serious problem, the car started at garage and they cant find why it wont start and is quitting any ideas ??

Answer
Hi Steve,
If they have found no fault codes stored in the engine control module, then I would suggest that they try lubricating the stem of the exhaust gas recirculation valve (egr) as that can get gummed up and fail to close tightly which it has to do if you are to get it to idle or to accelerate without dying from a too lean mixture. Spray some WD-40 on the stem where it enters the body of the valve, then move the stem back and forth to free up the motion. There is a slot in the valve stem to do that using the tip of a screwdriver. Test to see if the spring-action closes the valve to a dead stop.
That is the most likely cause if there are no fault codes. You can get fault codes using the ignition switch: "on-off-on-off-on and  leave on" doing that in 5 seconds or less elapased time. Then watch the check engine light, which remain "on" to see it begin to flash, pause, flash, etc. Count the number of flashes before each pause, then repeat to assure an accurate set of flash counts. Let me know counts in order of appearance. One of the codes may give us a clue as to the cause, if not the egr.
Roland