Chrysler Repair: Sudden inability to start and run engine. Why?, 1988 chrysler lebaron, straight blade screwdriver

Question
i have a 1988 chrysler lebaron conv. with 2.5 motor , it was running perfect untill i went to sleep and got up and went to try to start it . it wouldnt start it sounded like
ke it was out of time,also would idle rough and not rev up then die did somebody sabotage it.


Answer
Hi Clinton,
It might be almost anything that could go wrong, but I have a favorite suspect, the exhaust gas recirculation valve (egr). It can stick in the open position when you turn the engine off so that when you go to restart the car later it will cause a too dilute mixture to sustain an idle or run well. So lets take a look at that.
It is located behind the engine (between the engine and the firewall) and it is closer to the front of the engine, so stand on the passenger side and look down and in behind the engine for the egr which has a pipe coming from the exhaust manifold to its underside and a pipe from it going to the intake. There is a vacuum operated round fitting on its top, and also a vacuum line going to an electrically operated valve closer to the engine, nearer the throttle body. Look under the round fitting (which is mounted on a saddle with openings for access to view) on the top of the valve where you will see a vertical rod with a slot in it which is the valve stem. Take a straight blade screwdriver and use the slot to lever the valve up against spring pressure and see if it is dropping back down due to spring's action and closing positively. Put WD-40 on the stem to loosen it up in that motion if necessary. Check to make sure the vacuum lines are all attached and not cracked. Then warm up the engine and observe the slot to see if it goes up when you rev the engine to 2500 rpm and then drops back down fully, closing the valve, when you let the engine go back to idle rpm. Make sure that the fully down position is really down because if it is not fully closing when you let go of the accelerator and coast that will cause the engine to stall. It may be that to get it to close you'll have to unbolt it and clean out the gas flow passage past the valve due to buildup of exhaust fumes in the valve as sticky crud deposit around the internal valve.
The other thing to verify is that the spark timing is set to 12BTDC with the coolant temp sensor's plug on the thermostat housing disconnected (the fan will come on when you pull that plug) and the engine warmed up, though the timing is very unlikely to have changed overnight!
Finally, you could try getting fault codes from the engine controller. Turn the ignition key: on-off-on-off-on and leave in the on position, doing this switching quickly so that it takes less than 5 seconds. The check engine light will remain illuminated but then begin to flash-pause-flash-pause,etc. Count the number of flashes before each pause, and when all the flashing has stopped take the numbers that you have observed and group them in pairs to form two digit numbers in the order that they were observed. The last such number will be 55 which means "end of readout". Then write back with the numbers,or go to www.allpar.com/fix/codes.html
for a translation of the codes.
Roland