Expert: Roland Finston - 9/3/2011

Question
Hi Kevin, I am the original owner and have 79,000 miles on the car.
It has been dropping in rpm and then stalling at lights and at low speed.
I have taken it to the dealer and a local garage, but they can't find the problem.
Any ideas? thanks

Answer
Hi Dan,
I assume that the shops have checked for the presence of fault codes. If not let me know and I can tell you how to do that.
The other part that often causes the symptoms you describe is the egr valve if it is sticking slightly ajar.
The valve is located by first finding the egr solenoid, a round black object with a vacuum hose, just below the oil filler cap. Follow that vacuum hose around to the rear corner of the engine to find the valve, mounted sideways in a small exhaust pipe that comes from the rear exhaust manifold hidden behind the engine.  It too has a round top attached to the other end of the vacuum hose, and then a flange that separates the round top from the body of the valve which is mounted in the small exhaust pipe. In the flange area you will see a rod which is the valve stem and it has a circumferential slot into which you can insert the tip of a screwdriver so as to move the stem back and forth, against spring-action in one direction whose purpose is to close the valve. If that stem gets gummy then the stem may not move to the full closed position. So spray some WD-40 on the stem where it enters the valve body and then work the stem back and forth to be sure it is moving to the closed position tightly. Then see if that corrects the stalling problem.
Roland
Sorru for the delay but I just found your question is the 'pool' to which it had been referred by Kevin. Please 'rate' my answer and where you see the question about a nomination of me to be 'volunteer of the month' consider a 'yes' response. Thank you