RAY: Sounds like your son overpaid, Sarah.
I think you may have been on the right track with the EGR valve. Here’s a possible scenario: Let’s say your existing EGR is gummed up and doesn’t open all the way. The EGR shouldn’t be doing anything when the car is at idle. If the EGR opens up when the car is at idle, it’ll make the car stall.
So let’s say your EGR valve IS getting an errant vacuum signal. It’s opening up as much as it can, causing the car to stall. And when you put in a new, working EGR valve, it opens up all the way at idle (i.e., it actually works), and makes things even worse.
So one possibility is that there’s vacuum going to the EGR when there shouldn’t be. That could be the result of something like a faulty EGR solenoid, or vacuum hoses that are improperly routed.
So you can experiment by temporarily taking the EGR valve out of the equation. Disconnect the vacuum line that goes to it, and try driving the car without it. If the car doesn’t stall, that’ll be a huge hint.
Then you’ll have to track down the cause and fix it. You don’t want to leave the EGR disconnected, because the EPA fines for that cost slightly more than a four-year college education.
But that’s a reasonable place to start, Sarah. And if that doesn’t work, maybe your son can sell the car for $4 and recoup most of his money. Good luck.
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