'96 Windstar stalling when put in reverse or drive

Yesterday upon arriving home my 1996 Windstar stalled as I pulled into my driveway and came to a stop. I took it for a short drive immediately after this and had similar issues. I ended up having to put it in 2nd gear in order to make it home and even with that I had to press the gas pedal right to the floor and it seemed as if it was not getting enough gas.

I had a scanner connected to it and the only code that came up was with regards to the EGR valve (which was replaced within the last year and the guy didn't think that would cause my problem).

I tried it again that evening and it starts fine, idles fine, but as soon as I put it into reverse or drive it immediately stalls. Any ideas?

Hi
Your EGR valve stuck open at idle would do it. Not necessarily sure this is you problem but you might check. I have had mine stick on my '96 and it will idle very poorly. If you pull the EGR vacuum hose off of the valve and use an ordinary drinking straw over the port, you can produce a bit of vacuum and you will hear the EGR valve open, release vacuum and it will close (sort of a clunk,clunk sound). I have also put a bit of positive pressure on to ensure the EGR valve is seated before.

If you find it responding normally, leave it disconnected and plug the vacuum line. If that solves your problem then the issue is likely the EGR solenoid on the back of the intake plenum - sending EGR open signal at the wrong time i.e. low RPM.

Hope that helps

We checked the ERG valve and everything seems to be fine with that. We decided to checkout a few basic things and found inside the air filter was a "water-based goo" as my husband called it, rustish in color. We also found that it idles well in park and 1st gear. Pressing the OD button doesn't have any effect on the stalling issue (it stalls anyway).

Any more ideas?

An update. A friend of mine said the same thing happened to her Windstar which is a few years newer than mine and hers turned out to be a processor. She didn't know the name of it though. Any ideas on what processor may cause this problem?

Also, I forgot to mention that twice about 2 or 3 days apart I parked in a parking lot and turned off the van. After just a few minutes of resting it woudln't start. I then left it sit for about 10 minutes each time and it started right up.

Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated!