Just about had a gigantic problem today. Still not totally resolved but...yeah I should probably tell the story.
So my mom was leaving today and the intention was for my brother to take his license test driving my car, see. So I followed my mom throughout the day with my car. We met up with my dad and my mom bought me gas, so it was just a family train of three cars, my dad's Versa, my Buick, and my mom driving our Ford E350. My dad parked his car and used the van since my mom didn't want to drive it and we went to At Home (aka Garden Ridge in some places). I just stayed in my car in the parking lot since it was cool outside and I could get online. I was supposed to pick up my brother from somewhere at 3:15, which was about 1/2 mile from At Home. I waited until 3:15 and was getting ready to go and my parents came out. They were pissed that I hadn't left sooner so they just said that we'd both go over there. Well, my dad started driving off and I turned the key to start my car.
I heard it struggling to turn over and the sound just decreased and stopped. I thought maybe I hadn't turned the key far enough at first and tried again. Same response. Well crap. Now I'm stuck with a crippled car 20 miles from home. I honked at my dad hoping he'd stop but he didn't hear me. I called his phone and my mom answered from the passenger seat so I told her the car wouldn't stop. I heard her repeat it to my dad and I heard him utter something and she told me they would come back after getting my brother. I thought it could maybe be the battery, since I'd been running the vents without thinking while on the car's battery power instead of the engine. I waited a bit and tried to start again and managed to get the car briefly running before it kind of rumbled a bit and died. That didn't seem like the battery. The check engine light wasn't on, but it had been a couple weeks ago.
When my dad got back, he ran diagnostics and was still getting the p1404 code even though the engine light wasn't on, but I'd been driving like that for a while now without problems so we figured it was something else. After revving the engine before it died, he managed to get the car driving so he drove a lap around the parking lot. When he stopped, the car died again, so we decided to park it and leave it for a few hours. When we returned, he managed to get it running enough, but for good measure we took a route home with few stoplights to avoid circumstances where the car would be forced to stop. In short, it got home but it is definitely not safe to drive. After some searching, I think that the EGR valve is stuck opened from carbon deposits being stuck in it. I had my dad pick up a new gasket for it so we're gonna try pulling off the valve and cleaning it. Hopefully, that's all the problem is, and all the symptoms add up.
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