1990 Olds stops, hard to restart

A friend has a '90 olds Ciera with the 3800 engine. The engine will quit running at a stoplight or almost any idle speed and then will be hard to start. May have to wait a few minutes before it restarts. He would like to get rid of the car a at a good price, but I’m a little afraid of the cost to fix it.

I don’t know what “a good price” would be on a 22 year old car. If its just going to be sold, he’s not going to get much for it either way. So one option is just to throw it up on a Craigslist & see what happens.

If you don’t like that option - no one here can tell you much b/c you didn’t tell us much. The car isn’t running right. If you want a list of possible reasons I’ll need a roll of toilet paper b/c the list will be that long.

Start here: if any of the basic maintenance items on the car are not up to date then make it so. At minimum this means spark plugs & wires, fuel & air filters. I would also pull off the throttle body and clean that really well along with the idle air control valve and MAF sensor - if so equipped. The fuel pressure also needs to be checked, and someone should check for vacuum leaks.

Basically, you need someone with a clue. If it isn’t you two then its a mechanic. Or you just dump the car b/c it isn’t worth much anyway.