1996 breaks down while driving without any noticeable problems
 

It is a 96 with 200,000 in rough condition but runs very well for its condition. No problems, have done a lot of preventive maintenance, mechanics say its in good shape. Recently as I was driving the motor would shut down. I would wait a few minutes and it would start back up and be fine the rest of the drive. Funny thing is it happens literally a few hundred feet of the place that it died before, about three miles into the drive. It had been idleing low for a while and my friend fixed that, it drives better but still breaks down. I did drive farther before it broke down though. The engine light is on and it is the post cat o2 sensor. People have said it may be the throttle positioning sensor, fuel filter and my friend has a 2000 camaro that did the same thing and it was a vacuum tube. Any help would be great I am not car savvy but if you have any advice I can relay it to my friend who knows a lot and he'll help me fix it. Thank you.

A faulty sensor store a code on the ECU. Stop by an autozone and have them read the codes. Post them on here. They will be P then four numbers, ie P1234. Your car has two O2 sensors. One will cause poor gas mileage, the other one monitors the cat and won't affect engine performance. I just want to ensure that there aren't any other codes popping up.

You said the car is well maintained. Are the spark plugs, distributor cap & rotor, spark plug wires in good shape?

Maybe clean the EGR ports on the intake manifold as well, since the EGR system is enabled when the car reaches operating temperature. Google t2t013.pdf for instructions. The 94/97 instructions are at the end of the pdf.

Will the car start back up immediately when the car stalls? Or will the starter turn the engine, but the engine won't fire up?

thanks for the reply, the diagnostic said it is the post cat o2 sensor i ordered it and will be installing it on mon that was the only code that i got. i did the diagnostic a little while back before i had time to fix it and it was the same as this time. other than that i just recently got my timeing belt changed and they said everything else looked fine besides some oil leaks and will need brakes soon. I will check out the manifold on mon also. ill let you know. once again thank you for the help.

if you need to replace the o2 sensor because of the code it is ok.........but i do not think that it is the reason why car dies at times ,,
when car dies and won't start, chk to see if you are getting fuel and spark..