Olds 88 stops running and locks up suddenly

Hello. I know almost nothing about cars, having not learned to drive until I was 25 years old. I own a 1994 Olds 88, and twice now, while going slowly, the car has just stopped. The wheel won't turn, and the engine stops running.

Both times it has been while going down hill at a slow speed (about 5-10 miles an hour). I don't know if this is coincidental or not.

If I turn the car off, put it in park, and re-start, it has started back up.

I am concerned this will happen when I am on the interstate or in a busy street, and I will be killed by an oncoming car or something, so I am nervous.

I have no money at all (I'm on a borrowed laptop in McDonald's using their free Internet atm!) so I don't know how I could possibly get it fixed immediately. It would have to be about a month away until I could get any money, but I feel like if I had an idea of what was actually wrong, that would help me to know whether or not it's safe to keep driving...

Any idea what could be wrong?

Many things can cause this, most commonly, dirty throttle body, sluggish idle air control sticking egr valve.

So are any of these inspectable/fixable by me (no automotive skills)?

I really thank you. I don't know what people did before the Internet. :P

I can't say whether you are capable of checking or doing these operations, but I can say they are over the head of a "first timer".

OK...I will wait and see if I can hold out till I can afford to have it looked at. I'm sure it's going to be expensive to fix (or even to look at)...*le sigh*

Not really, if the throttle body need cleaning that is cheap, the other things need checking which would not be very expensive.

One other thing I noticed--and I'm not sure if this is related or not--is that when I park and turn the car off, a few seconds or minutes later, I feel something move in the engine, like a bump or something. I don't know what that is, or if it's the same thing. That's the best way I can describe it, though.

This forum has been so helpful to me. Thank you, a lot. I really appreciate it. :biggrin: