Toyota Repair: 1990 Toyota Camry hesitates and stalls, 1990 toyota camry, toyota camry

Question
I purchased a used toyota camry. After sitting for a while it will start up and drive fine for about five minutes. Then, when you attempt to start out from a stop, it hesitates and sometimes stalls.  It did this when I first bought it and then seemed to fix itself.  I had it in the shop for some brake repairs for a month (I am stationed in Germany and it took a while to get parts) and when I picked it up the problem resurfaced and won't go away.  I cannot even get the car out of the parking lot. It is winter here and has been cold and damp (20-40F).  The car has a 4 cyl (2Liter), auto trans and has about 170,000 miles on it.  I don't have a good record on what maintenance was performed on it prior to me getting the car.  It was running good after the first episode back in early October. Since I purchased the car for my 20 year old daughter to drive to school I want to make sure it won't strand her on the Autobahn.  Any assistance you can provide will be appreciated.

Answer
The most common cause for this is the distributor, the only part in the distributor that can be replaced is the ignition coil, these can develp cracks, remove the distributor cap and the rotor and the coil cover and check the coil for any cracks or burned areas, if the coil is OK replace the distributor.