Ok, something strange happened to me the other day. I was driving on the freeway and the engine appeared to just cut out. Total loss of power. I tried downshifting which didn't help and then I hit the emergency flashers and started blasting on the horn so people would let me over as I was in the left lane in fairly heavy traffic. I thought the f'king timing belt snapped, which I had just replaced in April, but when I got over to the right and stopped on the shoulder I attempted to restart the engine and was rewarded with an awful grinding noise. It was still running and idling smoothly at about 1k on the tach. Dumbfounded and still shaking from the spike of panic, I put the car back in gear, let up the clutch, and drove away like nothing ever happened.

WTF was that all about? Any ideas? The main relay is 3 years old so I doubt that is it.

It has been really cold in NY and the car has been dying immediately after starting on really cold days like the day in question. After two start-dies I rev the engine as soon as it catches and hold it up over 2k rpm for 15-20 seconds and then she is good to go. Perhaps the cold is affecting something?

Anyone ever run into a similar problem? If so, what was the cause and what fixed it?