So I live in Staten Island currently and travel to Queens, NY for class every Thursday. I went today and arrived early on campus so i decided to just hang out in my car for about 15 minutes until I went into the building. After about 10 minutes of just sitting in my car with the a/c on listening to music, it just shuts off and ENGINE DISABLED is displayed across the DIC. So I try to restart it and nothing happens, not even the starter trying to go. I pop the hood and check to make sure everything is ok, and it is. So next I pop the trunk and disconnect the battery cable. After ten minutes I reconnect it and try to start it again, this time it cranks but wont start, I repeat disconnecting the battery 3-4 times with the same result. the last time it starts however the DIC displays ENGINE POWER REDUCED. So i put it in gear and start to drive, everything is driving fine until the cars shifts and it felt like it popped into second gear, not a very smooth shift at all. So I park, go to class (the car sits for about an hour and a half). I come back after class expecting it to do the same thing and drive very rough, but it doesn't. It starts up just fine and drives like normal now. Can anyone explain why this might have happened?? It did once before almost 2 years ago now but the battery was leaking and the dealer told me the computer was fried. I'm just confused at to what could have happened.

Summary: car just shut off and displayed ENGINE DISABLED. got it to turn back on after 4-5 tries of disconnecting the battery, but it shifted very rough. Went to class and came back 1.5 hours later and everything ran fine then. Can someone explain what might have happened? A car shouldn't stall just idling when nothing is wrong, right?

 

Sounds like a theft system problem.

 

You didn't happen to be watching the coolant temp did you? If it started to overheat I would see it shutting off and preventing from turning back on. But just a wild guess. No CEL?

 

Coolant temp was normal after it started and shifted real rough, around 190. I think it might have just been the anti theft, cause after class I started and everything ran perfect again, and has been fine since last week when it occurred. thanks for the responses though guys!

 

why would your anti theft device cause your car to go in limp mode?

 

It's the crankshaft position sensor. Did you get a CEL at all? I had the same issue a couple times with my SS/SC. The crank position sensor would throw a bad signal for one reason or another and the ECU would automatically shut the engine down. Once the car sat for a few minutes it would start up and run fine. As far as I know, it is a fairly common issue.

https://www.cobaltss.net/forums/prob...o-start-54807/

 

might be your TPS(throttle position sensor)

 

might be your fuel pump.