Well it finally happened...

Just past 101k mi, nothing out of the ordinary in terms of driving; stopped at stop sign, then felt what I can only describe as stalling. I thought I may have knocked the shifter into Neutral, glanced down, wasn't the case, still in Drive.

RMP remained at ~1k, jerking forward slowly while whirring. "Service Engine Soon" light illuminates before my eyes. Luckily on a quiet residential street. Parked, walked home, decided to research a little before arranging for tow, etc.

In my past life, I would simply call a tow from one of my cards, have it dropped off the dealership after hours, tell them to drop it off after it's ready. Missing those days right now. Currently a humbled doctoral candidate on a shoestring budget, held on to the G vert since it was paid off forever ago.

Gave up looking for OBD scanner. Shelling out for a new one not an option.

Any idea what to reasonably anticipate based on the mileage and symptoms? Thanks!

 

Hard to tell from the description, but I have read before that these cars go into 'limp' mode for various reasons.
Since the engine is the same as the rest of the 3.7 family, I'd search the whole forum and see what you can find with the coupes or sedans.
You can also try disconnecting the battery for a bit and see if the error comes back right away or after some time.
I'd also get a cheap obd2 dongle with a bluetooth scanner app - very affordable and will let you get some codes from the ecu.

 

Thanks for chiming in.

Turns out it was a cracked coolant hose, and all coolant had leaked out. Strangest part was the temp gauge didn't spike. The only needle that was spazzing was rpm. Speculation from the shop was built-in safety feature to shut down the car and prevent bigger damage. Anybody out there that can validate?

I'll count my blessings. My experience of horror and dread serves for your entertainment now and data point.

Cheers!

 

The coolant temp sensor works best when immersed in coolant, once the coolant is gone, all that is left is hot air and steam and the sensor isnt as efficective at reading temps.
No idea why the erratic RPM readings and limp mode, maybe the cylliders were oveheating and caused heavy knocking and the knock sensors did their job of protecting the engine, honestly no idea, but glad all is good again!