My intake came apart at the throttle body. I guess the clamp wasn't on securely enough and it came off. I had just gotten on to the turnpike when all of a sudden I feel a loss of power. No acceleration in third, downshift to second, nothing. I then coast over to the side of the pike and when I stop, the car stalls. I thought it was the alternator, but when I try to start her, she starts, then stalls. That's when I looked under the hood and saw what had happened. Is there any chance that some dirt might have gotten in and done some damage to the engine? The car was driving fine after I fixed the problem.

 

Never had that happen. Don't worry, I'm sure you car is just fine.

 

Its actually kind of good that the car has this fail safe mode, where it shuts itself off to keep the drive from doing any damage.

 

Well, if it came apart at the throttle body, that wasn't any kind of fail safe mode. The car just cant run without the intake air flowing through the MAF first.

 

No, the MAF sensor was still attached to the intake. It came apart between the MAF sensor and throttle body.

 

But the air was getting into your throttle body WITHOUT going through the MAF sensor. Even though it was connected, it was By-Passed and the car will not run that way.

 

Had it happen once...car stalled for reasons just stated, and its just fine. Nothing to worry about. Just learn your lesson and make sure it doesn't happen again.