I am having an intermittent problem , where the engine light flashes and the car won't go more than 20 MPH . If I pull over , shut off the car and restart the problem goes away. It's happened about 4 times now . Seems to be on cold days, below freezing and on first start of the day. Any help would be great.

 

Would help to plug in an ODB reader and know what code it’s throwing. My initial guess is something MAF related based on your description alone, but really could be anything.

 

I tried to read the codes but for some reason a link error keeps coming up on my scanner .

 

I’m going to go for low battery. If you run the car to let the alternator charge it up a bit does that help? Keep in mind that low voltage can throw bad codes or other odd OBD behavior. The maf sensor already mentioned is definitely not a bad guess too.