Engine/Tranny issue at high altitude

[BombguyEOD]

Was taking a drive through Rocky Mountain National Park today and everything was great, until I got to about 10100' above sea level.

Engine power was decreased, markedly so. Pressing the gas eventually became pointless, and the engine shut off, CEL came on, and oil light in the information box thing. Also a massive clunk when I tried moving it to 3 from D.

Tried starting it back up, it did for a few seconds but sounded horrible, so I turned it back off. Opened the hood, nothing leaking, nothing seemed out of order. (I know next to nothing about cars)

After about 10 minutes, I had to move it since it was blocking traffic on a narrow mountain road. It started, sounded crappy, but not too bad and drove about 2 miles to a turn out. Waited there for 10 minutes with it running, and decided to turn around and go home. 70 miles later, here I am at home and the car was almost perfectly fine the entire way back. Only issue was acceleration when getting on I-25 was less than optimal.

Just got an oil change 2 days ago, and we have been spot on when it comes to the routine maintanance in the 3 years since we got it. We also live at 6100' above sea level, so the car should be used to high altitude.

Any ideas on what the heck happened?

 

[smo0othride]

You lose about 3% power for every 1,000 feet which is 30% at 10,000 feet, and that means you had about 90hp less which will make a huge difference on how acceleration feels. Is is possible the computer was still using an air/fuel mixture from the altitute of where you started your car, and it didn't reset the mixture until you restarted the engine at the higher altitude. Although I don't know why it didn't run well after you restarted at the high altitude.

 

[ELVATO]

Check your oil level, especially since you say you got it changed 2 days ago.