Completely clueless
 

I have a 2002 Civic Lx with AT. It currently has 214k on the odometer. I am pretty sharp with a tool, but had two very weird incidents this weekend while driving and can't figure them out. Hoping someone here has had one or both and also if these two things are related.

1st, I was driving on a straight flat road going 45 m.p.h. I went to hit the gas and the car felt like it was in neutral. I moved the shifter from D to D3 then to neutral and back to D, still nothing. I pulled over to the side of the road, put it in park. I then put it back in D and I had first gear. I moved it to a side street with no traffic and called my buddy for a tow. When he arrived I went to move it for the truck and everything worked fine, and since then, nothing has happened.

The next evening I was driving home and the temp gauge spiked. I pulled onto a side street to stop, but when I turned into the street, it went back to normal. It has been 2 days since these problems and I can't get them to happen again. Is this an electrical issue? Are these things related?

did the D light on the dash start to flash ???. get the fault codes if any read first then get back to us because it could be a $30 dollar or a $3,000 dollar problem.