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I was cruising along the freeway at 100 not under load at the exact moment that this occurred... CEL had been on and off for a bit after I booted it at the on ramp, then all at once there was black smoke then grey smoke and the car stopped. I cruised to a safe place then tried to restart - couldn't do it although it was turning over fine and could hear fuel pump. Got a tow to the mechanic who looked at it today, he called to say he was confused as it started and ran fine... I was expecting a timing belt or something.

The CEL showed 33 and 12 straight after I stopped but lost the 33 straight after I checked. 12 has been coming on intermittently for a couple of weeks for no good reason. I thought I had the 3 plug ecu but I haven't actually checked

Anyone got any brilliant ideas as to what the hell happened?

well code 33 is your coolant thermosensor (not the temp gauge sender!) so may have suddenly decided you wwere gonna get cold start fuel ala black smoke
code 12 is that bloody starter switch code rearing its ugly head, 13 is also a starter switch fault code

SEARCH and you may find how others dealt with code 12

Looking at diagrams etc, replace ECU is one answer, wonder if a starter relay added to the circuit fixes that code 12?