Only thing I could think is that your issue wasn't severe enough to trigger a code, severe for the computer, not necessarily not severe for you.

In that case, yes something like AE would be the thing to have.

 

It sounds like my FICM before it went dead. Real hard starting but was fine if you could get it running. Leave it over night and it was a pain to start again. Ed fixed my FICM and it's almost back to normal again. If I could find out what is causing my surging/stumbling I'd be golden.