A funny (well, not funny really) thing has just happened, which may/may not relate to this thread.
Earlier this afternoon, an old boy walked up the farm track to my house to say his car had broken down and could he use my home phone to ring the AA (we have no mobile signal anywhere around here).
Anyway, after he arranged the AA on the phone, I gave him a lift back the 2.5 miles to his car, which was a two-month old MG HS 1.5 automatic.
He was apparently out touring around the Dales with his wife when the engine management light came on. He stopped and looked but couldn’t see anything obviously wrong. With no mobile phone signal, he drove on another couple of miles and the car then ground to a halt and dumped all its automatic transmission fluid all over the road and lower parts of the engine.
As he was looking a bit pale and his wife was also elderly, I waited with them until the AA came (a good hour and half) and even returned home to fetch them some bottled water in the interim.
The AA chap said it was the third such case with MG HS auto’s he had attended in the past couple of months. Also it would probably need a new autobox as it had apparently seized.
Considering MG HS auto models are not particularly common vehicles, I wonder if there is some sort of inherent problem with them? Whatever, if the engine management light illuminates on one, it may be wise to stop and ring the breakdown service rather than press on.
Dave