It's 2001 as the cut off. Anything first registered before 1 March 2001 is on the flat rate system, that is £170 a year if under 1549cc or £280 if over. After that it is the sliding scale depending on CO emissions so you'd need something with less than 150g/km for it to be cheaper than a smaller engined car on the flat rate.

As it stands at the moment, anything over 40 years old doesn't need an MoT but you do have to declare it as roadworthy (and original) and if you get a pull from plod who find it isn't you'll still get nicked for it. The tax category is changed on the V5 to Historic and the tax is free, but you still have to tax it, just the fee is £0.00 so they know it is on the road, you don't just ignore it. The 40 year rolling age means that currently it is anything from 1981 or earlier, changing it to 30 years would mean there would be a lot of old dogs that should have been scrapped still being used.

I've only ever had a couple of problems, one was sorted out straight away but I lost out on the other. Both came from breakers that regularly advertise stuff so there's one I will use again and recommend and one I won't touch with a bargepole. I bought a starter motor and tested it before fitting it only to find it didn't work. Contacted the seller (EoC) and they immediately sent me another, didn't even ask for the first one back. Second time a breaker was advertising a pair of front seats and the photos showed the exact same cloth seats as mine. The grey cloth seats up to 97 were a sort of velour material, similar to what is often called the Teddy Bear seats when fitted into a Classic, but mine, being a 98 has a darker, courser, more hardwearing cloth. The photos clearly showed the later ones and all I really wanted was the seat bases to swap into mine as my drivers seat had suffered from having someone sitting on it for hundreds of thousand miles. They were asking a ridiculous amount of money for carriage so I said I didn't mind paying full price for them but only needed the bases and as they would be smaller and lighter, that should reduce the carriage. They agreed and sent them only for me to open them up and find they were the earlier ones. I sent them photos of what they'd sent to compare with the photos on the listing and their attitude was, "you wanted the bases from a pair of cloth seats and that's what we sent so tough". They even admitted they'd got more than one set and had used the same photo in each listing but still refused to supply me with the ones they'd taken a photo of rather than ones that didn't match mine. I gave up in the end and just won't use them again

Red rear (and white front) indicators are legal for anything pre-1961 so as long as they work, they should still pass them. I took a 1958 Studebaker in for test that had been standing for about 20 years and the valves on two cylinders were stuck open but as it was a sidevalve engine it still ran on the other 4. It still passed as on something that old there's no emissions test, no seatbelt check, etc. But it was solid, the brakes worked (as well as they ever had), the lights worked, no slop in the steering and that was about as far as the test went.

I remember being told years ago that you should fill an engine with the cheapest, lowest quality oil you could get for the initial running in period, then drain it and fill with decent stuff. The logic being that during running in, the parts surfaces are supposed to wear to each other so you don't want anything that will lubricate too well or the parts won't bed in properly.

Could be anything, it isn't original so it's something that someone thought would be a good idea.

See my edited post above.......

Oops, Simon posted that it could have been a modified interface cable for an LPG system but he posted it twice so I deleted the duplicate. But it looks like he also deleted the duplicate at the same time so both posts disappeared. Sorry Simon, however, that would make sense if he didn't have a diesel......

That serial port is something that someone has added, it isn't original. As David says, OBD port is on the passenger side, close in to the centre console and a long way forward so almost at the bulkhead.

If it can be towed without making any noise then it won't be the viscous coupling as that is between the two outputs. As you say, the chain will also be turning when towed so again that would rule that out. That leaves the input side of things. So you would be looking at the input shaft where it connects to the output of the gearbox, but as you have changed the epicyclic gears to those for an auto, then the splines on that which engage with the gearbox output shaft should be correct. That really only leaves the high/low gear or the epicyclic gear set you fitted was knackered. When putting it together the manual does say to put it into low ratio so everything lines up. I suppose it's possible that the selector fork came out of engagement with the cam groove that makes it move from one ratio to the other, so it isn't moving the sliding gear. With the motor off, you should be able to turn the shaft over something like 300 degrees (almost a full turn) and hear the gear engaging at each end of the travel. If the shaft just turns freely, or won't turn over the full range, it isn't doing anything.

When we took my TC off we used a scissor lift as there was one available but it isn't ideal due to the angle the TC sits at. The first time I took one off it needed two of us under the car to wiggle and wobble it about until it lined up. The second time, before taking it off I made up a bracket that fitted onto my trolley jack so I could sit the TC on it and hold it at the correct angle. The theory being that the jack would take the weight and it could be moved back and forth to remove it and put it back. When putting it back, I used a couple of very long M10 bolts in the more accessible fixing holes so it would slide back into place on those too. With those bolts and the input shaft it all lined up nicely. I didn't remove the exhaust Y piece (which you may not have on a diesel) that runs across the car under the TC or the crossmember. I also didn't disconnect the gearchange cable that the book tells you to do as with an assortment of socket extensions and a knuckle joint, I was able to get to all the bolts that hold it to the gearbox. A couple of the bolts are a pain to get to but it can be done. As they've been out recently you shouldn't have too much of a problem.

They come up for sale very rarely and when they do, they go for almost full price. Get, or make, yourself a cable and the free EASUnlock software, here https://www.rswsolutions.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=53&Itemid=56 and here https://www.rswsolutions.com/index.php/p38a-eas-unlock-videos.

I took the Vogue to be photographed by Car & Classic ready to put it in their auction next week. 173 photographs......

Hang on a minute? If it was a problem with the transfer box it would only make a noise when the gearbox is in gear as that is the only time it is turning. If it makes a noise with the gearbox in neutral, then it isn't the transfer box. Or are they saying that when they put it into gear (so the gearbox output shaft is turning) the car doesn't move but it makes a grinding noise? That would suggest the gearbox output/transfer box input isn't engaged properly.

Sounds like you'll be pulling that transfer box apart then. The overhaul manual is pretty comprehensive so you should be able to work out what the problem with it is.

Depends what seats you have. Some are proper leather, others are PU leather which isn't leather at all but a plastic coated cloth that looks like leather.

Yes, that isn't an electric seat as far as LR are concerned. Electric has forward and back, up and down, backrest tilt and lumbar pump.

I keep both mine taxed, it's £23 a month each so not as if it's going to break the bank. I've got a trade policy for insurance so they are both covered on that too. Worth it just to have them available when needed as the Ascot seems to have become the household pool car. Dina pinched it this morning so she could take her sister and a friend out and her car only has two seats.

The main argument with removing the need for an MoT for older stuff is that much of it doesn't apply. While a lot of the older testers who have been around for a long time know what they are doing, some of the younger ones are likely to try to fail an older car for not having something it never had in the first place.

It varies quite a bit by country. In some a historic class vehicle can only be used at certain times of the year, or with limited mileage, etc. Here, as soon as a car reaches 40 years old it no longer needs an MoT test (but you have to declare it is roadworthy and if you are using it and a policeman decides it isn't roadworthy, you'll still get nicked for it) and the road tax is free. There's no limits on when you can use it, how often and how far you travel. So anything pre-1981 could quite legitimately be used as an everyday car and clock up as many miles as you want.

DSE isn't poverty spec, DT is. DSE is SE spec but with the diesel engine so the same as a 4.0 or 4.6 SE. According to the ETM, all electric seats have the lumbar pump? Or do you mean you have the manual seats with electric up and down and nothing else? My 4.0SE had electric, but not memory, seats. You can swap yours for the higher spec memory seats but if you add memory seats you'd also need to add the seat outstation and change the seat loom for one that matches the seats.

Signed it but can't really see the logic behind it, "I would like the Goverment to do this as it will help young motoring enthusiasts afford classic cars." No it won't, it will encourage people to keep old bangers on the road. Just because they are exempt from road tax doesn't make them a classic car. I also take stuff for an MoT whether it needs it or not, it's an opportunity for someone else to have a look and maybe spot something I haven't.

You haven't got a vernier cam sprocket or anything clever like that so there isn't any adjustment for the cam timing other than moving it a tooth one way or the other. The cam is bolted to the sprocket and can't be fitted any other way than correct so just use the provided timing marks.

I've also been concerned about the cam running in procedure, it doesn't seem right to fire up and engine with lots of new bits in it and immediately start revving the goolies off it. It always used to be the case that you ran a new engine in by keeping the revs down. When mine went back in I ran it at around 1,500 rpm initially by screwing the throttle cable adjuster out a bit to get the revs up. At least that way you can have a good look around for any leaks, keep checking the temperature, etc.

My method for filling the cooling system from dry is to initially fill it through the top hose. When you can't get any more in there, refit the top hose to the radiator and fill the header tank with the bleed pipe at the top of the rad disconnected. If you squeeze the top hose, then put your finger over the bleed pipe on the rad, then release the top hose, you'll draw coolant in from the header tank. Keep doing that until coolant dribbles out of the bleed nipple, then refit the hose and carry on doing the same only this time you can plug the hole just inside the header tank neck with a finger until coolant flows out of that without and bubbles and you can no longer hear the coolant gurgling around inside the engine. Then you know you've got as much air out as you are going to. Start the engine, run it with the header tank cap off and the level will drop a bit and the flow from the bleed will be a continuous stream. Then you've got all the air out.

I'm also suffering from restricted mobility at the moment so know exactly what you mean. I blame lockdown for it. Decided to have a run on on my motorcycle (600cc Yamaha) 4 weeks ago but had only done 60 miles on it in the last year. Due to lack of use found I'd forgotten how to make it go round corners, clipped a kerb at about 45 mph and found myself sliding down the road following the bike. Relatively minor damage to the bike, destroyed crash helmet and leather trousers, a few bruises that cleared in a week or so, but left thumb and wrist whacked by the handlebars and right thigh muscle badly bruised making walking a painful experience don't seem to have got any better yet. I'm getting really, really pissed off with not being able to get on with things I want to do......

and my tyres are still sitting with Customs. Only been there since 13:28 on the 17th......