Lude Generation

Decided to nip out to Halfords to pick up some more paint and got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic for 3 or 4 miles and the lude had a mini meltdown
Its the weirdest thing thats happened in 15+years ive owned the lude

first thing i noticed was the car wasnt rolling forward very easily when in neutral - so i thought sticking calipers
and then the temp guage went to 2/3rds which ive never seen it do before
and the speedo needle started to bounce up and down
and then when i put the car in neutral it started to drive backwards up an incline albeit very slowly
got moving forward again and it felt like it was going to stall out but i kept it going and traffic cleared

parked up for 5 mins and then everything seemed ok so drove home with no problems.

cant see any fluid loss or anything so scratching my head as to what could be the problem......

main relay
or
disti

weird or what

The bouncey needle could be the dizzy. The not rolling forward could be down to a sticky caliper or simply just not enough air in the tyres depending on the gradient, but the reversing up an incline in neutral ( ) and then that stalling feeling whilst going forward again sounds clutch related The not rolling forward could be related to it as well.

im guessing the clutch may have overheated as i was on off the pedal in first gear for most of the 3 or 4 miles...strange feeling slowly edging back when in neutral - i thought i was imagining it at first - weird that it went into a very slow reverse when facing down the incline

i do have a spare disti and ht leads so will put them in the boot and take with me just in case

Croy Brae, Ayreshire, per chance?

Nafe's suggestions on the crawling backwards/not rolling forwards were my thoughts as well (clutch drag).

But mostly... I'd put it down to the car being utterly shocked at having warm weather up in Scotland!

When's the last time you bleed the clutch line? Brake fluid absorbs water, in the heat maybe this can heat up and expand/boil off meaning the clutch engages slightly.
The bouncing idle could be related as if the clutch is dragging engine back slightly the iacv will try to counteract this.

the clutch mc has been sqeaking every so often and there is a tiny amount of seepage in the drivers footwell but apart from that the new atr clutch that was fitted a about 18 months ago has performed faultlessly. maybe i wasnt fully depressing the clutch whilts crawling in traffic at about 700rpm and its got a bit sticky...
i havent checked the fluid since the clutch was fitted so will have a look sometime soon

still doesnt explain the bouncy speedo needle - i guess it just a bit hot and threw a wobbly

bloody golfers in their campervans and 4x4s clogging up the roads on their way to the open