Birmingham St. Patrick's Day Parade 2008

[Gareth]

Did anyone happen to catch this on the news over the weekend?

Apparently, there was a Minor there joining in the festivities - anyone know whose it was? It could have been this one (below) or were there more?



According to Granddad, (and I must say he reported this tale with much glee) that as the car drove past the camera, the NS wheel became somewhat detached from the rest of the car.

You only have to mention Minors and he'll bark on about collapsing trunnions and errant wheels. Never seen it documented on telly, though...

[rayofleamington]

I was also informed of the trunnion collapse on a blue saloon just in front of the camera. Mine was maybe a more reliable source than your Granddad (a former AP R&D garage mechanic, who knows his onions).

So basically a Brum moggy had a nasty suspension failure on TV with many hundreds of thousands of viewers... Classic!

[alex_holden]

Brilliant. That will do the Minor's reputation for reliability no end of good!

[bigginger]

It's never had much of a reputation for reliable trunnions anyway
a

[StaffsMoggie]

Unbelieveable.

I hope that the idiot who owns this Minor is happy to have caused more damage to the car's reputation by their own ineptitude.

THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR NOT GREASING THE FRONT SUSPENSION JOINTS!

It is such a laugh to say that the Minor had a poor reputation for trunnion wear isnt it? Well that reputation comes from the cars dealer network while the car was current and now from the surviving cars owners.

These grease points are safety critical, NO EXCUSES FOR NOT GREASING THEM.

[Gareth]

So he's not going senile, then?

[bigginger]

It is such a laugh to say that the Minor had a poor reputation for trunnion wear isnt it? Well that reputation comes from the cars dealer network while the car was current and now from the surviving cars owners.

A tad agressive, don't you think? So, that reputation came from people who knew the car, and persists among people who know the car. I don't understand what point you're trying to make here.

[StaffsMoggie]

I didn't intend the post to appear aggressive at all. What I was concerned about was the way that the front suspension collapse of a motor vehicle on a public road was seen as amusing. Had any member of the public been injured as a result of this incident it would have had serious consequences for the cars owner and, indirectly, for the future of the classic car movement.

This front suspension failure was not unusual while the Minor was current, which means that the cars were either not serviced at all or were not being maintained correctly by the dealer network. As the cars became cheap bangers the lack of maintenance they recieved made suspension failures more common.

All drivers of vehicles used on the road have a responsibility to keep those vehicles roadworthy, and while I have sympathy for the owner of this one, there really is no need for this suspension collapse to happen anymore. The importance of greasing these joints is well known. Obviously we don't know why this car had the problem, perhaps the owner had only recently bought it and had no idea what state the joints were in?

I hope there wasn't too much damage.

Another point, a Minor specialist recently told me that he is seeing far more Minors needing new trunnions for the MOT, even on cars which are well maintained. He believes that the sheer number of speed humps around now is causing excessive wear of the components.

[rayofleamington]

So he's not going senile, then?

I can't answer that! However he didn't imagine the trunnion failure shown on TV.

As for the blue car shown above - I'm not so sure. I didn't see the clip so my info is 2nd hand but he thinks it was a grey Minor