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Great discussion! Some good points from a variety of viewpoints.
Since this is a forum/website/YouTube channel mainly centered on cars and other things automotive – I think we can let cars themselves guide us: The reality is that, since at least the late 1980s – virtually every car in the world, including those put out by GM, Ford, and Chrysler – was built using metric standards. The designers typed millimeters into their CAD systems. Because why? Because the auto industry is a global one. If Ford or GM (or Mercedes or Toyota) design a new car platform – they can only make money on it if they sell it worldwide. And thats just not going to work if mechanics at a dealership in Guatemala or New Zealand have to buy a whole new set of sockets to work on it. Or if you have to ask your fastener vendor to split every order between Metric and SAE sizes. And ask your JIT inventory management system to deliver the right ones at the right time. Metric won that battle.
Except for a couple of things: Wheels – even wheels installed on thoroughly European vehicles like Porsches and Mercedes – still tend to be sized in inches. Of course, its only one dimension: the diameter of the rim. Bolt patterns, tire widths, aspect ratios etc. are all done metrically. Why? I’m sure there is a reason.
The US is not going metric any time soon. There are very strong political/social forces that will probably preclude this from happening, probably in any of our lifetimes. Are these good reasons: Possibly.
Because, truth be told, there are still some very good reasons to hold on to at least a few of our old standard measures. Like cooking, for instance. In a recipe that calls for a cup of flour – I think most people “mentally” have an idea of how much volume a cup holds. 350 grams? Not so much. And in our automotive world? The good old horsepower is a useful example. If a horse came along and kicked me in the head, I know what that would feel like. If I needed to drag a cart down the road – two horses seems like a reasonable amount of power to do the job. But how many Watts would I need to do the same thing? I have no idea.
Chances are, if you are working on any car built in the past thirty years, its got metric fasteners in it. Except when it doesn’t.
Stuck brake bleeder valves seem to be one of the most common issues in the entire automotive servicing world. Both professionals and DIY’ers seem to regularly snap off bleeders that are rusted/seized in place. Watching a seasoned pro like Eric snap one off in his Fix It Forward video brought that home to me.
Which raises the question: Isn’t it about time to get the automotive engineers involved in this issue?
It seems to me that either the design of bleeder valves themselves needs to be changed – so as to make them less likely to round/shear off. Or we need to change the way they are serviced: regular application of some sort of anti-seize agent. Increase the service interval. Periodic bleeder replacement.
I recognize the fact that bleeder valves live in a hostile environment. Underneath the car, exposed to the elements, road salt, heat, vibration, and screwed into a rusty hunk of cast iron.
But humanity has solved thornier problems than this. Its time for us to come up with cost-effective solution that won’t make pretty much every brake service procedure a crapshoot with the demons of auto disaster.