One Man Bleeding Kits?

Remember most cars consumables like filters are made by more than one maker.

You've been reading the Mail again. ;-)

So car manufacturer A comes up with a new design and size/shape of air filter - eg one which only needs changing every 100,000 miles. You want them to be forbidden from fitting it to their vehicles unless and until they get the agreement of all their competitors to add it to the list of "approved" filters? Or until whatever government/EU/UN body approves filters decides to add it to the list - after consultation, evaluation, backhanders or whatever is the basis of such decisions? Seems to me unlikely to foster competition and innovation.

I always used to install something like this:

the first time I needed to bleed brakes on my cars. Simple, cheap and efficient.

blimey, 12 quid each plus post! for a bleed nipple with a built in one way valve.

Not a waste of money. Car makers already use the same parts bin for various models, and even share platforms with other manufacturers. Volume car production is on a scale where making a component to fit precisely a myriad of production and regulatory specifications is economic.

Surely the other car makers would welcome being able to adopt such a new filter and add the feature to their cars?

Are you familiar with the history of the 'three point seat belt'? The company that developed it didn't patent it - it allowed other companies to copy it .

HaHaHa!!!!!!!! Brilliant! (it's funny 'cos it's true) :)

Oh, right, you want not just to standardise parts but to abolish patents, licences and other things that allow a return on R&D.

And I did know about your example of the 3-point seat belt. But that's famous precisely because it is an exception to the rule. (And Volvo didn't do the same on its other patents.) But you seem to expect any and every invention to be made available in the same way, rather than exploited for profit. If so, what company is going to invest in R&D to develop a new air filter when every other company will benefit equally from any success?

Or do you expect that R&D to be funded by government as part of a centrally planned and managed economy USSR-style?

Is there any wonder so many consider Brexiteers out and out nutcases?

Oh dear, no need to go off of one.

No one suggested stopping patents, controlling R&D, limiting new ideas,.....

Just, perhaps, standardising some basic parts to reduce cost etc.

The ones I bought in the '70s didn't cost anything like that much, even allowing for inflation. They came from the local parts shop, pre-packaged in fours. Simple and very effective, none of this vacuum or pressure stuff.

To be fair, many of the EU scare stories re regs etc are nonsense, at least in the sense of what the regs really say. The problem is we (the UK) seem incapable of doing what, for example, the French do, and finding an 'interpretation' which means they can do what they want.

Ditto, more or less. A friend took me to a 'cash and carry' he used from time to time and I'd stock up on things. I picked up a set for few pounds for my MK2 Escort.

The valve arrangement was very simple. The 'point' that normally seals the orifice was on a rod which could slide in the body of the nipple. There was a spring around the rod. When you slackened the nipple, the spring kept the point in the orifice. When you pressed the pedal, it could open.

As I recall, and I'm going back to about 1980, they were available for 'common' cars and labeled as such. Plus, of course, back then, DIY repairs/servicing was more common.

These days, even the range of brake fluids could be baffling to the unwary. Besides the basic DOT 3, 4 etc. there is ESP etc. and, of course, DOT 5.1. Not to mention some car makers claiming you should use their 'special' fluids (eg Honda).

Or just ignore them anyway. I remember a radio broadcast quotation from a French farmer who said that EU rules didn't apply to them. He gave no reason, it was obvious to him.

Why not just use a bleed hose with a built in one way valve? Even cheaper.

Most later brake fluids are compatible with earlier ones. In other words you can safely use later types on an older car. Although if doing any brake work at all, best to change it all, since this is often neglected on older cars.

But that's not to say all brake fluids are compatible.

'Cos I didn't see one of those on the shelf in the shop, but I did see the valve set.

Oh, maybe you're right. But we're better off out of the EU shit-show anyway. Voting Leave wasn't exactly the toughest decision I've ever had to make!

Likewise German bar owners with the smoking ban. We were the only mugs that actually enforced the EU's Fascist edicts.