Millenials - a generation without a wrench

[Sal Paradise]

I try and show my sons how to wrench.. I let them hand me tools, etc while I work. Being millenials there is NO WAAYY, no way at all they can possibly diagnose anything or actually fix a machine... Thats impossible. But I do what my Dad did - I have the kids hand me tools and "help" and I explain stuff.

Today, my 19 year old son comes in and tells my wife he is taking his car (which we gave him) out of state to visit a girl. OK, the oil hasn't been changed in 20,000 miles, here son, this is an oil a filter. At least put this filter on and top off the oil. I give him nice metal drip pan, leather work gloves and some cardboard. I have to run out so I tell him to just do it... With a smug smile he shakes his head at me and tells me "I got it".

When I got back home an hour later , there is oil all over the driveway, but he tells me he got er done. Ok, I'll be your slave and clean the driveway, at least you got it done. I take the car around the block - oil is spewing out a full gallon in one block, oil light on. God knows what the problem is - what could it be? - the filter is tight tight....I will look at it in the mornin..

** update - he put the filter on with no gasket.... I found it in the box in the garbage..he had never looked at an oil filter before....

So I coast back with the engine off, and give my boy the good news , now he is outside stomping aroud screaming and yeling....all upset that he cant go to see his girlfriend.

I should have just done it myself ....This generation, they are absolutely totally clueless about anything mechanical.... and it not just this , they literally do not understand how an engine works, what oil is, what a piston or a coil is. Its a different generation.

 

[rodburner]

Do like I do,and blame that fucker,Al Gore. Global warming has forced our engines to be buried so deeply inside the snake pit like confines of the modern automobile engine bay,that even I can't see it,much less explain to my son how to change a plug,much less release the magic smoke that is fuel injection and variable valve timing. Face it Sal,old guys like us know old things and this is a brave new world.I bet your boy can alter the stage one tuning on his mom's Intrepid from his I-POD,huh? The new generation is just that,new. New technology,new cars,new haircuts,new,new,new. In twenty years,he isn't gonna long for the good old days when cars were controlled by his hands and feet,just like you and I don't want 3 on the tree and 8 tracks. He will want that modern,retro looking 2030 Mustang with pick a star navigation and retina linked auto interface. He may even remember that time he changed the oil and left the hot drain plug in the catch pan. Unless Al Gore "invents" something else that erases our "old" memories first.

 

[D9]

I have great kids... both boys... I'm blessed... not much interest in mechanical stuff like we're talking about - but - the youngest one builds incredible stuff out of Legos... really, really cool... makes it all up and puts it together, elaborate, complicated and detailed as hell... then tells me what everything does... the other one is involved in theater tech in high school, building sets, running sound boards, etc... so although no detectable interest in motorcycle or car stuff... they do have they're own mechanical chops, so to speak...

 

[MES]

first off,
19 is very late and not all people have the aptittude or intrest.

sorry but, here comes the harsh
"my 19 year old son comes in and TELLS my wife he is taking his car (which we gave him) "
You GAVE him a car?
He's allowed to TELL you?

"the oil hasn't been changed in 20,000 miles,.."
You let him get away with that? why didn't you take the car back when he FAILED to take care of it. Blatent disrespect for the gift and the time/effort/money that it took to give it to him

"Ok, I'll be your slave and clean the driveway"
SUCKER, God forbid little snowflake should clean up after himself.

".I will look at it in the mornin.. "
He's the one that needs it, if the pussy is good enough he'll be motovated to figure it out.

"I should have just done it myself ...."
that's the attitude that got you where you are"

life is hard, the sooner he figures that out the better.

Nobody here was born with a wench/hammer/whatever in their hand. Made were forced to figure it out With guidance.

 

[Sal Paradise]

That is a little harsh.. When I was 18, all the kids drove old junkers and we wrenched in each others back yards. This generation they get together to play video games.

As far as giving him a car, its actually our family junker/ extra car.its nobodys and everyones but he has been driving it to his summer job.. and as far as telling us he is going someplace, yeah -he is an adult and goes where he wants on his days off..

Good kid, very helpful and polite. Its just something I notice about him and all his friends - they are clueless mechanically.

 

[rodburner]

Dang MES,I guess I'm a whipped daddy wannabe too. My son turned 23 a couple days ago,is unemployed,lives at home,has never worked on a car in any way,has never mowed the lawn,never taken drugs,never been in trouble and is twice as smart as I am. AND I'M HAPPY WITH THAT. We all have different parental priorities and I'm afraid the whip crackin,asswhippin dads are a dyin or incarcerated breed. Like I said,its a NEW world and we better get spinnin with it or get thrown off.

 

[Gretsch]

I don't think 19 is too late for him to turn it around at all. The human brain doesn't even fully develop until 25. It may be that he doesn't have the aptitude but it sounds more likely his attention was focused on seeing the GF. As far as this generation is concerned I think the biggest problem is the educational system and the fact that they're never allowed to fail. That might be why they're less interested in mechanical things.

 

[thearcticsea]

I'm 26, not much older than your son, and I don't see that it's a generational thing.

Over on this site "Dotheton.com" there are a shitload of threads started by people from ages 15-25, all building their own custom bikes. That scene is really big for people our age still.

Your son just isn't interested in it, which is totally fine, obviously. That's just how it is.

 

[Sal Paradise]

"That scene is really big for people our age still. "

Is it really ?

Percentage wise? There are 27 million americans between 18-25 ,,,,,one percent would be over 1/4 million people!

 

[MES]

Hey Rod and Sal

I hear you guys.
Parenting styles and children's presonalities differ. What works for one will fail for the other.
You try and give each what they need.

but really, cleaning up the oil the kid spills in the driveway? He can't do that. at 19 it really isn't to much to ask that they pick up after themselves.

don't get my post wrong, I'm actually a very patient person, up until they won't help themselves and start expecting me to do it for them.
Then I got a problem.

Peace ya'll

 

[cynr1023]

I've showed my daughter how to change oil (with her handing me tools, which is a process because she can't tell the difference between a pair of pliers and an open-ended wrench), stuck her under her car and handed her wrenches telling her exactly what to do & how to do it. She still doesn't remember what size her oil drain plug is or what a socket is.

Shit happens. But I charge her for an oil change, she has to go get the stuff and she owes me lunch whenever I'm done with it.

 

[Kirkus51]

Interesting thread to read from a bachelor's viewpoint. I feel kids are successfully raised if they're not drug addicts or felons. I'm sure parents feel a generation gap somewhere in there. And there's no telling who's mechanically inclined in each generation. IMHO good judgement doesn't really kick in till you're close to 30 and even then????

My folks never turned a wrench in their lives and traded for new cars annually, but I used to put hands on most of my bikes, especially waay back when. Y'know when you popped the valve cover and there were adjustments you could do yourself with a couple of small wrenches, a feeler gauge and a screwdriver maybe. You needed to do this kind of stuff or you might be left beside the road if you didn't.

Today's engines are a mystery to me. I might be able to change oil and swap plugs out, but that's my limit. The rest is left to mechanics who plug in their diagnostics computer and replace whatever pieces need replacing. And of course they can go 100,000 miles without much of anything going wrong.

 

[tooblekain]

I couldn't agree with you more. I had a lot of my fraternity bros in college who couldn't wrench for shit.

I'm 28 now and I can wrench and diagnose pretty well.

When I was 19, I could wrench, but didn't know much about auto and motorcycle stuff as much as I do now.

However at 19, I knew only the basics...like oil change, brake pad change, tire change, battery change, etc. I couldn't diagnose car problems well at 19.

What my dad did differently was he made me do it and supervised me...and jumped in if I was about to do something wrong or if I was having difficulty. Maybe that should be your strategy this time instead of him having you just hand you tools. Maybe reverse the roles...hand him the tools and instruct him. If he has questions, ask questions back and make him think to exercise his critical thinking.

But also, thank goodness for today's day in age, you can always find an answer to your problems on forums. Its how I diagnosed my car's fuel pump was out.

 

[Sal Paradise]

Well I just took the oil filter off and it was super tight and has no rubber seal.The rubber seal is not there. Now, I personally took it out of the box and handed it to him. My theory is he tore it off because he thought he was supposed to. He will of course deny that and say "thats how it was" leaving me to ponder the astronomical odds that the one and only oil filter without a seal just happened to come off the assemby line and onto the shelves in time for his first self service oil change.

Thanks for the comments, and MES you are right but someday when you have 3 teenagers yourself you may understand why I say its easier to just do some things yourself.. a matterof personal survival after a while.. Life will have to teach those lessons I was too tired to give. But yeah, he will have to clean up what he spilled.

To the question of wrenching and generations, I think there is a big change but maybe its not all bad. For one thing, we used to speed and take chances that would get you thrown in prison now. Again, to take it out of one individual and put it in the context of generations - we used to take our bicyles apart, then we went to dirt bikes and to cars, with virtually no supervision. I think its because we didn'thave computers to mess with. Mechanics went out with shop class, and for a generation of men who just played on a screen, supervised by moms and dads...

 

[B06Tang]

To the question of wrenching and generations, I think there is a big change but maybe its not all bad. For one thing, we used to speed and take chances that would get you thrown in prison now. Again, to take it out of one individual and put it in the context of generations - we used to take our bicyles apart, then we went to dirt bikes and to cars, with virtually no supervision. I think its because we didn'thave computers to mess with. Mechanics went out with shop class, and for a generation of men who just played on a screen, supervised by moms and dads...

I agree...times are changing and through this, so are differences with how we used to doing things. The internet and forums have a good/bad dilemma to them in my opinion. For example, if I get stumped on something then it is fantastic because the vast majority of times I can look something up and get the answer. With that said though, it is a different dynamic if you do not have the background to begin with. I remember working on my own bikes when I raced moto as a kid...it was really tough in the beginning because you had to figure everything out. If you were lucky, then there was someone you knew that had a strong knowledge base so you would pick their brain. It was incredibly frustrating at times but looking back, I also learned a lot because I was forced to go through something step by step and figure it out. That is the part that the fast referencing and looking things up in the technological age strips away.

I am an avid guitar player and Jimmy Page is one of my favorites. I was reading a really good interview with him about a year ago where he was slamming the quality of guitar playing largely due to the conveniences of technological advances that essentially has made people lazy. You can go out and buy a pretty decent digital 8 track recorder for less than $300 and with it is a mad amount of dubbing, overlapping and special effects that comes with it. All you really need to do is play a couple of measures of a song for the rhythm part and then loop the shit out of it and voila...the song is done. This is what Page was slamming and contributes this aspect to why the quality of live performances has been dropping. Page was a studio musician before the Yardbirds and long before Zep. Back then, everything was analog and recorded on tape. In other words, he had to zero in on his playing and get it right for however long the session went on for because they didn't have the luxury of doctoring the master reel. Because of this, these guys turned into incredible players that gave them an impressive playing vocabulary. This also allowed them to mix solos and bridges up during live shows and giving the audience a different taste of what could be done with a song. A person breaks their low E string in the middle of a song today and they have to shut the song down and have a roadie come to the rescue. The convenience factor strips away the hard work that has to be done sometimes and all the things you learn from it during the process. I know this thread originally started with an oil change but I do think there are a lot of similarities with this.

 

[sweatmachine]

I taught myself how to wrench...in my 20s.

 

[Motley]

It's not a generational thing Sal. My nineteen year old son is doing all the wrenching on the "beater" pickup he bought with his own cash. He maintains his own bikes (he races hare scrambles). This Christmas past we bought him his own tools and tool cabinet.

However, don't ask me about my seventeen year old boy.

 

[T-boy]

My dad didn't know a wrench from a screwdriver. I do know the difference, but that's about it. I'll always try to do something myself and if I f-up I learn something from it. If it's too complicated I'll let the professionals handle it. Sure, I wish I was a backyard mechanic, but I'm not.

Sal...Maybe if you turned the oil change into a video game your son would have it done in no time, and done it right. Seems kids today are pretty good at games and using a cell phone.

 

[thearcticsea]

The generational thing holds no water for me.

This is the important part: The popularity of motorsports all boils down to the types of machines companies are producing.

The reason people aren't into "wrenching" isn't because the're young and lazy. It's because the most popular cars in America are Honda Accords, Toyota Camrys, and Toyota Corollas.

Now these are fine cars, but they're not quite inspiring.

For a person to get into motorsports, be interested in learning about a machine and how to improve it, and love the machine, the vehicle needs to be inspiring. No one is going to look at a Camry and say "I fucking love this motor." It just doesn't happen.

You need a motorcycle, a car, a truck, that speaks to the heart and soul of a person before they'll feel the kind of passion that makes a man "wrench".

How do you expect your kid to love a car that makes him feel nothing? Hypothetically give the kid for christmas a Corvette, a Mustang, a Nissan Skyline, a BMW Z4, and see what happens. He'll be cleaning, waxing, putting on carbon fiber bits, investigating better wheels and tires, changing suspension, etc., all day long.

In short : He'd love a car that was designed and built with passion, and that love would inspire him to explore it, learn it, work it, maintain it, improve it, etc.

 

[DandyDoug]

Sal, as a parent of two girls I can understand some of your frustration. I try to not pass judgement on other peoples parenting skills and I'm sure you do the same.
Sadly I think you are correct, the what ever you call it generation is not inclined to do anything that requires getting their hands dirty, or repair anything mechanical.
Some kids get it and others do not. Our generation had to repair and maintain to get around. We mostly had little or no money and our parents usually had less. Times are different now, kids have money and are hooked on electronic stuff at an early age.
My neighbor has two daughters, one is 16 the other 14. Poor Jake is so lost trying to deal with these two girls it's sometimes funny and sad at the same moment. The 16 yr old has some mechanical ability and interest, she checks the oil and keeps the second family car clean. The 14 yr old only is interested in electronic devices and I am convinced will develop carpel tunnel thumb from texting all day long. LOL