My son is a knucklehead!

[ICeBlueMilkF82]

OMG,that was crazy

[P1]

I don't get it. The car is an automatic. How do you drive an automatic in 4th gear for 90 miles doing 75 miles per hour? Also, why would the son do this "because he was bored"? Is there a thrill I don't know about driving a car at 75 mph in fourth gear?

[GlobalScientist]

P1et: You see this is my frustration as a Dad. When he was young, he was accepted to the UN gifted program. All the tests he's taken indicated he had the potential to be a pure genius. He ended up taking up this free gifted program in downtown NYC, which was top notch. That said, which is my frustration, he doesn't really study to get B's and C's. All his teachers say if he put a little extra effort he would have all A's but he doesn't. Also, most of his B's could have been A's if he remembered to hand in things. He said he bases his grades on how much he likes his teacher and given education throughout the world, it's sometimes a hit or miss when it comes to teachers.

Even for a really good jock that does well in sports, he gets a "C" in gym because he doesn't come in with the "specified" clothing and equipment several times.

He is getting much better, so perhaps my influence will impact him more as he matures and realizes the value of things such as work and patience.

As far as 4th gear, we found out after the car got toasted that a good friend of his has a car that only apparently has 4 gears (according to her), so he must of thought it was okay to drive in 4th gear. That said, my wife look at his friend's car a few days ago and low and behold the automatic showed gears "1-2-3-4", but after my wife looked closely at the automatic gear box, his friend was really driving in "D" because the car was old and the gear indicators e.g. "that piece of paper that has 1-2-3-4-D" shifted down so that the D was hidden in the paneling, but she was really driving in D. Hope that makes sense?

[FC4]

You should have pulled out.

[chris719]

It would seem that the apple does not fall far from the tree.

[sygazelle]

Originally Posted by GlobalScientist

P1et: You see this is my frustration as a Dad. When he was young, he was accepted to the UN gifted program. All the tests he's taken indicated he had the potential to be a pure genius. He ended up taking up this free gifted program in downtown NYC, which was top notch. That said, which is my frustration, he doesn't really study to get B's and C's. All his teachers say if he put a little extra effort he would have all A's but he doesn't. Also, most of his B's could have been A's if he remembered to hand in things. He said he bases his grades on how much he likes his teacher and given education throughout the world, it's sometimes a hit or miss when it comes to teachers.

Even for a really good jock that does well in sports, he gets a "C" in gym because he doesn't come in with the "specified" clothing and equipment several times.

He is getting much better, so perhaps my influence will impact him more as he matures and realizes the value of things such as work and patience.

As far as 4th gear, we found out after the car got toasted that a good friend of his has a car that only apparently has 4 gears (according to her), so he must of thought it was okay to drive in 4th gear. That said, my wife look at his friend's car a few days ago and low and behold the automatic showed gears "1-2-3-4", but after my wife looked closely at the automatic gear box, his friend was really driving in "D" because the car was old and the gear indicators e.g. "that piece of paper that has 1-2-3-4-D" shifted down so that the D was hidden in the paneling, but she was really driving in D. Hope that makes sense?

I'll try this again. 4th gear on that car is .87 to one, similar to 7th gear in our 8AT transmissions. At 75 mph, the RPMs were in the range of 2600-2800 or so. This RPM in and of itself would not cause an engine to lose oil and melt. From a technical standpoint, I don't understand your fixation on his driving the car in 4th gear. Should he have checked the oil, sure. Did you teach him how and how often to check the oil? Are you even sure the oil was low when he started his journey? How do you know about the check engine light if you were not in the car with him? Maybe the old Volvo inconveniently just had its moment while your fine son was driving it. If you were driving that Volvo when the engine seized, I wonder if you would be going to social media to vent about your mistake.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by sygazelle

I'll try this again. 4th gear on that car is .87 to one, similar to 7th gear in our 8AT transmissions. At 75 mph, the RPMs were in the range of 2600-2800 or so. This RPM in and of itself would not cause an engine to lose oil and melt. From a technical standpoint, I don't understand your fixation on his driving the car in 4th gear. Should he have checked the oil, sure. Did you teach him how and how often to check the oil? Are you even sure the oil was low when he started his journey? How do you know about the check engine light if you were not in the car with him? Maybe the old Volvo inconveniently just had its moment while your fine son was driving it. If you were driving that Volvo when the engine seized, I wonder if you would be going to social media to vent about your mistake.

This.

OP, if you didn't teach your child how to operate an automobile properly then it's on you. Carefree and trouble free driving is not axiomatic; one must put energy into understanding the machine he is operating. Proper operation of an automobile is far much more than just driving and involves the care and feeding of the machine. If you didn't provide you son with the basics, how can you expect him to not burn the engine due to lack of oil.

[Ok]

Originally Posted by GlobalScientist

Okay, perhaps I'll feel differently tomorrow. My son drives 90 miles at 75 miles per hour in 4th gear (automatic) in a 2001 Volvo V70 wagon.

Car indicator light starts flashing and says stop immediately. After inspection and oil everywhere, he basically melted the engine, because he apparent drove the car with no oil in it - probably burning a good chunk of it running 75 mph in 4th gear.



After about 3k in service and 3.5k purchase, all down the tubes because he was bored. Also, he says, "I didn't know he needed to check the oil."



Sorry for venting, I still love him.

I know what you are going through . Kids these days are no different than when we were young, to much testosterone, always thinking with the wrong head.
A similar incident happen to me on Thursday.
My youngest son (20), thought that he could drive to the mechanic approximately 10km away from where he was with the car overheating, we'll to make a long story short he blew the radiator and the engine on the 2002 Mazda protégé 5, I got a quote from the mechanic 2k + for a used engine and a new rad.

[Gesler]

ruin father-son relationship because the father yells at the son?

WTH? is this a first world problem? I didn't realize such relationships are so fragile.

[Never_Enough]

Hope he has fun walking now.

[Chihuahua]

The best part of this thread is the "an knucklehead" in the title.

[GlobalScientist]

Originally Posted by Kyle B

The best part of this thread is the "an knucklehead" in the title.

Ah thanks! It was another word after "an" but it was admitted too harsh.

Fixed it, but can't fix you. (kidding)

No seriously, can't fix you.

[DJKapeesh]

Originally Posted by GlobalScientist

Okay, perhaps I'll feel differently tomorrow. My son drives 90 miles at 75 miles per hour in 4th gear (automatic) in a 2001 Volvo V70 wagon.

Car indicator light starts flashing and says stop immediately. After inspection and oil everywhere, he basically melted the engine, because he apparent drove the car with no oil in it - probably burning a good chunk of it running 75 mph in 4th gear.



After about 3k in service and 3.5k purchase, all down the tubes because he was bored. Also, he says, "I didn't know he needed to check the oil."



Sorry for venting, I still love him.

I had my first car for 2 weeks before my father took it from me for being irresponsible. That being said I learned part of my lesson.... Did some other stupid stuff in my fathers more expensive car because I was young and stupid.

Not sure how old your son is. Understanding that biologically boys brains are not fully developed until around 18-20 years old so expect this and it's not all our faults. It's biology sadly

Kind of like how men loose blood in their brains when they meet a woman they are attracted to making it very difficult to communicate effectively and essentially making us unwillingly stupid...

Hope this helps ease the pain and keep your guard up with your personal car.

[DJKapeesh]

Originally Posted by sygazelle

I'll try this again. 4th gear on that car is .87 to one, similar to 7th gear in our 8AT transmissions. At 75 mph, the RPMs were in the range of 2600-2800 or so. This RPM in and of itself would not cause an engine to lose oil and melt. From a technical standpoint, I don't understand your fixation on his driving the car in 4th gear. Should he have checked the oil, sure. Did you teach him how and how often to check the oil? Are you even sure the oil was low when he started his journey? How do you know about the check engine light if you were not in the car with him? Maybe the old Volvo inconveniently just had its moment while your fine son was driving it. If you were driving that Volvo when the engine seized, I wonder if you would be going to social media to vent about your mistake.

Let me tell the story about how I ran my fathers car through a Fence because I was driving on a back road (unpaved with rocks) that has a sharp turn near the bottom of a steep hill. Long story short I was doing about 60 and braking on a rock dirt road is not so great down hill in a heavy Lincoln LS. I ended up landing next to the cows in the pasture after breaking a rather large black fence with the front of the car.

People running down the hill to see what happened and possible get the insurance information call the cops ect. I reversed out immediately and drove away.

When I returned home my story was "A truck with black fencing on the back was driving in front of me and the fencing fell off the truck and hit me."

I say all this to say,
don't expect the story to make sense and you may never know the full story. But it is up to you as the parent to teach a lesson from this through your own way of communication. I am by no means a father or experienced enough to offer advice for you, but I can try to give some insight into the mind of a teenager.

[carzaddict]

this kind of sounds like a case of bad parenting to me. you should have taught him to be a car guy

[mlifxs]

Only thing I can add to this is I'm married to an adult who's very responsible, yet I quietly keep tabs on her car maintenance, even though it's not my official job to do so. It's just easier that way.

[M3Bimmer77]

Once and for all, take the blame. The kid needs to be thought about simple things. Really sorry to tell you but you are the only one to be blamed for this. Take it as a lesson to start teaching him things that could be so obvious to you. My .2

[1smokehouse]

"It is a statistical certainty that there is someone out there in the planet who considers you an idiot. That person doesn't matter, of course -- he's an idiot." - Urban Dictionary

I think we all can check the ID10T box on the life application form. And we are all capable of losing it when it affects us directly. While posting on the web in a forum of strangers is not always wise, it will always garner enough negative feedback to provide an opportunity to change...

[csu87]

Man a lot of sensitivity in this thread. My dad called me dumb when I did dumb things and it didnt make me hate him. It made me want to not do dumb things so he wouldnt be as disappointed. And I definitely didnt make the same mistakes multiple times because of it.

No wonder everyone has to be so PC nowadays. Being called dumb/stupid/idiot by your Father apparently has ruined the lives of everyone.

[Jashley73]

Originally Posted by csu87

Man a lot of sensitivity in this thread. My dad called me dumb when I did dumb things and it didnt make me hate him. It made me want to not do dumb things so he wouldnt be as disappointed. And I definitely didnt make the same mistakes multiple times because of it.

No wonder everyone has to be so PC nowadays. Being called dumb/stupid/idiot by your Father apparently has ruined the lives of everyone.

Quite the opposite for me. My dad was a grouch, but I'm thankful that he never called "ME" an idiot, even though he wouldn't hesitate to tell me that I was "BEING" stupid, or "DOING" something stupid. Trust me, I gave my parents PLENTY of opportunities to call me stupid, but I honestly can't recall a single event where they had used any insults...

[GlobalScientist]

"The big problem this country has is being politically correct. I don't have time for political correctness." -Donald Trump.

[csu87]

Originally Posted by Jashley73

Quite the opposite for me. My dad was a grouch, but I'm thankful that he never called "ME" an idiot, even though he wouldn't hesitate to tell me that I was "BEING" stupid, or "DOING" something stupid. Trust me, I gave my parents PLENTY of opportunities to call me stupid, but I honestly can't recall a single event where they had used any insults...

Some people can't handle it and that's ok.