u/AndyTheEngr

I cycled from Heathrow and did a couple of 50 mile days.

My son lives in Saint Paul and I'm visiting. Whether getting around by car or bike, Google maps seems to have NO CLUE about road closures/construction. I keep being told to turn onto roads that have clearly been closed for over a week. 7th Avenue East, Arcade, Earl, what gives? Is there broken communication? Every other city I've ever been to, Google just seems to know.

My wife has the plug-in hybrid Escape with the 2.5-liter iVCT four cylinder. We bought it used about a year ago, and it currently has just over 50k miles.

The vast majority of her driving is electric, as she only has a short work commute, and if the battery is fully charged it can get us anywhere within town and back. However, on long trips it of course uses the motor. That's when the CEL comes on, sometimes in a couple of hundred miles, but occasionally it will go 500+ miles without issue. If the battery is empty when that happens, it can go into limp mode and we find ourselves on the shoulder of the highway going 35 MPH to the next exit. Now we try to not let it drop below 15 miles of EV range on long trips.

The code P1061 apparently indicates a critical internal engine fault, specifically relating to a failing connecting rod bearing. I certainly can't hear knock, but she claims the engine sounds different to her when it happens.

We have been clearing the code with a scan tool so we can get where we're going, but it's a source of frustration and worry for sure. The first time it happened, we took it to the dealer after the trip, but they told us that since the code was no longer present there was nothing they could do.

We just did a trip from Illinois to Idaho and back, and it made it all the way out there with no issue, but on the way back it probably did it ten times. It seemed to happen more often at high elevation. This weekend she purposely spent a lot of time flooring it in non-EV mode until she managed to trip the code, then left it at the dealership, who looked at it today. Basically they still couldn't do anything. The attached photo is from that visit.

My understanding is that this car already had the one-time engine replacement for this issue before we bought it, but that should have a ten year warranty on it. Oil and coolant levels are good, and oil was recently changed.

Is this more likely the sensor, or could this be real engine damage. If I changed the oil from 0W-20 to 5W-30, could that help? Any other suggestions welcome.

Last Tuesday my wife and I were in Yellowstone, and I rode Bunsen Peak Road. On the map, we rode the easier yellow section together, then she turned around and I finished the loop on the blue road.

It was a great ride, with some quite difficult climbing. I walked one hill. The entire route is at over 6200 ft (1890 m) elevation, with a total of over 1250 ft (380 m) climbing in under 10 miles.

The right road was hard to find at the northern trailhead, and I took a couple of wrong turns, mostly due to construction. I'm not sure if riding on the service road was actually legal, but I passed one park worker in a truck and asked if I was on the right road and he said yes.

Overall it was just under two hours elapsed time, about 1:24 moving time for an average of just 7 MPH. Such beautiful scenery, though!

You'd be better off with suspension, but my gravel bike with 48 mm tires did okay.

Edit: sorry for my mug being the first photo, they're all in reverse of the order I selected them on my phone.

A quick smoke today on my YS480S. My wife asked me to do something with a top round and bottom round. Covered in steak seasoning then a garlic/rosemary/thyme butter. Under two hours at 225 °F until the center hit 130 °F, tented 20 minutes, cranked the Yoder up to 500 °F and spent a few minutes browning up the outsides. Sliced as thin as I could manage.

The outside pieces are maybe a little dry, but they are still an easy chew. The centers are fantastic. I saved all the juices for a dip/sauce.

There were four of us. We camped every night, mostly state parks. It wasn't a 100% gravel tour, but there was plenty of gravel and hills.

This part of the state is beautiful!