[::CMS::]

To add to the above post, after remapping, the dog is more sensitive to food. It shows laziness (relative) if the food is bad. For a change, I tried a full tank from the bunk near to Cosmos Mall, whitefield before going to Ooty. The above review was based on that food and the efficiency was 16.1km/l.
On returning, I went back to my usual COCO bunk near Jayadeva Hospital. It was a day n night difference esp on the mileage, with one day city drive his efficiency got increased to 21.7km/l (route : ORR). Before the remap, it was showing ~17.8 - 18.1 with the same food.

[BUXX]

DETAILS MAAAAN !!!! this is just too thrilling a news

[::CMS::]

After one week of driving with the last map I got an idea where all I need improvement. The last map was a combination of the stock linearity in the 1st and second gear, but on flooring in 2nd a sudden burst of power, a holding back to the seat feeling was there which I am addicted to. Its literally a breeze to use in the city.

This weekend we had another session to tweak the map further to make it linear through out the rpms retaining the aggressiveness or the voilence. Moreover the NVH has improved a lot and is very silent now, with a feather touch it starts flying. Getting a consistent efficiency of 16.5 - 17.1 km/l in city with occassional A/C usage. I may get more if I drive him calmly. I will post more details of the current map in another post.

Also cleaned the Air Filter (DIY) and planning to do the brake bleeding by next weekend. In StageII, I will be doing some h/w mods, may limit it to K&N Filters / GreenCotton to get a more punch in the high gears and the early turbo spool.

For the time being I am attaching a few snaps of the BullDog from my last week's Ooty trip:

[r_devakumar]

The grill darkening gives an distinct and elegant look. Awesome.

[acroback]

Could you please share the details of the Map you used on your 85 PS Duster?
Source? Pricing? What happens to warranty?

Congrats on car and ECU map. Have a good time with it.

[Utopian]

OMG! The grille job has been done awesomely. It adds the right dose of subtleness the car needs after the chrome inundation.
Never knew that the RxL(O) had alloy wheels. Also, how much did you cough up for the remap? Does the equation RxL(O)85 +Remap>>RxZ 110 works well economically as well as for the power.

[razor4077]

Great mods. What's the pocket pinch for the remap? And just to clarify, it doesn't impact the ease of driving in the city (less clutch usage etc)?

Love the cosmetic mods you've done. Raises the visual appeal significantly. I honestly felt that the smoked headlamps that were used on the original Dacia Duster were much better than these clear ones... wonder if these can be retro-fitted.
Would also look forward to your dashboard leather wrapping DIY!

[::CMS::]

Originally Posted by acroback

Could you please share the details of the Map you used on your 85 PS Duster?

Any specific questions? Currently its running at Stage I with 2nd Iteration map. In general, its an aggressive map esp. at 2nd, 3rd and 4th gears by retaining the city drivability.

Source? Pricing? What happens to warranty?

Source : CODE 6 Tuning (part of BAY 6 Engineering MotorWorks)

The map cant be detected by the expertise at any of the service centers unless there is a major warranty claim verification by the Renault Engineers. Even that also can be bypassed by flashing the stock map, i dont think they wont dig down till the ROM flash count in most cases. Most important factor is the contact with the service manager. I have a good rapo with them.

Originally Posted by Utopian

Never knew that the RxL(O) had alloy wheels.

Its part of the Optional Pack along with the Airbags, ABS+EBD etc

Does the equation RxL(O)85 +Remap>>RxZ 110 works well economically as well as for the power.

Originally Posted by razor4077

And just to clarify, it doesn't impact the ease of driving in the city (less clutch usage etc)?

My plan to settle for the 85PS instead of going for 110PS and thereby saving a 2L really worked out by remapping, ~20-25% improvement over the stock as of now. The main concentration was for the in-gear acceleration. As the top speed cannot be altered (common misconception), its achieved very fast after the remap ie., improved drivability in both city and highways. In simple words, now 110PS stock is very boring to drive.

I honestly felt that the smoked headlamps that were used on the original Dacia Duster were much better than these clear ones... wonder if these can be retro-fitted.

Its in the pipeline.

[anilntny]

Any update on your headlight smoking plan?I am also in the same route.
If I could figure out how to dismantle the headlight assembly,could have done with a can of matte black paint .

[::CMS::]

Its been a while I had updated this thread. Current ODO reading is ~24K kms. Its running smooth w/o any issues so far and giving 15.6 - 17.2 KM/L in city and 16.1 - 22.6 KM/L in highways (as per last week's Cochin Bangalore trip).

Following are the changes done during this time,

- Changed the air filter to K&N and it was a good upgrade for the remap as the immediate effect was observed in the throttle response in the higher gears.

- As part of the interior mods (dashboard and custom center console), I am getting the custom seat covers done next week at Imperial Leathers, eventhough I had paid the advance I am not getting time to go there.

Material : Faux Nappa Leather
Color Pattern : DarkBrown and Tangerine (inspired by the 2014 Land Rover LWB)
Stitch Pattern : Custom, but had to compromise a lot on my original design as they are not willing to do a lot of customization like adding extra foam inserts and also asking a very high premium for my design. So I had to redesign with the same padding they were using but with double padding. The design was inspired from the youtube videos of Merc ML350 and Buick Encore.

- Detailed using car polisher. More info in the following posts.

- Changed the driver seat frame under warranty due to some squeaking sound coming from inside the seat.

- Andrio IVI Headunit went through some design changes to include some car automation facilities (reason for the delay in its commercial launch). Will update the particular thread once complete.

Originally Posted by anilntny

Any update on your headlight smoking plan?I am also in the same route.
If I could figure out how to dismantle the headlight assembly,could have done with a can of matte black paint .

Its not in my first priority list as of now, a lot of other planned activities in the pipeline. Moreover I am not impressed with the blackened look of the HL which comes in the Adventure edition. As far as I understand its pretty easy to open up the HL assembly by using a baking oven or a heating gun.

[::CMS::]

I have been using the following detailing inventory (through a group buy in another forum) to maintain the Bull Dog:

- Meguiar's Nxt Gen Car wash (http://www.meguiars.co.in/product/187)
- Meguiar's Ultimate polish (http://www.meguiars.co.in/product/443)
- Meguiar's Nxt Gen paste wax (http://www.meguiars.co.in/product/208)
- Meguiar's APC (http://www.meguiars.co.in/product/283)
- Formula1 vinyl and leather clean and protect
- Meguiar's water magnet and 2 or 3 general MF cloths. (http://www.meguiars.co.in/product/246)

- JST Tools OEM Pressure washer (using once in 3 or 4 months to clean the underbody), not yet started for normal washing.

Recently I bought a china rotary polisher with 600-3000rpm (will check the correct rpm later). I tried it on some metal surfaces and its quite capable. Back plate thread size is M14. More info on the polisher in the next post.

Two weeks back, I added the following to my inventory:

- Meguiar's Mirror Glaze 105 Polishing compound (500ml Decanted) : 1600/- (http://www.meguiars.co.in/product/420)
- LakeCountry Blue \ Cyan correction / Hydro cutting pad (1Nos) : 1250/- (http://www.autogeek.net/vcpad.html)
- LakeCountry Orange \ Tangerine polishing / Hydro finishing pad (1Nos) : 1250/- (http://www.autogeek.net/vcpad.html)
- PROKLEAR RAW Xtreme Rinseless / Waterless Auto Wash Concentrate (250ml) : 550/- (http://www.ebay.in/itm/161324078272?...272%26_rdc%3D1)
- 2 x Generic blue OEM Clay bars from eBay.com (180gms x 2) for 420/- (http://www.ebay.com/itm/390727827056...056%26_rdc%3D1)

Last weekend was fully engaged with detailing the Bulldog. Following is the procedure followed:

- Washed with Megs shampoo using 2 bucket method
- Used Proklear in 1:1 ratio for tough tarspots, not all were gone,but cleared ~90%
- Clayed, used Amway shampoo in medium mix ratio as clay lubricant. The surface became butter smooth w/o any spots (assured using the plastic foil method)
- Megs 105 compound + LC Cyan cutting pad. Didnt require any scratch removal except 2 by a moron on bike couple of weeks back. Moreover I never allow any service center "detailer" to touch my car not even the washing guys, usually donates the washing amount during every service
- Megs Ultimate polish + LC Tangerine finishing pad. Later I will replace this with CarPro Reflect.
- 2 coats of Megs Nxt Gen Wax with a time interval of 12hrs. Later I will be using CarPro ReLoad + a Carnauba wax.

Following are some of the pics during the process:


Before Beading shots : Beading was not sharp at the edges.












Clayed to butter smooth:








Effect of Megs Ultimate Polish:














Crazy beading (small and sharp edged) after Megs UP and the Megs Nxt Gen Wax:

[::CMS::]

I opened the polisher to check the opportunity for any improvement esp the sound. Its pretty well built. The sweet part is that I had spent only 2300/- by using the 25% eBay coupon.

The main complaint with any normal polisher is the sound, its coming from both the motor and the metal parts that are touching esp the spindle teeth and the motor shaft. Eventhough there is enough grease in the housing, the spindle teeth doesnt have any, so I applied a generous amount of general purpose grease on it. Voila, there is a significant reduction in the overall grinding sound.

Following are some of the pics I took when I opened (Sorry for the bad quality pics):

[anilntny]

Originally Posted by ::CMS::

I opened the polisher to check the opportunity for any improvement esp the sound. Its pretty well built. The sweet part is that I had spent only 2300/- by using the 25% eBay coupon.

The main complaint with any normal polisher is the sound, its coming from both the motor and the metal parts that are touching esp the spindle teeth and the motor shaft. Eventhough there is enough grease in the housing, the spindle teeth doesnt have any, so I applied a generous amount of general purpose grease on it. Voila, there is a significant reduction in the overall grinding sound.

Following are some of the pics I took when I opened (Sorry for the bad quality pics):

Great work,I too have collected lots of detailing stuff overtime.But using them with hand, is a hard work.I wish to buy a polisher.How much does that cost? Where to buy?Thanks in advance.

[::CMS::]

Originally Posted by anilntny

Where to buy?

I bought the following polisher from eBay : http://www.ebay.in/itm/Car-Polisher-...2d503a9&_uhb=1

I wouldnt suggest you buy this one unless you have a good coupon to redeem. Instead of buying this at the listed price its better buy skil polisher (VFM) which is ~1500 more. I took the risk since I got it at a throw away price.

Just a caution before you jump into this pool, you need to expertise in handling a rotary before you try it on your car. I had my initial rotary classes on fridge, washing machine, oven and other household appliances. A small error on your car may need a repaint. I had been to youtube videos for about 1 or 2 week before using it. Also you need to read a lot and understand the machine detailing basics and about different materials to get the best results, its a never ending process of knowledge update which is fun.

[SaurabhSaran]

Originally Posted by ::CMS::

2 x Generic blue OEM Clay bars from eBay.com (180gms x 2) for 420/-

CMS, what is your feedback regarding this Clay Bar, I am thinking of buying it.

The cost of Blue OEM Clay Bar is very less as compared to other clay bars from popular brands, so just need your opinion as you have used it.


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