[pratyaksh]

Originally Posted by Tgo

The rails on the roof (factory fitted) are rated till 50 kg. Subtract the weight of the box and the cross bars and you can place 35kg in the box.

Mate, thank you for your inputs once again. Here is a link of a bag I found being used by many, even some German reviewers are listed on Amazon who think it is an amazing accessory. Found a review of a guy using it on a Duster (in India) who says the roof sheet metal is rated to 80kgs and he's used it extensively. Please advise again if this is a viable option. I could use this with a roof mat at a fraction of the cost but obviously don't want to scratch anything. Looks like if it isn't full, the luggage will move around quite a bit.
AmazonBasics Rooftop Car Carrier Bag, Black, 15 Cubic Feet https://www.amazon.in/dp/B072ZHRDMZ/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_7YW7TJCSY5GFSTFN52EQ?_en coding=UTF8&psc=1

[Tgo]

Originally Posted by pratyaksh

I could use this with a roof mat at a fraction of the cost but obviously don't want to scratch anything. Looks like if it isn't full, the luggage will move around quite a bit.

Have seen a lot of people use these and finding them very practical for the limited use these carrier bags would see. Very cost effective too. But, useful only when it is full enough to hold its shape.

Regarding loading on the roof, you would have to place it in the section where only the middle of the bag would be supported by B-pillar cross beam. Fore and aft of the bag would weigh down on unsupported sheet metal of the roof.

Note: I have had the roof get minor dings due to monkeys making a ruckus and using the car as a platform to descend from trees, a heavy bag could do more damage than that.

[pratyaksh]

Originally Posted by Tgo

I have tried two variants of the Michelins. Primacy on the 2WD and LTX Force on the AWD. Both have exceeded my expectations. Will always buy this brand unless there is a shortage. I heard the dealers have started re-stocking, but you will have to see if the sizes are available. Continental and Goodyear are on my list for the next tyre change if I cannot find Michelins.

Got 4 new Conti LTX2s (215/65R16) for the Duster. The ride quality has significantly improved. Regret not changing the tyres earlier. There is a massive difference from factory fitted MRF Wanderers. Have been driving on these for a week, and took a 600km roundtrip as well.
Post change- there was significant vibration - dealer friend feels the OEM rims are not strong/good quality and have taken a beating on broken roads. I have tried some permutations by rotating the most unstable rims to the back after balancing the tyres with 100s of grams although only a matter of time before new ones will be required.
Have checked with Autopsyche they have only Lenso rims retailing at about 13000 to 14000 a piece. The tyres already costed 8800/-, and now another big ticket expense seems to be on the horizon.
Delaying the purchase of the rims as much as possible. Will keep updating here.

[Tgo]

White One (2WD) - 9 Years Up! & Front Suspension Overhaul

In August this year, we all were to meet up in Jaipur to celebrate my mom's 60th Birthday. We decided to head to the rustic yet luxurious Ramathara Fort in Karauli district of Rajasthan and had a superb time away from home. We took the White Duster and my brother's Nexon out on this trip.

Ramathara Fort | Karauli, Rajasthan

For those of you who do not know, Karauli is geographically situated in between the Aravali and Vindhya mountain ranges and the topography is similar to a plateau with little creeks and rivers making their way through the soft sandstone. We were lucky enough to visit the region while the monsoon showers were still under way and the otherwise arid region's vegetation had a healthy shade of green. Even managed to spot a wolf in the wild.

Visit to the Kho (cavern) nearby

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQwHKw8rfpI

This also meant that driving the ageing Duster over the rocky terrain highlighted the need for impending suspension work. While it handled everything with ease, the suspension was rattling crazily while we were traversing such terrains...

https://youtu.be/Aq0_M697oXQ

I asked dad to hold on as I wanted to get this work done from the FNG at Ellenabad who refurbished the rear suspension on the Green One. I knew from Boodmo.com that taking it to Renault would cost close to INR 30K as most of the ball joints had seen more than 200K km thus far and would need an outright replacement.

Got this job done in October for a sum of INR 12,000/- and in under 4 hours.

The suspension related abnormal NVH issues are sorted now. The front shock absorbers which were replaced at around 170K are holding good and did not need any attention. I am assured a 40K km of trouble free ownership on the suspension front for now. But with the new suspension components, the ageing engine mounts have become the obvious thing to focus on next. On discussing with the FNG he suggested changing only the left top mount from a Sunny, but I wasn't quite going the partial replacement way (1 out of 3 mounts). Enquired with Renault and they quoted INR 30K + labour for the mounts and a long lead time on the gen-1 Duster parts. So I am on the look-out for options.

The car has clocked fewer miles than usual as with me moving to Canada in October, Dad has both the cars to cycle through now. This one also gets passed around family and close friends of Dad's for things like wedding duties or a short outstation trip or two. The Green one also had its 130K service in July and is out on a trip to the forests in Uttar Pradesh. Updates on that one are coming soon...

And yes, last month it reached another milestone in its ownership.


|A pretty picture to sum up 9 years and ~ 205,000 km|

[vasanthn21]

Wow, 2lakh kms on the odo! That is amazing. I have always been a fan of the Duster for its looks yes, but primarily for the suspension and the magic carpet ride. This is one well maintained Duster. From a distance, it does not look like a vehicle with 2 lakh kms under its belt!

[Tgo]

Green One - 130K Service

Since the last update in June, this car saw a fair amount of highways bringing up 10K within 6 months! That's pre-pandemic scenario. I did a solo trip to Jaipur and back in July and the monsoons were beginning in this part of the country.

Monsoon driving with light showers.

Soon after made an impromptu plan to meet the parents at Bharatpur over a weekend for birding. I left in the evening to reach by night. Spent the night at the FRH and went for an early morning stroll into the park. We parted ways after lunch with the parents heading back to Jaipur and my wife and I back to Auraiya.

Clouds building up and what a season full of rain it was.


Taking a stroll through Keoladeo National Park. | Bharatpur, RJ

Soon after this trip, as if something was jinxing up, I discovered a slight mist on the inside of all the glasses in the car every morning. Attributing it to the humid weather, I decided to ignore it. Two days later, I started smelling something weird in the car along with the mist. A week later, I found that a bag that I had kept behind the passenger seat was a little wet. To my horror I found the carpet completely soaked! Luckily, I was able to dry it out by dabbing it dry with a microfiber towel. It took me 2 hours to do it to my satisfaction and I think I must have soaked out about 1.5 Ltr of water.

A few days later it pours down quite scarily and I forgot to park the car in the shed. The first thing I checked after this episode was the carpet again and here is what I found...





So the water was getting in from the outer window sill filling up in the door and then somehow it was not draining quickly enough and overflowing into the cabin. This became quite an issue of concern which I wanted to get attended ASAP but there was still some time to go before hitting 130K on the ODO.

In August we had planned two trips to Delhi. The second one led us onward to Jaipur which is when I sent the car in for service. Requested the following jobs to be taken care of:

• Leak from the rear left door
• Gearbox oil replacement
• Differential oil replacement
• adjust the wheel arch cladding as it was peeling off in one corner
• repaint the bonnet hinges since it was not done correctly
• replace the missing AC gas charging valve cap
• replace front brake pads

I was told that they will need to remove and dry out the carpet. Open the door trim from suspect door. and find if the drain is choked. They found that along with a choked drain, the plastic sheet which is stuck onto the door was not sealed properly. The just had to use a body sealant (silicone kind) to re-fix that sheet correctly. I really thank them for diagnosing it correctly.

I gave them the go ahead for interior enrichment too since my SA has been suggesting it since the last 3 years . Moreover, it would help remove any residual stink from the water logging.

There is a thread doing rounds here where people suspect water entering from the A-pillar under the bonnet and the some kind of LHD/RHD market specification mix-up which led to Indian version not having a particular rubber washer which lets the water in the chassis and it comes out from where I saw it. MYTH-BUSTED!

I was informed that the rear brake shoe on the LHS wheel had the liner separating form it and it could lead to jamming up the brakes if it breaks loose. Got it done without arguing as people have faced these issues on the AWD.

I got the front brake pads replaced this time and the discs were good for more. This is the longest the discs have lasted for me. I got them replaced along with new pads at 90K. If all goes well, I think I can eek out another 20K on these discs.

Along with the usual fluids and filters, this service cost me INR 26,600/- and with a cautionary note that front shocks are showing some signs of a leak. Will send it to the FNG for the suspension work, if I have to.

The tyres, Michelin LTX Force were installed at 92K km and are good for another 8-10K. The are the longest lasting set I have had on the car. Other brands being MRF Wanderer Sprot and Yokohama Geolandar SUV. Thinking of trying out Goodyear / Continental next time.

Have updated the ownership cost stats and the expenditure chart.

September too was busy resigning from work, winding up the house, making travel arrangements to moving to a different country, but it too had a few road trips in store. Did a Delhi-Chandigarh-Shimla trip with the in-laws. The Duster was happy to stretch its legs, fresh after its service.

However, we parked the Duster in Delhi and proceeded to Chandigarh in a Harrier. Frist-things-first, I have never sat in such a BLACK car. This thing looks badass. It was the top end automatic version owned by a relative, a first time car buyer, a first time car driver.

My comments on the Harrier?? Well, lets just say that I now understand why people with the means replace their cars in 5-7 years. There are so many things to like about the harrier over the Duster - street presence, comfort, space, freshness, powertrain.
No changes happening anytime soon though.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Correction on the White One. The car has crossed the 210,000 km mark! Unfortunately, with so much going on, I do not have the details of the 210K km service and reported the wrong ODO reading in my last post.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Combined Odo reading: ~ 3,46,500 km

[starke]

Hey, happy to see your Duster munching miles It also gives me confidence keep my Terrano further

Originally Posted by Tgo

So the water was getting in from the outer window sill filling up in the door and then somehow it was not draining quickly enough and overflowing into the cabin.

This is a common issue it seems and I've seen this among our Terrano owner's community also.

Around 4 months ago, I had similar issue and SVC initially quoted around 2 to 3k to do the sealant, but I refused since I have some good experience with silicon sealant in my work. Just bought a bottle of black silicon worth 180 RS + 2 hours of my time fixed the issue

[AntPaul]

The leak problem is a duster design flaw. I am living with leaking rear doors(both side) for one year in my 2013 Duster. A$$ in Bangalore insists on changing the rubber beadings. They cant be bothered to remove and diagnose the issue.

There can be 2 issues:
1) The weirdly designed rubber cap on drain can be blocked. But this is not the case of the leak, but only accelerates the leaks.
2) The outside weather strip(the rubber strip that pushes against the window glass) channels rain water to the edge where there can be a small gap that will allow some water inside the door. Water drips though the window glass's channel and falls to the 'sun shade' in the door inside plastic panel(door pad?) above the rear speaker, and if the sealing between the door pad and metal is not perfect, water enters the cabin.

3rd gen duster(when ATM transmission was introduced) onwards, the weather strip has a slope(vertical) without the channel(horizontal) to let water flow down onto the body instead of flowing to the edge of the glass.

@starke,

Did you apply silicone sealant between the plastic panel and doors metal body? Will the door pad be removable after this?
Also, shouldn't there be a thin plastic sheet between the door and the door pad? I have seen it in my esteem and 800 for which I used to open the door pad for DIYs.

My brother has a 2014 Terrano which does not have this issue.


Thanks,
Antony

[starke]

Originally Posted by AntPaul

@starke,

Did you apply silicone sealant between the plastic panel and doors metal body? Will the door pad be removable after this?
Also, shouldn't there be a thin plastic sheet between the door and the door pad? I have seen it in my esteem and 800 for which I used to open the door pad for DIYs.

My brother has a 2014 Terrano which does not have this issue.


Thanks,
Antony

Hi Antony,

I applied the silicon sealant between the plastic panel and the metal body as I found the leak was coming out from the bottom of the both. Already you could some remains of the stock sealant which I guess gets wear after some time.

Regarding the thin sheet film which I also used to see in other cars is missing here (May be a cost cutting deletion ? )

Ofcourse the door pad can be removed later, but at the cost of torn sealant. So will have to re-apply the sealant if it is removed

The root cause of this leakage should not be the sealant, but where the source of water ingress which points to the rubber beading of the window glass panel. I did re-pressed all the C shaped rubber beading to avoid gaps and I didn't had no problem further.

Also just a wild guess from my side is , those who once removed the plastic panel to install the speaker or for something else will actually break the stock sealant inturn causing water to splash out to the rear passenger side.

[Tgo]

Thats so true. But if its the stock speaker size it should be doable without removing the panel. Anything with damping, door lock adjustment or bigger speakers et can cause the factory sealant to be removed.

I guess the plastic sheet should be there. If it isn’t then a new sheet should be installed. I didn’t check with my SA on what he did about the sheet.

[AntPaul]

This is how rear footwell gets flooded after a heavy shower if parked outdoor. There is a big puddle under the mat. There is a very small steady steam of water coming from below the speaker grille.

The chrome insert in the gear knob had deteriorated badly and was becoming an eyesore. and I replaced it with a cheap one another one sourced from amazon. The cheap aftermarket gear knob was poorly finished with rough edges edges and was very light weight (the oem knob is quite heavy, i am sure it has some metal ballast). The light knob does not feel nice in hand when shifting gear. So only swapped out the silver bit. The new one is finished in matte finish and its silver painted. These pictures are after swapping out only the silver bit between the two knobs.

[Ramkumar7]

I am surprised with the tyres of my duster after reading all your posts. My Renault Duster is a 2017 model and has run 101,000 km till now. It came with Apollo Apterra tyres and I am yet to change these tyres. Though the tyres of all my previous cars have given a life of only 40,000-60,000 km, this particular set of tyres are giving a life of >100,000 kms. I frequently drive and my monthly run rate is around 2000 kms. But as I have a 110 PS with cruise control, I prefer putting the cruise on during long drives, with the speed set at 90-100 km. May be, that is one of the reasons for this splendid life of the tyres.

[Tgo]

Originally Posted by Ramkumar7

this particular set of tyres are giving a life of >100,000 kms. I frequently drive and my monthly run rate is around 2000 kms. But as I have a 110 PS with cruise control, I prefer putting the cruise on during long drives, with the speed set at 90-100 km. May be, that is one of the reasons for this splendid life of the tyres.

Are you following 5 wheel tyre rotation?
I cannot do that since I have 4 alloys and the spare tyre is a steel rim.

I don’t think the cruise control has anything to do with it. It comes down to your driving style and the kind of roads you drive on. Can you share the picture of the tyres after 1Lac km?

I am curious to know what life you got on the brake pads and discs? That’s a weak point of the Duster.

[Ramkumar7]

Hi Tgo, I do not follow the 5 wheel rotation. I only follow the running 4 wheels rotation. I also have the standard 4 alloy and one steel wheel, as supplied by the OEM.
The tread left in the tyres after a 101,000 km run is still sufficient for another 10,000 km, as per the Renault service guy. I have uploaded the photos of the present condition of tyres after 101,000 run. The sequence is the first two are front tyres and the next two photos are back side tyres.

The Renault service in Trichy checked the brakes during 90k service and informed that it can run for another 10k. Now, in the 100,000 km service, they said that it can run another 5000 km. I have not replaced the brakes till now.
I mostly drive on highways on the Bangalore-Madurai-Trichy-Chennai circuit, where the roads are excellent. That could be one reason for the good life of tyres

[mav3r1ckblu3]

Originally Posted by Ramkumar7

Hi Tgo, I do not follow the 5 wheel rotation. I only follow the running 4 wheels rotation. I also have the standard 4 alloy and one steel wheel, as supplied by the OEM.
The tread left in the tyres after a 101,000 km run is still sufficient for another 10,000 km, as per the Renault service guy. I have uploaded the photos of the present condition of tyres after 101,000 run. The sequence is the first two are front tyres and the next two photos are back side tyres.

The Renault service in Trichy checked the brakes during 90k service and informed that it can run for another 10k. Now, in the 100,000 km service, they said that it can run another 5000 km. I have not replaced the brakes till now.
I mostly drive on highways on the Bangalore-Madurai-Trichy-Chennai circuit, where the roads are excellent. That could be one reason for the good life of tyres

You must change the tyres, please don't go by what the service centre guy says about them. In the second pic, you can clearly see the tyre has worn upto the level of the tread wear indicator. Another 10K KM's at the risk of passenger safety is not worth IMHO.