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-   -   Courtship with the Renault Duster RxZ (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/125576-courtship-renault-duster-rxz-6.html)

Wow 80 liters !!! , now that is some serious amount of fuel .
So if someone is looking for highway trip with a duster, thinking about bad fuel in the highways is out of the window now .
Just fill full tank from a CoCo pump and that's it ,superb man .
Cheers

Done with my third trip to Sikkim, the Duster sailed fine apart from the door noise and a constant noise coming from the front dash.
Trying to finish a Travelogue, hopefully will finish it by this week.



Now for the current part- felt my Duster was reborn today.
FREE from all niggles and noise.

Without music, it was practically impossible to drive, such was the noise in all the doors, and plastic rubbing plastic type of noise from the dash.
At the back of my mind, knew the noise was not a major issue and I knew where I had to go. The service center was not in my mind.
I know a person in park circus who is just fantastic in this area.

Took the car to him today, asked him to remove all door pads, search and destroy all noise, so he did with fantastic accuracy.

Simple yet very important, the doors need to be tight.
Flat rubber buttons, no contact with the door. Hence the door rattles when on uneven road.



Replaced with these. This button prevents the door from closing easily, grip on the lock tightens.
This button was longer, cut to size. Applied grease and closed the door to check the amount of contact and pressure.
If its much longer, the doors would need much pressure to close.



Another noise that came from the doors are the audio clips that holds the speakers.
Tightened them with pliers and slipped into location and then the door gets a poor man's noise kill.
Qui foam cut to size and pasted.



The entire sound of the door CHANGES. The flimsy sound of closing changes to a thud. :D

Noise coming from the dash? Think again. It came from the front left and right fender location.
Just open this screw, put some qui foam on the clip that locks this plastic part.




The test drive, I was ecstatic. So much so, from 10 am to 4pm, the mech charged me Rs600/-, I gave him Rs800/-
It is absolutely noise free now, my Duster glides to potholes once again without a rattle. I am loving it

Unlike the rear door where the rubber bullet button was fixed on the body of the car, the front doors were done on the door itself.

Height of the rubber bullet buttons
Front doors (attached on the doors): 16mm
Rear doors (attached on the body): 19mm (see pic above)

Is this for real???
Amazing. But why dont they publicize it?

I would still tend to some amount of scepticism on such a high fuel tank capacity...

Himadri..... You are a God send. That's quite an exhaustive noise damping effort that you have put there. The icing is that it cost you just Rs.800/- I just hope this is not some 1st of April prank that you are trying to pull:D

Now, I too am heading to any local guy in Chennai for my Duster's surgery. I dont have much rattles on my Duster, but the one part where you mentioned that the door gets a resounding thud (heavy feel) to it is making me very itchy to do the same to my ride.
Have these modifications made a permanent rattle free feel to your ride or have the sounds started to appear again. Do keep us posted
Cheers.

Awesome job, himadrimondal! If only Renault did this kind of detailed work when they build the vehicle! You should post the link to your work above on their Facebook page.

Wow its really shocking to hear that there were so many rattles that you needed the music system to muffle it. Renault is asking a premium for this vehicle and I hoped at least the basics should have been taken care of.

Good you got it sorted out but I wonder about people who cant.

Shankar Sir, I am absolutely sure about the 70 plus liters.
Couple of weeks back, I had pushed in 72L. To check the exact capacity,
one needs to drain the reserve, I don't have the guts to do it while on the move.

Its no prank, this actually happened and I drove 100 kms after that without a sound.
Sound is going to appear again? I don't think so.
There was no part of the door left un-turned or checked for sound.
Every part of the door was banged with the fist for any kind of vibration and attended to.
With the mods done, I am sure you would hear the thud too.:D

Thanks Teacher, facebook posting is not a bad idea.

Tazmaan, I would still say its a fantastic car.
For those who can't sort it out, Team Bhp is there to help.

The Yeti's publicized Tank Capacity is exactly what it has. No more, no less.

Today I filled in a full to the brim tank and it took in 48 litres. Which means I had only 12 in reserve and I knew that since the Fuel warning light started blinking this morning.

With ref to Sound deadening on your Duster, our pal Mr Ampere has done a fantastic job on his Duster. You can take some good tips from him if you wish to.

Cheerio

So my car was rattle free till the first service. Something the service guys did and the rattles started. A rattle form the right front door and another from the boot. The boot rattle was just the jack and some extra nuts not placed properly...easy fix. The other rattle the door, is not a loud rattle. It is very faint and the passenger cannot even hear it. It is only very close to the driver and sounds as if it coming from right behind your ear. It is more of a minor irritant than a loud noise. I would compare the feeling of a mosquito buzzing around your ear. It is not loud, but it sounds like something that you could easily do without. Also want to stress that everything else in the car is niggle free. It is just this issue.

That's some very useful info on fixing the door rattles (although my Duster has not yet developed door rattles, I would prefer to go in go these as a precautionary measure)!

- My Duster has remained rattle-free after the rear area rattle fixes described here:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/offici...ml#post3072176

Just a couple of Q's -
-Where did you source those rubber bullet buttons?
- Could you explain where that fender part location is? Perhaps a pic zoomed out a little to show the location of the part?
EDIT - got it now - its that portion where the bonnet hinge is attached to the frame at the base of the windshield!

You are absolutely right on the fuel tank capacity - its much higher than the specified 50 l (though I wonder why?)

Thanks for that very useful info!:thumbs up

You bet it is. Even i have to keep the music on to prevent embarrasing discusions about my much prized possesion when my colleagues are sitting in my car (We do car pool). :Frustrati

Thank you these inputs are helping me a lot. I am looking at an SUV 5 seater because I already have the Innova. Duster is on the top most list along with the safari storme. The only reason I want a duster is it will be niggle free, but now looking at the storme reviews and the pros of storme like more space, higher sitting lower cost, I am in two minds. Oh yes the ecosport has an outside chance.

I have an Innova do handling like sedan and all is not needed, SUV is my need (read want) and I dont expect it to handle like a sedan.

Adding on to Himadri's point, when upgrading the music system one can also damp the doors from inner and outer linings. That gives the doors a thud like feel and can reduce the rattle in a significant manner.

The damping should not just be around the speaker installation alone, but the whole of the door (both inner and outer lining).

Thanks Shankar Sir and Amitdan for the comments.
I would say Yeti is still a few clicks ahead of the Duster in this respect.
The only area where the Duster beats the Yeti is GC (reason why I took it), rest all either its same or the Yeti being ahead. Excluding the pricing.

You would get these is car parts shop, not the refined accessories shops in your locality but the shops in the wholesale market. Go for it and you would seal rattles for the life of your Duster.

I am sure the noise in your Duster was not very noticable to others, so was mine.
But we tend to pick them up at the faintest clicks and get tensed, irritated thinking what others would think hearing the same lol:

Tazmaan, if I were given an option of choosing between a 3 yr old Duster or a brand new Storme, I would pick the Duster.
I have driven, did almost everything that could be done inside two Safaris for extensive lengths of time.

Ended up selling the last one off with 20k on the odometer previous month.
If rattle in the Duster gets you frowning and concerned, wonder how you would feel after buying the Storme or for that matter any Indian Tata car.
Not comparing apples to grapes, if you still need a peace of mind buy a Bolero rather than Storme,
else make friendship with your Storme workshop mechanic.

I was never tensed about solving the so called rattles in the Duster, since I did a PHD solving real rattles in the Safari's.

You are absolutely correct boss. Infact I should have done that during the speaker upgrades.