[suchit23]

Originally Posted by Maanspeedo

Dear Suchit23

Its a cliched question but Then I need to ask , I am confused between choosing 110/85 for Mumbai city daily drive and weekend drive out of town and yes I am not a sedate driver .

Which one ?

Do you use your Dusty for daily commute ? issues with turbo lag ? Is it really too much ? does you left leg start hurting after bumper to bumper daily commute in city ?

I guess you have a 110 and thus the questions to you .

Please suggest.

Sorry for the late reply. If you are not a sedate driver then the answer is simple - the 110 !!! And if you are going out every weekend or every other weekend also, then you will need the 110 again for highways.

The turbo lag is there, but you will get used to it. I drive 70 Km every day in Bangalore traffic and my legs dont pain! And I am a lean build person, 5 ft 10 inches tall and only 62 Kg

SP

[suchit23]

So my deary wife gave me a 25K gift voucher on my bday. No prizes for guessing how that was spent but the question is was it spent wisely? Lets find out…

First up, as a background, below was my wish list a year back:
********
Phase 2 accessories pending confidence building exercise:
1. ICE Upgrade
2. Remote Locking + Glass up module
3. LED lights

Phase 2 accessories pending availability:
4. Bull bars + Cladding
5. 3D Mats
*********

Lets see what I could do out of them:

1. ICE Upgrade: The budget available was not enough so I decided just to upgrade the speakers for the time being, everything else remaining the same. More in this post later.

2. Remote Locking + Glass up module: Shockingly a plug-n-play product is still not available for Duster, more than a year down the line. I checked in 2 places, not able to believe. Has anyone else upgraded the central locking? I am looking for features like auto-lock on ignition or after a defined speed, Sound while locking/unlocking, Light/Sound panic etc. And then my favorite glass up module which sits on top of the central locking.

3. LED Lights: Done, more in this post later.

4. Bull bars + Cladding: I decided against Bull Bars after reading of potential damage it can bring in to the bumper in case of medium intensity accidents and the damage it can bring to a pedestrian in small brushes, plus the fact that it only provides look aspects has no practical use. And the cladding got automatically discarded because it took an eternity to come, I mean the authentic ones, on my third service (20K) the dealer did tell me that it has finally arrived but could not show it to me, and they were not sure whether they know how to fit it, whether painting is required, etc. etc. So this wish point was thrown right out of the window.

5. 3D Mats: This was one deferred for the simple reason that I did not feel like throwing away the stop gaps mats I bought, after all they are doing a decent job.

1. Speakers Upgrade

Like I said I did not have enough budget to upgrade the complete ICE so based on other member’s advise (such as Ampere) I decided to just replace the stock speakers. And little bit of TBHP time told me component for the front and co-axial for the back is a good combination. And with respect to the make, I just went by what Ampere did as he vouched for their great quality several times – Infinity Primus. I read Infinity Kappas are much better but so is the price. These things (4 speakers, 2 tweeters, 2 cross overs) set me back by 8K.

They were cribbing all the time about too much metal and adhesive in the doors. They struggled to take out the paneling. Not sure if anything is different in Duster as compared to other cars.



This is the old pathetic stock speaker for those who have always heard it but not seen it



And here is a look at the new speakers and the fitting. Just to remind the stock were 5.25” where as these are 6.5” but it fit well on its grill. The protrusion is not much at all and does not cause any issues.



Front Left:



At the back:



Tweeters @ the most recommended place (ORVM Panel):



Result: Very good sound, keeping in mind the absence of amp and sub woofer I am very much happy with the output. Definitely worth the money.
And here is the output quality. Please note that if you listen to this in a normal device (like a cellphone) you are limited to what sound it can re-produce. You should listen to this in a laptop with good speaker systems.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj_zesw8LtA

2. LightForce

Well, not literally LightForce but got a pair of Hella driving lights. Hella Ralley 3003 to be precise. With the limited budget I wanted to focus on utilitarian things and good lights while driving on highway was always on top of my list.
Why Hella Ralley 3003? Well, I thought they are the perfect size for the Duster, they have great range/throw which was the primary requirement and as a bonus they come with a parking light as well.

Fitting:
They made an L clamp and welded it to the metal frame in front of the grill. Of course the bumper had to be removed. And the L clamp was painted in red which looked good but caused ground earthing issues later on during wiring.



Wiring:
Now, this is where I am still not sure if they did it right. The way they wired it was the negative was connected to the battery directly, the positive was connected to the 12V cigarette lighter wiring via a switch. Everything was via the relays that came with the Hella and an after market fuse in between.

This is the cig lighter wire which they skinned to get the current:



And these blue wires are going to the new independent switch, one going to the switch and the other will be connected to the cig lighter wire which was skinned earlier (via a fuse).



This is the fuse in between:



And this is the switch itself:



Here I have 2 questions here for the electrical experts on the forum:

a) Was the wiring done right? Any safety issues?

b) The way it is now I have to switch on an independent switch to on the Hellas. Ideally I would have loved to get them on when I on my high beam, but those guys told me hooking up the powerful hella lights to the wiring behind the steering could be a safety hazard. Is this true?


And now lets look at how the lights look, shall we?



A more closer look (Note that at this time the left one was pointing to 3rd floor, got it corrected later):



LED Lights: Also added a pair of DRL LED lights while I was at it. Some local brand for 2.5K, nothing to write home about, these were also connected to the cig lighter power source. So they come on as soon as ignition is on.



And now that we have got everything wired up lets see how they look at night.

With the Hella lights off:



With the Hella lights on:



Same picture as above but with a different camera focus:



Finally a video to demonstrate the range/throw. Note that I have kept it aligned very low, like a little higher than dimmer but much lower than high beam simply because its not easy to toggle the switch while driving and I do not want to blind the oncoming vehicle!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suFLo3tdcGE

Result: Very happy with the light intensity and throw, very useful in highways but cannot use it in the city unless I have a better switch connection, something like hooking it to the headlight on/off stalk. There is some amount of vibration not sure what can be done to eliminate that. Also if the nuts and bolts are not fully tight, the alignment will go for a toss often but it is OK after I tightened them fully. One thing I forgot to insist was the wire harness. To be done when I get chance next.


3. Roof Luggage Rack

Some of you may be surprised why would anyone need a luggage rack with a huge boot of the Duster but on long journeys with the parcel tray taken off, my daughter likes to spend some time in the boot as well and if that area is not jam packed its easier for my wife to pick up things from the boot on the run without having to stop the car and hunt for the right bag. Another vested interest was to make space for a sub-woofer later down the line.

When I decided to put it I was ready for the looks to be messed up but surprisingly it does not look all that bad, at least to me and I am guessing its because the black one is going well with the roof rails. This good quality black rack set me back by 8K, there were plenty of other silver color for 4-5K but I did not like their quality and thought silver might screw up the looks completely.



Result: Not yet tested, but there is a whistling noise coming from them during high speeds, I am guessing that is part and piece of this parcel for which nothing can be done.

4. Bosch Horns

Small but very useful upgrade with only 1K. Pair of Bosch doing a much better job than the stock one. Not sure if you can spot them but here is a close up pic, you can see a part of me as well!



And here is how they sound:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQbACOH7ryk

Result: Good value for the money if probably not as great as a pair of Skoda Horns!

5. Misc Items

Bought some misc utility items, I have a feeling these pictures are self-explanatory! Note that the last item is not for Dusty, its for my wife’s Santro but it resides in the Dusty for obvious reasons!





Overall Look:
Alright, we are now ready to review the overall look, please let me know your comments, positive or negative!




Bad experience while getting it done:
I thought I planned this well but had no idea it will take U turn. So I call my favorite Sachin Auto Shop (SAS) in Koramangla and confirm if they are open on the Monday following the Diwali break. Which he did and I also confirmed the availability of items to which he said everything was there except for the roof rack. So on that day I go all the way to JC Road to get the roof rack done but come back to SAS like the loyal customer that I am but boom it was closed. So I had to drive back all the way to JC road again because I had taken the day off to get these done, could not have postponed it. Thankfully traffic was still light due to Diwali holidays. And once you are in JC road you are in the hands of the sharks there, the problem is you get stuck in the first shop you get parking because by noon the place is a chock a block and there is no scope to even move your car forget thinking of going to another shop.

So there I was stuck with a shop where the modus operandi of the mechanics is do not finish any job until late evening, all cars work get over the same time in the night because they are sharing tools and technicians on all cars, so whether you go first thing in the morning or late afternoon you will return end of the day.

And then I had to move my Dusty once to a welding shop and back, only I know how I managed to maneuver my Dusty in those narrow gullies which are wide enough for 2 cycles at a time.
To make matters worse there is no decent food joints nearby and you don’t feel like going too far away from the car while it is wide open! So by the evening I was trembling with hunger.

So I somehow get things done and come back thinking I will do the autocop thing from SAS and get the lights wiring verified. But I did not know betrayal # 2 from SAS was waiting for me. Unluckily the brother I had never dealt with before was in charge and he was rude enough to turn me down after his mechanics confirmed autocop cannot be put in Duster, so the only work left was to verify the wiring which I guess not good business for him since no product is being sold. So to help that situation I even offered to buy a LED light worth 4.5K and they could have verified the wiring while putting those on. No dice.

So that, in my opinion, was a grand betrayal by Sachin Auto Shop to a loyal customer. I understand the P&L statement is important in any business but in today’s world “Customer Relationship Management” matters a lot. We, the IT people, expect good customer relationship management from shops with educated owners such as SAS, if not from the folks @ JC Road.

So, I have to start looking for a new favorite accessories shop, I am in South Bangalore, if anyone has any suggestions please let me know. I also recommended SAS to many of my friends especially those who loved my alloys etc. That will stop too of course. Goodbye Sachin Auto Shop.

Next Accessories Phases:

Phase 3:
• More ICE upgrades, thinking about an amp and a sub-woofer as the logical next step
• AutoCop + Glass up Module
• Chrome Kit
• 3D Mats

Phase 4:
• More ICE upgrades (does this area ever end?) – Advanced HU with DVD player possibly with a screen on the roof which the daughter can see comfortably from the back seat
• Tyre Upsize
• Xenon HID Upgrade

Lets just hope my wife remains in the same generous mood for the upcoming phases as well

[skyfire2892]

Nice modifications suchit.
About the separate switch, yes they are right. Many manufacturers provide switch for fog lamps separately for the same reason. Plus you won't be using hella as often as headlight so a separate switch won't hurt.
Roof rails makes your car look more muscular.

[Vid6639]

Suchit, you can try my regular car accessory guy Auto Fusion in Kormangala near Sony world. He is pretty good with standard stuff and even does high end audio but I usually only do regular stuff.

Have been going to him for more than 10 years and no bad experiences so far.

Then there is also EVO in Cambridge layout. There's a dedicated thread for Evo for review.

Regarding the ICE upgrade, any reason you did not do the damping? With the Infinity speakers the damping is a must. With these speakers and no damping in a duster with thin sheet metal is kind of counter productive.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Suchit, you can try my regular car accessory guy Auto Fusion in Kormangala near Sony world. He is pretty good with standard stuff and even does high end audio but I usually only do regular stuff.

I had asked him first before going to Sachin. He was a bit doubtful to do the job for me because the OEM speakers were five and quarter and the Primus series starts with 6.5 inch. So he was not sure if he could not do without cutting the panel. Then when I called up Sachin, he said he had already done one without any cutting. So I went with him. And he did a good job.

Originally Posted by suchit23

So my deary wife gave me a 25K gift voucher on my bday. No prizes for guessing how that was spent but the question is was it spent wisely? Lets find out…

Suchit,

Damping would have been good to have. On the speaker selection, don't thank me. Thank @Der Alte. He suggested me that in the first place!

[Seran Manian]

Generally the Relay takes very less current to operate and hence taking power to energise relay through a switch is ok. But where from they tapped power to supply the 'Hella' through the relay contacts only matters. If that is directly from the battery through a fuse, all is well. Your description indicating a connection from Battery Negative through fuse makes me assume that Duster has a Positive Ground system, where the Power from the chassis (+ of Battery) goes to Hella and from Hella to Relay contacts and from there through fuse to Negative terminal of Battery. It looks to be good wiring technique.

[suchit23]

Originally Posted by skyfire2892

Nice modifications suchit.
About the separate switch, yes they are right. Many manufacturers provide switch for fog lamps separately for the same reason.

Thank you. The good part of the independent switch is on highways I can keep it on (as long as its not aligned very high), so that gives me freedom to use the high beam as the blinker to request an overtake without having to first disengage the high beam which would have been required if I was driving on high beam, and then engage it back once overtaking is completed.

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Suchit, you can try my regular car accessory guy Auto Fusion in Kormangala near Sony world.

Regarding the ICE upgrade, any reason you did not do the damping?

Thanks dude, surely I will give auto fusion a try if not Evo as Evo will be too far for me. Ampere did warn me about the damping requirement, but he also told me it costed him 14K. So it was an easy decision to defer it to next phase, will get it done next time!

Originally Posted by ampere

On the speaker selection, don't thank me. Thank @Der Alte. He suggested me that in the first place!

Well, he may have but someone just suggesting a speaker just from a sound perspective is one thing but someone having the same vehicle and almost same thinking having made a decision and being happy is another, with all due respect and gratefulness to the original suggester

[ampere]

Originally Posted by suchit23

Ampere did warn me about the damping requirement, but he also told me it costed him 14K. So it was an easy decision to defer it to next phase, will get it done next time!

Parag had mentioned there are cheaper option, but I went with this one itself.
Also my motivation was damping the whole door from the door's perspective of getting thud like feel rather than the hollow feel. It helps sound isolation anyway, but I think the gain is not that big.

[undead]

Originally Posted by suchit23

b) The way it is now I have to switch on an independent switch to on the Hellas. Ideally I would have loved to get them on when I on my high beam, but those guys told me hooking up the powerful hella lights to the wiring behind the steering could be a safety hazard. Is this true?

I have the same setup with my Elantra crdi . Had the same for my sold Getz crdi too. Here is how it works

Top position (-) : Hella lights switches on only when switched to highbeam and goes off when switched to low beam and operates only when headlights are switched on and when using flash (using this position for max effect so as to not disturb the oncoming drivers when they come in low beam too)

Middle position (O) - Hella lights completely Off (useful in cities)

Bottom position (=) - Hella lights completely ON ( even though the headlights are off and will use this when my headlight bulbs goes out of fuse)

[jaisha8]

Originally Posted by suchit23

]4. Bosch Horns[/b][/u]

Small but very useful upgrade with only 1K. Pair of Bosch doing a much better job than the stock one. Not sure if you can spot them but here is a close up pic, you can see a part of me as well!

Suchit23, Could you please give me the model number of your horn as it sounds very similar to Polo? I would like to add this to my accessory list as well.

[condor]

@Suchit, suggest to edit the title suitably. The Dusty has been going strong for 1.5 years now !

[swiftnfurious]

Originally Posted by jaisha8

Suchit23, Could you please give me the model number of your horn as it sounds very similar to Polo? I would like to add this to my accessory list as well.

It should be Windtone. Alternately Hella has a similar sounding horn called Twin tone.

I would pick up a (Hella) Twintone compared to a (Bosch) Windtone for its loudness. Twintone costs around Rs. 700/- I believe.

[pahwa]

Originally Posted by suchit23

Overall Look:
Alright, we are now ready to review the overall look, please let me know your comments, positive or negative!

Suchit! Your Duster looks awesome. The roof carrier has infact improved the sporty quotient of the car.

I have the same pair of Infinity components and I love them. I would strongly suggest you reconsider buying a Sub-woofer and Amplifier. I got one installed and I now feel that it is not really required with these speakers unless you are a bass-freak.

[pahwa]

Originally Posted by pahwa

Suchit! Your Duster looks awesome. The roof carrier has infact improved the sporty quotient of the car.

I have the same pair of Infinity components and I love them. I would strongly suggest you reconsider buying a Sub-woofer and Amplifier. I got one installed and I now feel that it is not really required with these speakers unless you are a bass-freak.

Saw a maroon Duster with similar black roof carrier at Marathalli Bangalore this morning. Was that you Suchit?

Mods: Please move this to "T-BHP cars and stickers' if you feel this is inappropriate here. Wanted to ensure that Suchit has a look at this post

[::CMS::]

Originally Posted by suchit23

a) Was the wiring done right? Any safety issues?

b) The way it is now I have to switch on an independent switch to on the Hellas. Ideally I would have loved to get them on when I on my high beam, but those guys told me hooking up the powerful hella lights to the wiring behind the steering could be a safety hazard. Is this true?

I really doubt the knowledge of the installer who did the lights, he dont have the basic idea about connecting a relay. The purpose of making a second circuit using a relay is to avoid loading the stock circuits. You can safely connect the hellas to the stock switches (high/low) to trigger the relay. The power source should be battery, else it voids the use of a relay. He is loading the stock circuit by taking from the 12v socket, it completely voids the purpose of a relay in the circuit, its same as connecting the lights to the 12v socket with 2 switches, relay doesnt play any role here. Its "ok" to use it provided you take care not to overload it by connecting any other high current devices to the 12v socket when the lights are ON else change it asap.
check : http://www.therangerstation.com/tech...ry/relays.html

This bracket will definitely vibrate and will be very difficult for a spot light to focus properly. Instead of an L bracket fixed on the top of the cross section, weld a 1/1/5" straight square pipe facing the front of the crossbar, the other end needs a small square shaped hole on the bumper (it can be cut to size, no aesthetic issues), this can no way vibrate. On my last visit to cochin service center I was about to do the same, but due to the recent strict enforcement of the traffic rules in kerala, I postponed it. Also I met a Duster owner who had to remove his lights since he got fined twice 400/- each for having extra lights than the stock (inspite of them below the headlight)

The black roof rack gels with your Dusty. I am also looking for fixing crossbars for fixing easily removable LED light bars (a DIY project).