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-   -   Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/202700-renault-duster-awd-owners-point-view-11.html)

This is the thing with this car. If it runs niggle free there is no car in the market below 30L like this. It's simply brilliant. No matter how many times you think of selling it, you just can't let it go.

When it comes to the Duster AWD, decisions should always be from the heart rl:

Coming from you, the highlighted part is pure gold (no pun intended) :D

GoodYear would be a better option as would be a Continental Conti-cross [I saw it in one of the Calcutta AWD Duster with forest / amazon green color, maybe of ghostrider28, but not sure]. Michelin LTX-Force is available too.

I have experienced the Wanderers in 265 section and I don't like it one bit.

I ditched MRFs since the older vehicle had uneven tyre wear and humming noise in the 40-60 kmph range. With the new one the Wanderers were starting to exhibit humming in the same range at the end of life.

Its been Apollo (1 set), Yokohama (1 set) or Michelin (3 sets) since then on both the cars. Stock size is more than adequate for all the needs.

36,500 km and some interesting update!

I crank the car, the self rotates more than usual and the car fires up.
Was driving on Nh, and every-time I was crossing the 120 km/hr mark there was a hiccup. As-if the fuel supply was cut. But it was crossing 120 km/hr and was going way beyond that quite easily.

On the return journey, I was at 90 km/hr with the cruise-control on. Suddenly the injector malfunction light blinks and the cruise control goes off. I was pissed off. Not again! Another injector gone!

But in next 10-15 secs, the light automatically went off and the car starts to behave normally. I came home without any trouble.

The next day I tried to crank the car and the battery was dead. My car came with 50 AH battery, but my service center guys recommended me to go for a 60 Ah one. Paid Rs 6,200 and got a Exide 60 Ah battery by exchanging the old one.

Now I started pondering, why in 2 years 8 months a battery will go dead and the car already had 4 injector failures! The main culprit must be something else.

Finally gave it to the service center to check the error code from that day and it was found that the 4th injector was faulty! The error code came from it.

So its the 5th injector which has gone bad! I must add, according to Renault India, the fuel we get in India is bad! rl:

So under warranty, got the injector no 4 replaced. And this time they changed the full wiring harness of my car. The wiring harness could have been the culprit for this repeated injector failures. The root cause must be identified. I was contemplating between the wiring harness, ECM & BCM. The service center guys zeroed on the wiring harness.

The fuel meter also showed some erratic fuel reading on some occasions. This time they changed the float too.

There was a small leak from the Tappet cover, got it replaced too. It was a paid job. Damage to pocket was Rs 3040.

After these, I drove the car for around 300 km and everything seems to be fine.

It's time to wait and watch to comment whether these persisting issues got solved or not!

So the love hate relationship continues!

A car with supreme comfort, great fun to drive, quite capable off the road, but reliability is a big question mark! I seriously see no car in the market which I can consider, if I want to sell the Duster in future! Even if I get the Thar, it will be a compromise for me! I will miss the comfort and the driving dynamics of the Duster. The Compass 4wd costs nearly the double of what a Duster 4WD costs!

Love it or hate it, you can't ignore it! :)

Odo reads 37,000 km

On 1st August we had a Team-Bhp meet followed by an off-roading session with Kolkata Offroaders.

A post on Duster AWD's offroading capability-

The car tackled the off-road section beautifully. If one knows the cars well, it can deliver satisfactory performance on mild to medium off-road tracks. Duster is never meant for taking extreme obstacles.

Few points to keep in mind while off-roading with a Duster-

1) The approach angle is low compared to other body on frame suvs.

2) Due to long wheelbase, the break-over angle can get tricky on obstacles with steep up followed by a down slope.

3) Lack of articulation.

4) Judicially using the ESP switch. BTC can take the car out from tricky situations.

5) Do not keep in 4wd lock at all the time. Use it when required. Pre-judge the obstacle ahead and put it on.

6) On steep down-slopes, brake modulation is very important. As there is no low range, we cant leave all the 3 pedals and let the car go.

7) Avoid water wading, or obstacles with boulders or rocks.

8) Sand & mud are more preferred obstacles for the Duster.

9) It can climb up on steep inclines with a bit of momentum, it wont crawl as it misses a low range.

10) Always get a good spotter who can check the under-body clearance when in doubt. I generally take an obstacle in the 2nd attempt, if am not sure whether the approach angle will make it or not. In the 1st attempt I go slow and check whether the clearance is fine or not, if fine on the 2nd attempt I try to clear it.

A video from my car's dashcam-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh2_kKXsOt0

Few pics from the event-

Duster turns 3 with 39,000 km on the odometer









As of now nothing much to update. Its running fine. The 40,000 km service is due shortly.

Few fun facts-

Together we have been to 23 road trips in these 3 years.

Driving on the snow - Check

Driving on sand in a sea beach - Check

Driving inside the forest - Check

Off-roading in an OTR - Check

Odo reads 40,750 km.

The 40,000 km service was done at 39,300 km.
Did a couple of road-trips in last one month. It added roughly 1700 km to the odo.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...ster-awds.html

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...ml#post5153872

The 40k service update-

Parts replaced -

Engine oil (Castrol, Synthetic)
Oil filter
Air filter
Fuel Filter
Ac Filter
Rear wheel cylinders both sides
Both rear shock absorbers. The right one had a leak, I asked them to change both.

Damage to pocket-
40k scheduled maintenance- Rs 12,500
Rear shock-abosrbers (Right & left) costed Rs 14,600 both
Rear wheel cylinders - In warranty (FOC)

Total - 27,300 with tax.

Let me share an approximate details with cost of all the work done till date.

A list of parts changed under warranty-

5 injectors -
Injector no 1 & 2 at 12,500 km
Injector no 3 at 27,000 km
Injector no 4 at 29,000 km
Injector no 4 again at 36,000 km

Each costs Rs 29,000

After the 5th injector failure, Renault changed the wiring harness in my car.
Wiring harness- Rs 17,000

Fuel tank - Due to erratic behavior of the fuel meter. Approximately Rs 35,000

EGR- Renault suspected this for the coolant consumption issue, but it was not the culprit. Still replaced. Approximately Rs 13,000

Head Gasket- Renault suspected this for the coolant consumption issue, but it was not the culprit. Still replaced. Approximately Rs 7,000

Radiator & hose- The culprit was a minor crack in the radiator. The actual reason for the coolant consumption issue. Approximately Rs 7,000

Steering angle sensor- Due to a faint nose while rotating the steering wheel. Approximately Rs 8,500

Wheel cylinders- Rs 7,000

Fuel Float - Rs 3,000

Approx Rs- 2.42 Lac! (FOC)

Parts replaced due to wear & tear-

Brake pads. Approximately Rs 4,400

Turbo hose O-Ring. Approximately Rs 600

Diesel filter while changing injectors on a trip. Approximately Rs 3,000

Tappet cover- Rs- 3,200

Rear Shock-absorbers both sides- Rs 14,600

Battery- Rs 6,200

Approx Rs 32,000. (Paid by me).

General service-

10,000 km, 20,000 km, 30,000 km & 40,000 km Approximately Rs 10,000-12,000 per service.

Approx- Rs 43,000 (Paid by me).

Total money spent by me - Rs 75,000 approximately.

Cost per kilometre- Rs 1.87

The above figures are a rough estimate after 3 years & 40,000 km. (For accurate amount, I need to recheck the detailed bills).

Parts which need attention-

1) Tyres. Contemplating between Wrangler AT & Geolander AT. Will replace soon. This will cost me somewhere around Rs 30-32k.

2) The fuel meter reading is still sometimes erratic. Renault will check the dashboard wiring harness & cluster meter for this. Fuel tank, fuel hose, fuel float, all have been replaced. Still sometimes the reading is erratic. This should be done in warranty.

Sharing few pics till the next update- :)

I am also on the lookout for new tyres for my Duster. I am considering going for upsize 235/60. I am thinking of going for Apollo Apterra At2 tyres. I also have available Maxxis AT in the same size.

Odo reads 43,000 km

Did a 500 km day trip in WestBengal & another 1550 km trip to Odisha this month.

Car performed fine and with light foot driving, it's returning a mileage between 15.5 to 20 km/L!

From my last update-

1) Changed the tyres to Goodyear AT SilentTrac

Damage to pocket- Rs 29,000.
Rs 7,000 per tyre.
Rs 1,000 for alignment and balancing.

New vs 41,388 km old tyre!



2) Renault changed the cluster meter, but refrained from changing the dashboard wiring harness. They asked me to drive for sometime and report them, if the problem persists, they will change the dashboard wiring harness.
Post this, have driven around 2,000 km. The fuel meter is working fine till now.

Damage to pocket - FOC.

Some observations on the new tyres after driving for 1700 km-

On tar road, it feel like a downgrade from my previous HT tyres (MRF wanderers).

Road noise is acceptable, but higher than HT.

Ride is on the stiffer side due to the hard sidewall.

High-speed handling or zigzags feel less poised than before.

Wet grip seems to be just fine.

Braking looks to be good enough.

Yet to checkout the tyres off the road.

Reasons to choose the Goodyear Wrangler SilentTrac over the Yokohama Geolander-

The Yokohama Geolanders should have better ride quality beacuse of its softer sidewall than the Wrangler. So body-roll might be a tad higher around the corners. Plus the sidewalls of the Goodyear seemed to be on the tougher side.

The tread looked more rugged on the Goodyear.

Few pics from the trips-

I received a call from Renault Budgebudge on Monday that they wanted to change the dashboard wiring harness of my car as it was suggested to them by Renault technical team.
Though the fuel-meter was working fine, Renault still changed the dashboard wiring harness. They wanted a permanent solution for the fuel-meter issue and now they are hoping it's sorted. Did a couple of refueling after the replacement, it's working fine as of now.
Quite happy with their proactive service.

Got these freebies as a winter camp is going on.



And some fun shots from the weekend.





Drove light footed for 92 km in city & Duster returned a brilliant mileage of 20 km/L! This was with ECO mode off and AC on.

Odo crossed 45,000 km & Duster is back from yet another 2100 km road trip to Sikkim.

How did the car perform? Brilliant. :thumbs up

I was literally blown away by the performance of the Duster this time.
The AT tyres made a huge difference.
I was driving in Auto mode. Even in the worst stretches the 4wd was not kicking in. It was easily going in 2wd, where other 2wd cars were loosing traction.

The highway performance of the Wrangler AT tyres are just satisfactory, but in off road and hills its brilliant.

Sharing a couple of video's.

In the night video, it was quite an offroad. On day one Duster did it in 2wd, but got a couple of underbelly hits, on day two, I engaged the 4wd Lock and it crawled the steep incline with boulders and slush effortlessly without any underbelly hits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r51THmU4VHQ

This is the last stretch to Gurudongmar lake. The RWD SUVs were climbing this up, but they were loosing traction at times. Even the Ecosport needed momentum at one or two places. Smell from tyres were coming from most of the cars which climbed till the top.
With the AT tyres, it was an easy climb for the Duster in 2wd.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eur1uqYac8A

For the overall 2100 km, Duster returned a mileage of 14.8 km/L, which is more than satisfactory, given the terrain it had covered.

Looks like the earlier niggle have been sorted. The fuel meter worked fine too.

Few pics from the trip. :)

I am considering either the Goodyear Wrangler AT SilentTrac or Yoko Geolandar SUV G055 for my Duster 2wd. Could you please tell me how bad is the increase in road noise compared to the stock MRF wanderer with the Goodyear AT? Also how do these compare in wet breaking and the typical magic carpet handling of duster with the stock MRFs.

The road noise is not a deal breaker. It's more than HT, but still sorted.
Highway performance of the HT tyre was better than the Wrangler AT.
On wet road, I felt more confident with the HT tyres.
No complaints with braking. It's very good.
The ride comfort has gone a bit harsh than before, but it's in acceptable level.
The wrangler excels in off-road.

Since your car is a 2wd, I will suggest you to consider the Yokohama, as you wont go for any serious off-roading. It will be like taking the middle path. You will get highway performance close to a HT tyre, with off-road performance near to the Wrangler AT SilentTrac.

2021 ends with 46,000 km on the odo.

Enjoying the car a lot. Duster AWD minus niggles is indeed an excellent car! It's a comfortable, economical and a capable machine in both on & off the road. Till now there is no replacement for this vehicle in this price bracket. The only alternative is the much costlier Compass AWD. Sadly Renault didn't bother to upgrade the Duster or launch the latest generation Duster with an AWD. The car which gave Renault a place in India, Renault forgot that car itself!

Took it for an OTR yesterday. The Goodyear Wrangler Silenttrac AT did made a difference. The car feels much more grippy on surfaces with less traction. The off-road capabilities definitely improved with the AT tyres.

A video from the OTR-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F7Z7eClMe4

Sharing 2021 in nutshell.

A collage from all the 1,000+ km road trips of 2021.



My Duster managed to features four times in Team-Bhp homepage this year!