[Samba]

47,000 km Update

Should I dare to say, the car finally looks sorted and niggle free? Or it's too early to comment!

For the last 7,000 km including a couple of 1500 - 2000 km road trips, the car performed brilliantly. So keeping my fingers crossed and lets hope, this saga continues.



Seems like the Duster took some lesson on reliability from the Etios!

[Samba]

48,000 km update

Odo crossed the 48k mark. Will get the 50K service done in another 1000 km.

Did a 800 km road trip last week.
Performance was flawless. Be it high speed driving on 6 lane highways, be it on bad roads, or be it a bit of soft roading.
The Wrangler Silenttrac ATs performed to my satisfaction in all the conditions.
The overall mileage I got was 13km/L, that was due to my heavy foot driving for this trip. Else it should have been 15+ km/L.

This is the first time I used a diesel additive. Bought the one from Wurth.

Honestly after using this, I could not feel any difference in acceleration as claimed by many. The only thing I felt was, the engine felt slightly more smoother than before. I used the whole bottle for a full tank of fuel. As of now have driven roughly 750 km with the additive.



Sharing few pics from the trip-

[Tgo]

I have the same thoughts on the diesel additive. I used Liqui Moly. Smoothness was the only perceptible change. Used it for two tank-fulls about 2 years ago.

[Samba]

The 50,000 km service update, Odo reads 49,240 km

The 50k service update-

Parts replaced -

Engine oil (Castrol, Mineral)
Oil filter
Air filter
Fuel Filter
Ac Filter
Tappet cover for engine oil seepage
Front brake pads
Rear brake shoes
Both the front wiper blades
An underbelly protection clamp which got bent during an OTR

Damage to pocket-
50k scheduled maintenance- Rs 5,500
Brake pads - Rs 4,400
Brake shoes - Rs 6,200
Tappet cover - Rs 3,200
Diesel filter - Rs 3,200
Wiper blades- Rs 1,000
An underbelly protection clamp (Both sides)- Rs 1600

Total - Rs 23,300 with tax & labor. Got some discount and freebies as summer camp was going on.

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

List of parts changed under warranty-

5 injectors -
Each costs Rs 29,000 = Rs 145,000

Finally Renault changed the engine wiring harness to solve the repeated injector failures in my car.
-Rs 17,000

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 joint. 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 due to erratic behavior of the fuel meter - Rs 3,000

Dashboard wiring harness due to erratic behavior of the fuel meter. - Rs 25,000

Cluster meter due to erratic behavior of the fuel meter.- Rs 8,000

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

Approx Rs- 2.75 Lac! (FOC)

Parts replaced due to wear & tear-

Front Brake pads (twice) Approximately Rs 4,400 X 2 = Rs 8,800

Rear Brake shoes- Rs 6,200

Turbo hose O-Ring. Approximately Rs 600

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

Tappet cover (twice)- Rs- 3,200 X 2 = 6,400

Rear Shock-absorbers both sides- Rs 14,600

Battery- Rs 6,200

Four Tyres- Rs 29,000

Underbelly protection clamp (Both sides)- Rs 1,600

Approx Rs 75,000. (Paid by me).

General service-

10,000 km, 20,000 km, 30,000 km, 40,000 km & 50,000 km approximately Rs 10,000-12,000 per service.
Roughly Rs 50,000

Total money spent by me - Rs 125,000 approximately.

Cost per kilometre- Rs 2.50

The above figures are a rough estimate after 3 years & 8 months with 49,240 km covered.

The journey of these 50,000 km with my Duster AWD was not very smooth. There are few excellent to few horrible stories to share. A competent car with few glitches which Renault never bothered to rectify during the whole production period of the Duster. This made the car unreliable twice during my trips.
Special mention to Renault Budgebudge for trying their best to keep my car in the best possible condition. They have gone out of their way to help me to solve the issues. Few parts were changed under warranty as a trail and error method which were actually not necessary. But I must say at the end they have rectified all the problems successfully. The last 10,000 km was totally niggle free.
Lets see how the car performs henceforth. Fingers crossed.

My first participation in an night otr. Duster exceeded my expectations with it's off-road capabilities!

[88_TANK_88]

Congratulations on completing 50,000 kms. I am keeping a steady 10,000 km gap to you with my 2020 Duster AWD.



Luckily, I haven't faced any niggles so far. Did tyre change at 30,000 km to a set of Maxxis Bravo 771 ATs and front brake pads at 40,000(OEM) apart from regular periodic service. I am keenly following your thread as guide on Duster ownership.

[Samba]

Odo reads 54,200 km. Crossed the 50k mark on a 4,600 km road-trip to Uttarakhand.



How did the Duster perform for the whole trip? Flawless!

At 47 degree C the Ac worked like a charm.



At 6 degree C the heater kept us warm inside.



The overall mileage for the trip was 14.7 km/L. Till Rishikesh it was 17+. The Mileage dipped after the car was pushed on the hill roads.

The Wrangler ATs did an excellent job on both highways and offroads. At one place there was a deep slush, I engaged the 4wd lock, & the car crossed the section effortlessly.

To be on the safer side, this time I used the IFTEX SystemD for every refuel. Used 1 ml for every litre of fuel.

No niggles to be reported after the trip. Just got the car thoroughly washed (interior, exterior, underbelly).

Few pics from the trip-

[dhanushs]

Wonderful Samba. Enjoyed reading your thread. Sorry, if this has been asked before - How is the highway performance of the Duster AWD? Like in high speeds?

[88_TANK_88]

Originally Posted by dhanushs

Wonderful Samba. Enjoyed reading your thread. Sorry, if this has been asked before - How is the highway performance of the Duster AWD? Like in high speeds?

As a fellow Duster AWD owner, I can vouch for highway manners of the vehicle. Stable and comfortable. Small bumps and joints on concrete roads are soaked up in stride. The steering is not the sharpest or handling quick but it more than makes up when driver fatigue and comfort are thrown in the mix. 600km+ multiple drives on holidays are easy. Independent suspension on all corners make it punch above its weight as a long distance cruiser. FE is also good with speeds upto 100-120 kmph.

[Samba]

Originally Posted by dhanushs

Wonderful Samba. Enjoyed reading your thread. Sorry, if this has been asked before - How is the highway performance of the Duster AWD? Like in high speeds?

Originally Posted by 88_TANK_88

As a fellow Duster AWD owner, I can vouch for highway manners of the vehicle.

I agree with your observations.

Sharing my bit-

At high speed the heavy HPS unit is a boon. The weight is perfect for triple digit cruising. The steering never feels light or vague. There is a small bit of understeer, but it's not a deal breaker. The steering feedback is good, plus after every turn it centers automatically which is a boon specially on hill roads.

The power is adequate. It cant match the performance of the new turbo petrols from it's segment, but if seen individually the car is quite fast. On open empty stretches it can cross 140 km/hr quickly. The gearing is short, so the in gear acceleration is great, but the rpm is always on the higher side.
For example even in 6th cog Duster awd will do 100 km/hr at 2400 Rpm. Due to this reason the top speed of this vehicle is strictly average compared to the other cars with a 1.5L diesel. It tops out at around 175 km/hr. But it reaches the top speed pretty quickly.

The brakes are good, plus due to the short gearing rev matching and downshifting also helps a lot to bring down the speed quickly.

The suspension is awesome. It can take the bad roads with aplomb. There is no need to slow down on small humps or rough stretches.

The handling is quite good with well controlled body roll. At high speed while taking corners, I have felt the AWD to kick in and give power to the rear tyres in Auto mode. This gives a rock solid feel on winding roads.

To sum it up am very happy with it's highway performance, though in city I felt few times that, It would have been nicer to have a lighter clutch and steering.

[dhanushs]

Wow that was detailed! Thanks!

My living situation has changed recently, and was looking for a high GC, highway cruiser 4WD, which also gives good FE. I have the Montero for all the above, except for the last one, and also the maintenance part.

I'm thinking I'll get one AWD Duster.

[Samba]

Duster turns 4 with 55,400 km on the odo.

The journey till now had it's own share of ups and downs. But happy to report, it's been a smooth sail for the last 30,000 km. I hope the teething issues have been resolved for good. Fingers crossed!

Few fun facts-

Together we have completed 30 road trips.

Driving on snow - Check

Driving on sand - Check

Driving on slush - Check

Driving inside a forest - Check

Off-Roading in an OTR - Check

States covered-

West Bengal
Odisha
Chhattisgarh
Madhya Pradesh
Jharkhand
Bihar
Uttarpradesh
Uttarakhand
Sikkim
Assam
Arunachal Pradesh
Meghalaya

Sharing few pics-














& a fun off-road video to highlight the prowess of the AWD-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3y7SQpUO3g

[TravelLover]

In short...it was a pure gem of a car! So sad that it is no longer available in India . If only renault released a new generation of duster, it would surely be a great hit. It was one of the suvs, along with Ford Ecosport which kindled a liking in suvs for me. It is surely a legend of a car for me.

[Samba]

Odo reads 57,500 km & Duster is just back from a 1758 km road trip from North-Bengal.

Nothing much to write!

It took the steep Himalayan roads life a boss, crossed the trails inside the tea gardens effortlessly.
Bad roads were dismissed with aplomb.
The AC worked like a charm during the hot day drive from Siliguri to Kolkata.

The only negative was the fuel economy, for the overall trip I got a mileage of around 13.5 km/L, whereas my expectation was somewhere between 14.5- 15 km/L.

Sharing few pics from the trip-

[NemoNoob]

Nice pics samba. Have read your multiple travelogues. I am from Jamshedpur, Jharkhand and would like to tag along with my better half and a kid for a trip. If you are also interested please let me know when you plan for the next trip.

[davelok]

Hi Samba, you must have driven quite hard. I drive with an eye on fuel consumption, and I got 20kmpl last week on my journey from Jaipur to Ahmedabad (with an overnight break in Udaipur) on my Duster AWD with four people and a full boot. Average speed was 70kmph before Himmatnagar, from where onwards it was slow going because of really awful roads till Gandhinagar. It seems that some contractor has abandoned the NH48 six laning project after Shamlaji on that route.

On the Ahmedabad to Jaipur leg (two overnight breaks in Udaipur and Chittorgarh) also, I must have been able to get 18kmpl, but I had not reset the meter.