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Old 11th August 2019, 12:45   #76
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Re: Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view

Congratulations Samba, on an extraordinary review - an owner's perspective certainly, but also well thought out and detailed. This is going to be a reference point for a lot of prospective buyers, including my friend.

Presently I have replaced our faithful Scorpio which was getting a bit long in the tooth, with an Eeco (mainly due to budgetary considerations). But if & when we do decide to replace it - and if the Duster is still available - it will be near the top of the list. Thanks again.

Last edited by shashanka : 11th August 2019 at 12:46.
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Old 1st September 2019, 00:00   #77
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Re: Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view

1st Birthday of our Duster!

We took delivery of our Duster, last year on 1st September. Currently the odo reading stands at 10,745 km.

The experience so far has been mostly sweet, with 9 small to medium road trips.

The most memorable one, was the snow drive to Tiger Hill. The AWD was in its elements.

Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view-img_9135.jpg

Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view-img_9143.jpg

A couple of trips to the beaches of Bengal & Odisha

Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view-img_1247.jpg

Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view-img_8586.jpg

Few fun drives on the highway!

Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view-img_0550.jpg

Some to the forests & rural Bengal.

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And off course some Off-Road fun!

Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view-img_9617.jpg

At this moment the car is running niggle free.
The niggle's which have been taken care during the 2nd service, seems to be sorted as of now.

Shifted from ICICI Lombard to Tata AIG, B2B insurance. Thanks to Bhpian Sayata for helping me in getting an excellent deal!

A special thanks to Bhpian PapaBravo (The Duster man ) for christening my Duster as 'Red Express'! I generally do not give names to my cars, but somehow I liked this name!

Last edited by Samba : 1st September 2019 at 00:16.
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Old 1st September 2019, 22:37   #78
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Re: Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view

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Samba Da,

Excellent photographs, specially this one against the mountain backdrop.

Regards

Nikhil
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Old 1st October 2019, 00:00   #79
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Re: Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view

Duster completes 1 year 1 month with 11,814 km on the odo.

Lets start with the negative-

The only niggle which has cropped up yet again is, the fuel meter malfunctioned twice this month. I have called up Renault service center and updated them. Now they are suspecting a faulty fuel sensor or lose wiring. Am yet to give them a visit.

The positives-

In September the car covered around 1,000 + km with 80% of it in city.
Surprisingly in bumper to bumper traffic with 100% AC, the car returned a mileage of 13-14 km/L. I do not use the ECO mode.

Had a couple of emergency drives to the hospital & both the times the car behaved just superbly. It was raining and roads were full of potholes filled with water. The car just gobbled them like nobodies business and did it's duty. Impressed with it capability over bad roads. Before that, i used to baby it over rough patches. Plus the Auto mode with ESP on, always ensured that the car is well in control.

If all goes well, will be taking the Duster for a road trip to Arunachal this week.

Duster competed 1 year on 1st September 2019, and coincidentally Bhpian Lovecar21's son share the same birth day and year with my Duster. Both turned one, on 1st September 2019. So we decided to celebrate their birthday together!

Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view-img_9758.jpg

Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view-img_9760.jpg

Bhpian SanC's Thar, My Duster AWD, Lovercar21's Xuv 500 AWD. Ishaan had his cake cutting ceremony with 3 4wd's!

Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view-img_9781.jpg

Before Durgapuja, it's filled with Kash flowers.
A couple of pics of my Duster with Kash.

Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view-img_1558e.jpg

Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view-img_1680.jpg

Last weekend we had a Duster AWD meet in Kolkata. Few pics from that meet.

Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view-img_9852.jpg

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Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view-img_9893.jpg

Last edited by Samba : 1st October 2019 at 00:14.
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Old 6th October 2019, 10:20   #80
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Re: Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view

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Originally Posted by Samba View Post
1st Birthday of our Duster!
We took delivery of our Duster.......

Quote:
Originally Posted by Samba View Post
[b]Duster completes 1 year 1 month with 11,814 km on the odo......

A very timely and informative update Samba – and the fact that the child Ishaan and your Duster share the same b’day made for happy reading!
From your post one gathers that the AWD Duster is a reasonably reliable & competent SUV, both off the road as well as in inner city traffic.
I look forward to further instalments on the subject!
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Old 20th October 2019, 19:37   #81
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Re: Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view

15,000 km update

Duster completes 15,000 km on the odo with a 3,500 km road trip to Assam, Arunachal and Meghalaya.


Lets start with the negative-

Night 3 am and I'm 100 km away from Siliguri. Suddenly two beeps and this comes up in the dashboard!

Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view-1.jpg

I instantly knew any one of the injector have failed!

Its day one and i have not even reached Siliguri! I was cursing myself, i should have taken the Etios!

Kept driving and called up the road side assistance. They confirmed, Siliguri Service center has closed down so the option's now i have are Malda, Purnea, Bongaigoan, Guwahati. If the car is not drive-able they will send me a towing service free of cost. I told them, its drive-able at low speed, so i do not need a towing service.
I kept driving below 70 km/hr for the next 4 hours and reached our hotel at Chalsa.

I called up my friend Reeturaj Yogi at Guwahati to ask if Renault Bongaigoan have injectors in stock or not. He had a chat with the service manager and the reply was in negative. He confirmed Guwahati Renault might have the stock.

At morning, 7 am i called up Renault Budgebudge service manager where i get my Duster serviced in Kolkata. He assured me, he will do something.

At 9-30 am he gives me a call and assures, he have an injector in stock. That day afternoon my friend was scheduled to drive from Kolkata to Dooars and join us for the trip. I promptly called him and asked him to pick the injector from Renault Budgebudge and carry it with him, so the very next day morning i can collect it from him, drive another 240 km to Bongaigoan and get it changed.

In the meanwhile Dibakar da (workshop manager of Budgebudge Kolkata, Renault) had a talk with the Guwahati service center and inquired about injectors. Guwahati had one injector in stock. So he requested them to send that injector to Renault Bongaigoan. That way once i reach Renault Bongaigoan, two injectors will be ready.

Next day i started at 10 am from Chalsa after collecting the injector from my friend who picked it up for me from Kolkata. Drove 240 km and reached Renault Bongaigoan. My friend Reeturaj gave me the contact of Mr. Sahid at Renault Bongaigoan. Mr. Dibakar from Kolkata explained him the whole situation. So once i reached, he was standing outside and immediately started to check my car without any delay.

In next 1 hour they confirmed two injectors need to be changed and luckily we had two injectors ready! Injector no 3 & 4 were malfunctioning. They worked from 2 pm to 8 pm. Their mechanics worked extra time just to make my car ready on that day itself. The work was completed by 8 pm. After 8 pm we took a 50 km test drive to ensure things were fine. Finally after taking the test drive, close to 9 pm, i paid them for the diesel filter and took my car out.

At Renault Bongaigoan.

Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view-2.jpg

I cant thank enough, the way Dibakar da, Reeturaj, Sahid and his team went the extra mile to make sure my car is ready on the same day.

The service provided by them were phenomenal.

But the most irritating part is, Renault knows this is a common problem in Duster's but still they kept ignoring this for the last 7 years. We have so many failure reports plus a dedicated thread on Duster's injector failure in Team Bhp.
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techn...tor-issue.html (Renault Duster 110 PS - Fuel Injector Issue)
Still Renault has not taken any step to rectify this. In one word it's just pathetic!

The question's are-

What's the guarantee these injectors will not fail again during my next trip?
What will happen if this happen in a place like Ladakh or Spiti where there is no Renault service center?
Why is Renault not addressing a known problem for so many years?
For how many more years will they keep blaming the fuel? The Nexon travelling with me refueled from the same bunk but it never had any issue with the fuel or injectors!
How will i trust this car for my next trip?
The rpm fluctuation issue still remains in my Duster and in some of my friends Duster till now. It might need an Ecu update which the Duster's in Europe have received long back but still in India we are not getting a solution!

After using the Etios, am finding it hard to cope up with the niggles of the Duster! Surely the niggle free experience of Toyota have spoilt me.

Hope Renault higher up's are reading this post!

Now the good part!

For the rest of the trip the car just performed flawlessly.

Be it inclines, slush, boulders, throw anything to the car it just cruises along effortlessly. There were some fast driving on the hills too, but the Duster never lost it's composure. Am thoroughly satisfied by its performance.

Did the climb to Bumla with 4 adults and 2 kids. On altitude above 12,000 feet i can feel a bit of power loss which i never felt in petrol cars. So at high altitude, it required a bit of more revving than what it requires in low altitude.

Another minor negative i would like to mention here is, the air-filter requires frequent cleaning in dusty condition's. A clogged air-filter is also a reason for power loss.

The fuel meter worked fine throughout the trip. Earlier i had some issue's with the meter. Looks like it's sorted. But still i wont give the final verdict now! Let me use it for another 6 months to confirm.

The trip data-

Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view-img_1618.jpg

Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view-img_1619.jpg

Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view-img_1620.jpg

Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view-img_1621.jpg

A video from the trip, on the way to Bumla.



Few pics of the Duster from the trip-

Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view-24.jpg

Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view-3.jpg

Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view-4.jpg

Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view-5.jpg

Duster enjoying season's first snowfall at Bumla!

Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view-6.jpg

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The full team

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Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view-12.jpg

After the trip, got the Duster thoroughly cleaned at Automate Kolkata. They did an amazing job in cleaning the under-body, exterior and interior.

Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view-img_1631.jpg

Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view-img_1634.jpg

Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view-img_1635.jpg

The love hate relationship with the Duster AWD continues.....

Will try to compile the travelogue on this trip soon.

Last edited by Samba : 20th October 2019 at 20:04.
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Old 20th October 2019, 20:15   #82
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Re: Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view

That was indeed great service provided by Renault Service Centers specially Dibakar to go the extra mile.

15k kms and 2 injectors failing is pretty disturbing. Renault should seriously do something about it. They just can't blame fuel quality all the time.
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Old 21st October 2019, 10:21   #83
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Re: Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view

Awful to hear about the injectors failing so early and that too on a family outing. I am impressed with the way you could catch hold of the injectors.

Did they cover this under warranty? Was there any difference in the injectors replaced (different design/make/model etc)?
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Old 21st October 2019, 15:23   #84
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Re: Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view

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Did they cover this under warranty? Was there any difference in the injectors replaced (different design/make/model etc)?
Yes, both the injectors were covered under warranty. I had to pay them Rs 3088 for the new diesel filter.

I do not think the new injectors are different. As far as i can make out, the new one’s are also from Continental too. Renault keeps on telling that the new one’s are modified and all, but i simply do not trust them.
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Old 21st October 2019, 16:40   #85
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Re: Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view

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I had to pay them Rs 3088 for the new diesel filter.
I have had 2 fuel filters installed in the car since I have owned it. The earlier one (P/N: 64033646R) was more expensive. have a look:

Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view-filter.jpg

The latter filter in the list (P/N: 164034510R) is the one being put in the car since the last two even 10s services. The SA tells me its an updated part. As far as I know, this is an AWD / AMT specific fuel filter.

Could this update have been pushed-in to check fuel quality?

Last edited by Tgo : 21st October 2019 at 16:42. Reason: entered part numbers in text.
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Old 28th October 2019, 01:10   #86
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Re: Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view

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Originally Posted by Tgo View Post
I have had 2 fuel filters installed in the car since I have owned it. The earlier one (P/N: 64033646R) was more expensive. have a look:

Attachment 1925528

The latter filter in the list (P/N: 164034510R) is the one being put in the car since the last two even 10s services. The SA tells me its an updated part. As far as I know, this is an AWD / AMT specific fuel filter.

Could this update have been pushed-in to check fuel quality?
But i was told the opposite at Kolkata and Bongaigaon, both the places. They told me that, the expensive one (P/N: 64033646R) is for the AWD and is the modified one. Even Bhpian PapaBravo was told the same!

Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view-8da6278572cd4d8b82431191e4e8f20b.jpeg

Sharing the link of Duster's latest travelogue from Assam, Arunachal & Meghalaya -

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...s-bhpians.html (Sailed through the Northeast in hatchbacks & crossovers with BHPians)

Last edited by Samba : 28th October 2019 at 01:30.
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Old 28th October 2019, 17:46   #87
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Re: Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view

You are lucky Renault dealers gave the injectors. Normally, they take a week to go through the procedure to ensure the injectors are really at fault. This also proves that it is not only the South Indian vehicles which suffer injector failure.
Every journey with the Duster AWD is risky due to the probability of injector failure. So I factor in a week for possible disruption of the journey due to this problem.
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Old 29th October 2019, 11:33   #88
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Re: Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view

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But i was told the opposite at Kolkata and Bongaigaon, both the places....
I wrote it rather confusingly..

P/N: 164033646R is AWD / AMT specific
P/N: 164034510R is replacement for the above part and is an updated part which costs less. Less, due to difference in filtration property or due to being more localized, I do not know.

It could be that the shops are clearing the old (expensive) filter from their inventory and charging you accordingly. Or, they might not have it moving enough to have come across the new/updated (less expensive) part.
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Old 30th October 2019, 09:48   #89
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Re: Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view

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Originally Posted by Tgo View Post
I wrote it rather confusingly..

P/N: 164033646R is AWD / AMT specific
P/N: 164034510R is replacement for the above part and is an updated part which costs less. Less, due to difference in filtration property or due to being more localized, I do not know.

It could be that the shops are clearing the old (expensive) filter from their inventory and charging you accordingly. Or, they might not have it moving enough to have come across the new/updated (less expensive) part.
Hi Tgo, when did this replacement actually start ? As far as I remember, the older filter was cheaper & the new filter was expensive. I started putting the new filter from Aug 2017 when my car had an injector failure on trip.

Cheers,

Pawan
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Old 30th October 2019, 10:31   #90
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Re: Renault Duster AWD : An owner's point of view

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when did this replacement actually start ?
The first time I saw it on the invoice was in Dec 2018 when my AWD went in for its 80K scheduled service. Then again the same part was invoiced in the 100K service earlier in this month.
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