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!
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.
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-
A video from the trip, on the way to Bumla.
Few pics of the Duster from the trip-
Duster enjoying season's first snowfall at Bumla!
The full team
After the trip, got the Duster thoroughly cleaned at Automate Kolkata. They did an amazing job in cleaning the under-body, exterior and interior.
The love hate relationship with the Duster AWD continues.....
Will try to compile the travelogue on this trip soon.