How a snowy Spiti trip convinced me to retain my 2018 Duster AWD

All the 3 Dusters performed brilliantly. Apart from a failed glow plug and a flat tyre.

BHPian Samba recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

When I bought the Duster AWD in 2018, I had two trips in mind. One was Sandakphu & the other was Winter Spiti. The Duster completed both trips with flying colours!

Now let me start with the negatives

1. It snowed all throughout the night, and the outside temperature was -11c. We went with 3 Dusters. Tried to start all the cars in the morning. The rest two started in the first crank, but mine refused to start. I immediately knew something was a miss. 2 to 3 times I put the ignition on for 30 secs and allowed the glow plugs to heat the cylinders, but still, the car was not starting. I put the OBD, and the rpm was not going over 280 to 300 rpm while cranking. I checked the error codes and voila! The culprit was detected. One of the glow plugs failed!

Just beside our homestay, there was a mechanic. Along with him, we poured some hot water on the diesel filter and primed the diesel filter valve. The engine slowly started to come back to life. But by then we have already cranked around 10 times. I was afraid the battery might drain out. So decided, not to take a chance and use the jump start cable. We put it on Bhpian Arays Duster, revved it to 2500 rpm and cranked my car. On the next 2-3 attempts the engine came to life.

The next two nights at Kaza, we kept the engine on from 11 pm to 7 am. After leaving Kaza, once the temperature was over 0 degrees C, the car started without any fuss, even with a failed glow plug.

2. On a steep downslope with a sharp turn, the road was covered with black ice. Even in first gear, Duster reached a speed of 25 km/hr. It fishtailed a bit. That was scary. Missed a low range at the time. With a low-range gearbox, I could have taken the downslope in a more controlled way, as on black ice we can’t touch the brakes!

Now the positives

I was in two minds. This year the Duster will turn 5 and here in West Bengal, we have to pay the road tax every 5 years & after 5 years the Duster will be out of warranty too. So whether to keep the car or sell the car. After this trip, I decided to retain the Duster.

Reasons

Will write the travelogue shortly. Till then sharing a few pics from the trip.

And a mandatory wash after the trip. This time I tried My Carz Studio in Chinarpark, Rajarhat. They did an excellent job. They washed the car thoroughly and now it’s shining like new!

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