Gaurav

@vanhack very true word of wisdom and experience buddy, totally agree.

Newer one yes, as they moved away from real offroaders to the soft-roaders segment to sell more

Totally agree Sri and that's what I meant above to be in 1st gear when needed. Btw, Xterra, Pajero, Pathy are not a rare breed but actual offroaders designed with a well-thought auto gearbox. Sorry Sertac but auto Cherokee has this weird issue I just realized it on Friday and actually understood why Manual Cherokees are expensive than Auto in that year range. It is nothing to do with actual Manual vs Auto fight, but all about bad design offered by Jeep in that year. Maybe you can research on this topic and really consider a smarter auto box from another year Cherokee if that auto box is designed with 1 and 2 in the separate selector.

Nope, that's not the case but its other way around. Just like manual gear need practice, the same goes for the auto box and an experienced driver with the auto box can do "EVERYTHING that manual can do + Do a better hill climb" Manual is good for beginners in the sand to do self-recovery by rocking and crawling out of the situations, whereas auto can do all these but need a little experience and guidance to exactly what manual gear can do.

Read the whole thread again buddy, to understand what I have been saying since page 1. You probably read it very fast - like always I'm the only one who has been fighting for the Auto box in the sand, in front of others who have never tried both in sand or at least not tried the right gearbox. I too learned from the 2006 manual Patrol - disaster gearbox who couldn't even climb big red halfway, let alone the Iftar bowl and Faya.

In all honesty, it was not a fair comparison of Auto vs Manual in last Friday hill climb. Sertac Cherokee auto box is having 1&2 together in gearstick that leaves no option for him to shift to 1st gear on the extreme long hill climb. Secondly, his car suspension really need good work, and I was losing a lot of good momentum as soon as I hit the cross track and if you remember how much struggle I have gone through the back face of Iftar bowl. Thirdly although I did climb Iftar bowl from the front, but it was in LO gear and not in High - most preferred gear for the long hill climb. Auto is best for Sand, only if the auto box offer manual shifting to 1st gear and able to hold that first gear even till 7K rpm.

Thanks, Anand, for your input and I agree BFG is very good for off-road just the heavy noise and long hill climb in the desert is an issue due to its weight.

Watch again from 11:45 - 12:26 as a bottom line and close this topic on that note - without being Einstein or a chemistry teacher.

I totally agree on this, as I see 12 inch 15 inch vertical size of iPad screen on the dash and get scared too. I also agree that cluster control is overriding by gizmos, in my Range although which is 5 years old but whole instrument cluster is nothing by computer graphics including the rpm and speedo needle, looks so childish to me initially as I am used to seeing the physical needing popping up.

Desertdude: Thanks for listing the details and basic anatomy of how engine oil works. Will you change 7-10k kms oil every 1000 kms? I know what owners manual says and it's 6G72 engine 3.0 with SOHC 12 valves has 10w40 - 20W50 recommendation. Mine is 6G74 engine 3.5 with DOHC 24 valve - that needs 5W40 - 10W40 "SEMI-SYNTHETIC" engine oil.

Well done Vishal, for resurrecting the old unanswered post with the right question.

Amazing article Barry, really eye opener as I never knew there was a war going on for in-car entertainment system due to who steal less privacy. Damn big giants. If they are so innocent then they should design a system to use all info and stats to help the driver in that moment of time and without transferring the data for future learning - as we all know now what future learning means......!

Thanks @vanhack we really need good and honest garages in Dubai, and the price you said seems pretty reasonable. I know what you meant with Mobil 1 made in UAE or Egypt, I do read those labels but still, Mobil 1 is FAR better than ENOC / ADNOC oil in my views. Second, comes the Castrol and Shell are also good. My car behaves much better as I have tried all oil brands and also ENOC / ADNOC oils get dark too soon within 1000 kms that doesn't give you proper reading metrics if oil really needs a change or not, as I always change oil much before it's advised kms.

So you seem to be Pajero expert too and all my other cars expert too without knowing which all cars I currently have and where do I maintain them.....? Just to improve your knowledge, Pajero has many different variants of engines and all those engines run on different viscosity and type of engine oil. One day you might backtrace that which one uses 10W40, go and start google now. lol.

DAMN AI man, they will make human obsolete in every trade and profession.

Seriously.....! F1 fans bitch and moan on this subject....? Truly shameful

Please stop listening to people with endless stories and BS logic's and switch to thicker oil. If the car has leaks, either fix it or keep topping up oil every 15 days than spoiling the whole engine with wrong grade of oil. STICK TO WHAT CAR MANUFACTURER RECOMMENDS. PERIOD. BTW, my Pajero is also old tech and high mileage - 1999 Model with 204k Kms - runs only on 10W40 Mobil 1. I do have very minute leak in bell housing, that Im waiting to increase as it involve bit of work and keeps topping the engine oil every month or two by 200-300 ml after every 2000 kms.

It does depend on which oil you are using. Is this semi-synthetic and mobil 1 then only it should cost 300+ other than that it should be a lot lower. Go to place I mentioned above, they are open till 10 PM. There is another one in Karama too, but it will be also tad expensive as Dubai rates are higher than Sharjah.

See there are different strokes for different folks. Everyone buy cars with different needs or intention and I respect every one of it as everyone is right in there own way. Barry, before buying my V8 mustang I drove a V6 too by mistake because the owner was not very clear. To be honest, launch difference is huge, but cruising or overall feel is almost the same. I understand that we only launch less than 5% of the time so why not look for rest of 95% of things. Which is also very sane argument that you can get very clean and very reasonable price V6 - almost half of V8 price and not abused AT ALL. If you are not hung up on V8 launch, growl, and grunt at this point in time - then I would say go for V6, in all honesty, it's not as bad as it sounds. Just stick to GCC specs, as non-GCC specs are a nightmare in selling.

Totally agree with Sri suggestion which I forgot to mention. Use the rear end in such hard recovery when no options are there. I remember last year I have to give the strong tug to Ford pickup on top of Iftar bowl and used my rear end with more than 30 tugs to straighten out the face of Ford pickup. This one is also a good point, but these days you can also opt for soft shackles instead of modifying the hook to take the strap. Less involved job.

And after 2 months we will see your face @Asif Hussain, welcome back and we missed you

Such places only charge for oil and the filter and offer oil change service FOC. HOWEVER due to locality and area oil per liter price changes drastically. In Warqa I pay somewhere 300 AED for 4 liters of Mobil 1 semi-synthetic 10W40 oil and in above Sharjah place in the range of 150-200 AED. I found that Sharjah Mobil 1 a few years back when I was specifically looking for some special oil for my Pajero differential, something like 80W90 GL5 hypoid bla bla and only Mobil 1 Sharjah has that and they replaced instantly without any drama of leaving the car, come tomorrow, special order bla bla. Since then I'm fan of that place.

Now to help you further, I found him on google maps, it's right beside Sharjah City Center https://goo.gl/maps/TySfs9bt34q I also found the old post to who I referred earlier and he came back with a positive feedback about this guy. You don't have to leave the car unless really required, I have kept my Cayenne for two years and been to him 4-5 times and never left the car and got everything sorted in the same visit. They even have a nice covered waiting room with a girl at reception, where you can wait or you can walk to Sharjah City Center in 5 mins till they fix the car. I'm not even sure if he still remembers me or not but you can try that to get some discount in the end if you are convinced.

There is always a way to recover desert stuck with complete safety but only without ego / stupidity. 90% failure I have seen in recovery caused by either ego - how come my car can't do that, let me show the crowd how strong my car is and boom. Or simply stupid - with half or no knowledge of how to conduct a recovery safely. Only 10% cases were pure bad luck and when someone is really destined for some mishap. In above scenario, the biggest FAIL was to recover 3-ton car uphill and that too with one car and single strap without the safety straps. Nissan Patrol would have easily recovered from another side with one gentle tug, as it was already pointing down on another side. If for some reason they cannot do the recovery from another side, then dig behind the rear tire of Patrol and clear that top area of the dune so that it can roll backward easily - max 5-10 min digging and towing effort will be divided by half or one-third. Third, if Hummer has failed to even move Patrol by an inch in three tugs that means something is terribly wrong so get out and get an idea how you can relieve the situation and start again with a gentle tug first and slowly apply the force than going full on. Fourth, if you really have to give that hard tug then you need a better rope - probably double strength strap of 12 tons rating or more. And also secure rope with sandbags, and secure shackles with supporting straps on both cars and move all the people away from the diameter of rope length. Such hard stuck better off to recover with two cars with perfect coordination as to when 3-ton car dug deep inside become easily 5-6 ton in weight and dragging that uphill require real towing strength. Even the 12000 lbs winch might cry in such situation that you need higher strength winch to pull uphill.

Sad to hear this to be honest from a professional and trustworthy mechanic. As a true professional you should never do this because the damage caused by wrong oil will multi-fold the repair bill in a very short run. It's not a permanent fix, instead you should always insist on repair immediately - stitch in time will save nine.