Frederic

I had lovely times with my French Cars, especially the 205 GTI 1.9 which was a small rocket on wheels. The fact that it had many flaws was easily forgotten once i revved it to the red line If you want a good design, a car that has some life in it, go for a French one. I agree that the reliability is not on the level of the Japs or Germans but that shows in the price too. Some hot hatchbacks: - Renault Clio Williams - Peugeot GTI and XSI or Rallye models - Renault Megane RS - Citroen VTS And the Bugatti is still built in Molsheim, France

Fantastic initiative. Unfortunately i'm booked for a camping trip.

Hey Gaurav, Of course opinions are like onions, they can make you cry, but i will try to give mine: * The Range Rover is a very capable car and if you can find a well-maintained one, you could be lucky. However i hear many technical issues with these cars, and very very high maintenance costs involved. So finding a decent workshop which has some knowledge of these cars will be required. * The Escalade is a fantastic and indeed roomy SUV but again on terms of maintenance cost and reliability they are notoriously bad. I am sure that there are tons of people driving these cars and are very happy with it. So it comes down on some experiences and maybe having a chat with some workshops and car mechanics to see how they feel about it. I'd definitely go for the Range Rover, but try to find a very good model from a private owner (used a transport from and to school)

My grandfather had to sell his mint condition VW beetle when I was 15. I wanted to buy it and keep it until I was old enough to get my permit but I didn't. He sold it to a young guy that was flabbergasted to find a car in that condition.

Hi there As you will be connecting 4 speakers to a 2 channel, the Amp will run in 2ohm. According to the specs of the Amp it is giving 4x95 watts nominal at that impedance. It's difficult to say exactly how much the amp will be able to deliver exactly. That's not so important anyway because your front speakers are 60watts rms only. The best to do is set the amp to its minimum sensitivity while testing, then put the volume to around 80% on the head unit, and than slowly increase the sensitivity on your Amp until your front speakers are starting to distort. The reduce again a little bit. There is no need to match the 2ohm on the speakers with the subwoofer on the other channel.

The good 'ol days of F1 I was a big Senna fan, and stopped watching for a while after he passed away, but i always remembered Mansell to be a brilliant driver with a particular character. Never a dull day with this bloke...

https://dubai.dubizzle.com/classified/electronics/car-electronics/car-audio-systems/2018/1/30/diamond-audio-d7152-2/?back=L2NsYXNzaWZpZWQvZWxlY3Ryb25pY3MvY2FyLWVsZWN0cm9uaWNzLz9wcmljZV9fZ3RlPSZwcmljZV9fbHRlPSZrZXl3b3Jkcz1hbXBsaWZpZXImaXNfYmFzaWNfc2VhcmNoX3dpZGdldD0wJmlzX3NlYXJjaD0xJnBsYWNlc19faWRfX2luPS0tJmFkZGVkX19ndGU9JmFnZV9fbHRlPSZjb25kaXRpb25fX2d0ZT0mdXNhZ2VfX2x0ZT0%3D&pos=8 Very nice amp. I know the guy who's selling it as i bought other equipment from him. He's a collector/hobby/audio fanatic and has lots of vintage and high-end equipment.

Hey, The component speakers will indeed have their own filter on board, but the lowest frequencies are anyway sent to the door speakers. A high pass crossover on your Amp will allow you to filter out everything below 80hertz so your subwoofer can take these on instead of the 5.25" front speakers. Its not a must but more a "nice to have" on your Amp. Pertaining the secondhand stuff; you might find some on dubizzle if you keep a close eye on it, but be careful when buying secondhand speakers: it's difficult to test them when you buy them, and they might have been abused heavily. Check on souq for deals and good prices. I have bad experiences with sharjah and find it more convenient to get everything delivered.

Hi there, It goes without saying that your car's alternator, battery, and wiring should be in good and working condition, with or without installing additional equipment. Basically, you will need to run another power wire straight from your battery's + towards your amp(s). Choosing the right size of cable is based on how powerful your amps are: https://www.crutchfield.com/S-1TnffuYRpSC/learn/learningcenter/car/cable_gauge_chart.html I'm not good with gauge sizes, i used 10mm2 cable if i'm not mistaken (7 AWG). You can buy the complete cable sets on s o u q or downtown which will contain the following: 1) Power Cable (red) with fuse and fuse holder: Avoid drilling holes in your firewall (metal wall between your engine bay and the inside of your car). Just look at which location the cabling from your engine bay goes towards the dashboard. This will normally pass through some kind of rubber. Through this rubber you should be able to pinch a small hole and then put your power cable through it. Now guide your power cable to the back of the car where your amp will be located. You'll need to remove the upholstery/carpets/sidepanels and look for the shortest way possible. 2) (Ground cable) Black: This will be a short piece of black cable of the same thickness as your power cable. Connect this one to a GOOD grounded chassis point nearest to your amp. with GOOD ground i mean it has to be a bolt going into the metal frame of your car. Use an ohm meter to be sure that the grounding is actually in touch with the frame. In many cars, the bolts that are used to mount the seat-belts to your car frame are good for this. If nothing is available then you could drill a hole in the metal panel, remove the paint, and bolt it to the frame. But use this as last resort to avoid corrosion or hitting something which you did not intend to hit like your gas tank. 3) RCA Cable: This is the cable that sends the audio signal from your head-unit to the amp. DO NOT put this wire together with your power cable in the same cable trunking. In some cases it will result in humming or noise when you accelerate the car. Just try to find a different route. Normally the power cable goes through the left side of the car (the side where your battery is), while the speaker cable and signal cables go through the right side. 4) Remote Cable: This is a simple wire that you'll need to connect to the headunit's "remote" connector. It sends 12 Volts to the amplifier to switch it on when the headunit is switched on. Most RCA signal cables have a small third extra wire along the core that you can use, but any wire (or some extra speaker wire) will do. 5) Speaker Wire: Regular audio speaker wire 2,5mm2 will do to cable the speakers all the way up to the amp. You can choose to tap into them through the original connector behind the head-unit, or you can pull new cables all the way up to the speaker itself (not so easy to do with front speakers as you'll need to pass through the original rubber door cabling). You'll need the following equipment: -Soldering iron (if you decide to solder instead of using crimping lugs). I prefer soldering any time. -Crimping lugs (forks, male and female). -Electrical tape. -Multimeter. To identify which speaker is which in your cabling, you can use a 1.5 AA volt battery . Just hold the speaker wire on the + and - for a second and the popping sound will get you to identify which speaker is which. Try to take into account the correct + and - connections of your speakers. If wired incorrectly it will result in a phase cancellation fault which you cannot hear easily, but results in far less bass coming through the speaker because one speaker moves outwards while the other moves inwards during pumping out sound, resulting in a cancellation. If you are not sure which is the + or -, just wire up everything and when you play a song with some good bass, try shifting the balance from L to R on your head-unit. You will notice that suddenly you will have more bass out of 1 speaker instead of 2. That means your + and - are reversed . Most-probably you WILL break some of these side-panel plastic thingys that pop into the holes and keep your doorpanels and sidepanels in their place. The older the car, the more likelier because they are detoriorated and will break off very easily. But that's a small pain compared with the joy of having a good sound system.

Hi, The 4x50 Watts on your head-unit are in reality hardly 4x22 Watts RMS. Upgrading with an amp will surely result in a big improvement in terms of sound quality. The fact that your original speaker size is a bit on the small side, will not result in a lot of power on the low frequencies. So adding a subwoofer will come in handy. Unless you are able to put bigger speakers in all your doors, then you might be happy to go without a subwoofer. Full range speakers for your doors are fine. Better results will be achieved with component speakers on the front. Mainly you want to be able to point to separate tweeter directly towards yourself, which is not possible if the tweeter is in your door. Dampening the noise is surely possible. We used to put asphalt bitumen on the insides of the doors Pertaining your question on the wattage: - For door-speakers: 50W RMS onwards is more than loud enough. Many speaker brands use wattages like max or PMPO (peak music power output) which are very very overrated and unrealistic. If you go for the big brands, just look at the RMS rating because this is at least a realistic value. - For subwoofers: Anything from 200W RMS up to a few thousands of W RMS is possible a good starter set is a 12" subwoofer for 200W RMS. Take into account the space it will need in the back of your car. If you want to go offroading and camping, it becomes a bit of a hassle imho. You can put plugs on it so it becomes removable, but also comes with some limitations. - For Amplifiers: Always make sure that your amp can deliver/match the RMS wattage of your speakers. There are many options available: 4 channel amps, 2 channel amps, amps which can be bridged, amps with onboard crossovers, etc.. etc... Chronologically in your case i would take the following route: 1) Look for a good component front speaker set in either the original size that fits, or if possible go for a bigger size. Pioneer, Sony, JBL are good entry level brands. Rockford Fosgate, Kicker, Polk Audio, JL Audio, Focal, Hertz, are more high-end but will set you back a decent buck and are more difficult to find here. 2) Buy a decent 2 channel amp that can power the front speakers. Again Sony, Pioneer, JBL, Alpine, etc will give a good bang for the bucks. If possible go for an amp that has built-in crossovers. You can enable the highpass filter for your front speaker so you can make sure they only play stuff above 80hz. It will result in less rattling in your doors, and anything under 80 hertz will be for your sub anyway 3) Rear speakers: Less important imho. Buy some entry level ones and keep them on the headunit amp. 4) Subwoofer: 10 to 12" is the most chosen option due to power vs size. You can buy an additional amp to power it (2 channel amp that is bridged), or go for these active sub tubes with built-in amp. I found a shop on SZ that sells Ground Zero stuff. Unfortunately they charge a bit too much like most shops here. You didn't mention if you want to do this by yourselves or not. It is a nice hobby and if you have some basic knowledge about electricity and removing door panels, it is rather easy to do by yourselves. I made it my hobby many years back and the joy of installing, listening, and fine-tuning it is much higher than getting everything installed by a pro. But that is your choice of course and installing cost here in UAE is not that high. Good luck !

Hi Guys, I am up for installing some LED bars on the roof of my Pajero. When i search online, i come across a broad price range. I see similar looking models for either 200 AED up to 1,200AED. Of course i can imagine this is partly branding, party quality, etc.. Does anybody know a decent brand that's affordable or has good or bad experiences with the cheaper ones ? With the climate here i don't want the things to fall off after one summer No issues with RTA or should i cover them up before the inspection ? I went to have a look in Sharjah already but the moment they see my face (westerner), the price goes up to a level that i would prefer ordering them online and fitting them myself. Thanks

Great video and initiative ! We went camping with a few friends near the Akoya project but had to stay near the road because my buddy had issues with the 4WD activation on his Avalanche. Unfortunately this area is flooded with garbage and muppets on quads who are racing through the whole night. Nowadays we need to go pretty deep in the desert to find a really quiet spot i am afraid.

I saw a chinese car om MBZ this morning, The brand was Trumpchi. Need i say more ?

The capacitors are the small electronics things on the circuit board of the temp gauge. Below link gives a bit more information on how to replace them, but you’ll need to be handy with a soldering gun. The capacitors itself can be purchased in local electronic stores or hifi repair stores in Deira or others. I’ll try mine and keep you updated on the progress: http://www.pocuk.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=116647 ebay sells complete dashboard units but those might be pretty expensive and could also probably have some flaws or issues. I’ll need to order a new tailgate door handle as mine broke last week and it’s temporarily fixed but far from professional.

By the way, the outside temperature gauge seems to suffer from capacitors that wear out over time, which makes sense considering the age. Ebay.UK has quite some parts on it (look for Shogun). Not sure how easy they deliver to UAE, but i'm visiting my homecountry Belgium a few times per year, so sometimes i just place an order and get it delivered to Belgium and take it with me to UAE on my next trip back. Let me know if i can be of any assistance to somebody that needs some parts which are not too big or heavy.

Hi Gaurav, Thanks for your reply. I was initially looking for a slightly younger Pajero but fell in love with this one the moment i saw it. And as the saying goes: The more you're under the car, the more you'll start to love it The 6G72 engine had to be replaced 1 week after i bought it (one cylinder without compression), so that was an expense which was not really scheduled, but on the other hand it gave me the opportunity to have the mechanics go through all things and replace what looked shoddy or worn out. The car itself is in pretty good shape considering the age and the climate here. I have some future plans but ill try to keep the car original/elegant. The first proper offroad drive was in Fossil Rock yesterday, ending of course by getting stuck but after unloading the passengers, i was able to get out of the nasty situation i got myself into (stopped on the top of a dune and almost tipped over). The selfmade scaffolding boards did the job. I've read quite some interesting stuff on this forum yet, and i'd be happy to contribute where possible and hope i can shedule a 4x4 beginner drive with some likeminded people soon. Currently it's the wifey and kids who tag along and they seem to enjoy it, but we leave the dunebashing for the pro's out there Apart from the Christmas tree my 4WD select system already was, this morning it jumped out of gear in 2H but i was able to continue my drive in 4H. After the fossil rock trip i cleaned and hosed the car last night and i'm afraid i shorted the solenoid. I measured the resistance and the first one is 46 ohms (OK) while the second one is OPEN (NOK). Any idea where i could order these ? Should i go straight to the Habtoor guys or is there a shop where they would have these on stock ? Please not Sharjah..

Just found a little hack which i wanted to share with you guys. As in most MK2 Pajero's the inclinometer in the middle of the dash is defective. I was able to fine a smaller standalone inclinometer on desertcart.ae which fits inside the existing unit. https://www.desertcart.ae/products/45721366-car-inclinometer-level-tilt-gauge-indicator-gradient-balancer-tool-for-off-road-vehicle-and-self-driving-travelling-supplies I installed it today by removing the old inclino-ball, and putting the smaller ball inside. Everything works as it should again. Seems a 54 aed solution is never a bad thing

As a classic BMW lover myself i fully agree with Gaurav. I wanted to buy a 540i Japanese import first but realized that it would take me many trips to the Sharjah workshops myself to keep things economical for this type of cars. Where i come from in Europe we have more spareparts and knowledge available to keep these cars on the road and also the climate is less demanding. If you're not doing too many miles on a daily basis it might be worth taking the risk, but be fully aware that it might cost you another +15kAED the first year to get the car in the condition you want and to repair the critical things. I went for a 2013 316i because the resale value is indeed very low, and it was well looked after. A decent Japanese brand with more spare-parts availability will give you more ease of mind. Did you consider an Infiniti G37 ? It's japanese, and it's fast. Not sure about the reliability though but my colleague drives infiniti and is really happy with it. Good luck.