Frederic

Nail polish remover. or just give it a few days it will start peeling off..

Won't this shop be appointed by your insurance company ?

Now Superman is really back ! As I mentioned this was for me one of the best drives I’ve had in the club so far. The terrain was challenging at times, but thanks to the experienced convoy and great lead, we had very little stucks and refusals. The pace and rhythm was good at all times and the atmosphere was as usual unique. Closing off at the lakes with some great Karak Chai, fantastic samosas, and some chit chat, I drove home with a big smile on my face and crashed happily onto my couch. See you soon back in the sandbox !

I totally get the wrapping thing if you have a super valuable car of which you want to keep the original paint intact and if you have plans to keep the car for a very long time. For a regular commuter car it’s nonsense. Same as keeping the plastic on the seats and interior. Makes you look like one of the Goodfellas Mafia guys.

Congrats buddy !!!

This is what we might see between Murqab and Lisaili coming weekend 😂

Great article with details. The Diesel springs look like a good solution. If they are not to your likings, you can always revert to the OEM scrap springs as you were happy with the OEM ones before and i can imagine you are so used to it that any change in your current setup feels a bit 'off", and could force you to change your offroad-driving style to compensate for that.

This is how my trailing arm bushing looked like, and the clunking sound on speed bumps was really bad. On top of that the car was driving very "wonky" and unstable: While the arm is removed, best to do the other bushings also. @shadow79 did both trailing arms with aftermarket bushings, and the difference is night and day.

When you’ve spent your entire budget on your car, but really wanted to have those 24 inch rims

Come and live in an Emaar community like Arabian Ranches or Mira. It is far worse.... But Sports City is the only place i ever been where they can't even seem to align the manholes to the pavement. They are installed like 5 inches higher. A real sportscar would break its crankcase immediately. Oh and it took them only 10 years to have some water in that canal.....

I have the same sound on my wifey's 2008 Pajero. I always assumed it sounded like the rear diff teeths locking into each-other, but come to think of it, it is probably the rear bushes on the arms. In this climate they tend to dry and crack.

YabbaDabbadooooo !! Due to circumstances I have been missing out on this area several times although it’s the one closest near home. I’m definitely in !

Exactly, even many taxi drivers are like that. It frustrates me like crazy. 🤬

Yes, on mountain offroading your brakes will have to work a lot more than in the desert. I think 35000 kms with the same brakepads is fine. Again this depends on so many factors. I drive 55 kms to work and all on E611. Hardly need to use my brakes if i drive a bit "smart".

Some tips on how to extend the lifetime of your brakes and fuel: Plan your brakes: Anticipate the traffic or turn ahead of you to avoid hard braking. Always keep an eye on brake light of 3-4 vehicles ahead of you and leave the acceleration as soon they brake. This will give you enough time to slowly approach the braking vehicle and slow down your car with little or no brake. This conserve lot of fuel and also saves the brake pads and brake rotors/disc. Always keep a long enough following distance to the vehicle directly in front of you to avoid having to adapt your own speed to the traffic flow all the time. Maintain a following distance of at least four to five seconds to avoid continually having to brake and accelerate.

The Taiwan bushes should be perfectly fine and won't affect performance. These things are not rocket science. With lathe pressing they mean that they will take off the complete arm and use a hydraulic bench press to insert the bushes into the holes of the arm. This is recommended instead of hammering them in which would again damage the bushes and limit their lifetime. @shadow79 did my Pajero recently and the difference with the new bushes is amazing. Your brakes don't wear much from off-roading as we avoid using them in the desert as you'd get bogged in too easily. They wear from using them often, and that depends much on your driving style. Many people can't seem to read the traffic and keep driving hard until the last minute and then smash on the brakes. Not saying that you are one of those drivers but just stating that the biggest influence of brake wear is wheel alignment and driving behavior. How many miles did you do in those 18 months ? 1700 dirhams looks ok for these works.

Just start with the assumption that indeed no dealer can be trusted. You can take the cars for a test drive on the car market itself (within the premises) but you won't be able to take it on long stretches. But should be enough to assess the brakes, suspension, engine sounds, or others. You can also ask them to hook up the car to an OBD scanner to check for existing faults, and you can probably search via the VIN number if the car has been in an accident. I guess it all depends on the budget and the expectations. I bought my little Pajero on Ras Al Khor automarket and didnt want to pay too much because i knew that i'd have to throw another 5-10k at it to make it look and perform the way i wanted it. It's a buyers market now and they want to get rid of their cars so that gives you some leverage over the asking price. Just calculate as per the worst case scenario of costs you'd probably encounter on that car and make sure you are prepared and well informed in advance, so you can quickly see through all the bla bla bla from the dealer.

Have you tried the Ras Al Khor car market ? Be cautious and take a friend along to double check everything. I am not so fond of the Emirates auction thingy and i prefer to buy directly from an owner too. But if the prices is really low it might be worth considering. But don't get fooled by the low starting prices. Most auctions go pretty high and i've heard quite some horror stories about missing paperwork, extra costs (read the small letters)...