Shamil

1 hour ago, Brette said:

My GC is ceramic coated and did not have a swirl on it for the first year but after just 2 drives I started noticing the swirls and then gave up. 

Desert sand will blow of any car coated or not. Yes, I agree with the dust showing up in 30 seconds on a black car but that is something you can't avoid. It will happen even if you coat your car but will not look as bad when a car is coated or polished due to the reflections on a shiny black surface. 

To ceremaic coat a car you first wash, then have to decontaminate the paint to remove bonded brake dust and anything else stuck to the surface that you can not even see, clay the entire body and then polish atleast twice to remove all swirls and scrates that have not gone through the clear coat. Once all of the above is done, you have to wipe down with a non oily alcohol to remove any oils left from the polish and only then apply the ceramic coating. 

When you apply the coating, it can take anywhere between 60 seconds to 5 minutes to flash depending on the weather and has to be buffed immediately. If not buffed of at the right time, it will dry and then you will have to wet sand to remove it. 

A good ceramic job will cost at least 3k and last for about 2 years if you put in the effort to maintain it. Spend 200 every 6 month for a good waxing for the body and you will be good. 

One thing I always tell people when they ask about detailing is " Do it if you have the time to maintain/wash it yourself. The car wash places and the mall car wash guys will mess it up in a month" 

ok so this is very valuable feedback @Brette. I had no idea that the swirl marks would come on the coat after desert drives. So for the waxing option as you mentioned, which brand did you use and did you apply it yourself?

5 minutes ago, Brette said:

@Shamil 

I have done my fair share of ceramic coatings for my car's and for paying customers too. 

Would not suggest you do a ceramic coating on your xterra or on any car being used for desert drives. 

The difference between the coating and a wax is that the coating stays put for around 18-24 months if applied the correct way and maintained. A wax on the other hand will last for about 3 months and is a lot more easy to apply. 

With ceramic coatings many dealers will give you a whole load of cr*p but don't fall for that. Yes, there are benefits and I would suggest it if the car is not being used in the desert and being maintained by someone passionate about always having their car spotless and swirl free.

If a car is ceramic coated correctly, you invest in a good quality car duster and dust the car everyday and you can do this for about 2 weeks before you have to wash the car. However, if your car is parked outside and is dusty and there is dew overnight it does not make a difference if coated or not, you will have to wash the car to get it clean as once wet the dust will stick to ceramic too. 

Can give you more info on these coating if you want because they have a lot of advantages too but not for a car that gets a sand blasting every weekend. 

And yeah, don't try doing it at home because it's unforgiving if you mess up and will require wet sanding the car to remove it. 

thank you so much for your feedback @Brette. Actually one of the main reasons why i was looking into ceramic coating is because of the black color which starts showing dust on the surface just hours after a car wash. TBH, I didnt factor in the desert drives to this decision because i thought it wouldnt make a difference. I assume the soft desert sand would easily slip off the ceramic. Please do share more info as you said, and yes i think ill stay away from DIYing this.

congrats @Frederic. I am so happy for you. As always, its a heartening experience to drive with you in the convoy be it if your leading, sweeping etc, not just because of your technical skills that you are so willing to impart with the junior drivers but also because of your immortal sunny disposition. Your positive attitude is a reflection of one of my favorite idioms - "Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine"

7 hours ago, Xaf said:

@Shamil,

I was thinking about it, I don't have real knowledge about it, did some research on the net and youtube. How far do we have to trust reviewers on youtube, but still it was my decision not to do it.

Main reason, I don't have an own garage to work on my car, you might have one. Labour costs are relative cheap in our area. I prefer to let my car wax once a year, to threat the small scratches. 

An example:

 

exactly my point!! it seems like a garage is required to do most of the steps which even i dont have by the way which is why i started this thread to see if someone without a garage and without some of the required tools like the orbital sander (which i dont have) could have pulled it off. 

Well the process as per youtube isn’t easy as there are several steps involved before you can finally apply the ceramic coat so wanted to understand from someone who has perhaps done it and if they could share their experience. Maybe some steps could be avoided.

4 minutes ago, desertdude said:

It's not rocket science. It just like polish and a small bottle is enough for a sedan.

Dab on wait until it dries and then wipe off

Have you done it?

Congrats @tjsingh

Congrats @adildbx

Congrats @Xaf

Congrats @bony raphi

Congrats @Adam Marston

Congrats @Wrangeld

I have been wondering off late to get a ceramic coating done on my truck as the advantages of this seem to be very enticing. To start with, it provides a good protection on the existing paint and secondly, the car stays clean for longer as dirt, water, mud etc supposedly slides off due to less friction and this could be great for me since my truck is black. Ceramic coat jobs done by experts are a bit pricey as it could cost upto AED 2000 but then again, you can be rest assured that it is done by experts.

However I checked out some DIY videos on youtube as there are some easy instructions on how this can be done and the cost for the same is drastically reduced as you could get ceramic coats from car shops, amazon etc from the range of AED 30-200. I am however not sure if its a good idea to try it out myself and would like for people who have perhaps dabbled with this before to share their experiences. Thanks

im no expert but it looks a particular gear wheel (maybe 3rd or 4th gear) is messed up since the issue pops up at a very specific speed range. i had a similar issue with my old VW tiguan and the culprit was the transmission but then again that was exhibiting similar traits like your issue on lower speeds. I sincerely hope i am wrong about this because if i am right, it could mean that you would need to change your entire transmission system.

besides H&R, another reputed brand for spacers is Spidertrax and ive got them in my Xterra. Im not sure about the pricing of H&R vs Spidertrax but you could check that brand as well. 

many happy returns of the day @Emmanuel

now you have the power of knowledge 👍

On 12/10/2019 at 10:38 AM, Xaf said:

Hi Srikumar,

I don’t know it is due that I am in the US now, but the calendar Is saying that the drive starts at 08:15 pm on the 12th.

But the drive is on the 13th starting at 06:15, correct?

now i know whom to approach if i need to order car parts from the states 😎

1 hour ago, Frederic said:

So you heard it @Shamil no more Celine Dion. From now on put on some AC/DC. Your car will fly on every dune  

It’s amazing how all you guys thought that I was serious about listening to Celine Dion while dune bashing😂 I actually listen to music while off-roading and keep the volume low( so that I can hear the radio alerts as well) especially when I’m driving alone and I even have 2 dedicated playlists for off-roading - ones trance( chicane, ATB, Armin van burren, DJ tiesto, Ministry of Sound, Eric Prydz etc) and the other one is Metal/heavy rock( Metallica, Iron Maiden, AC DC, deep purple, GNR etc)

8 minutes ago, Emmanuel said:

Off-road : my V6 and Carnity FM 

On-road : it can be anything except Celine Dion : Bach, Handel, PJ Harvey, DJ Krush, Ahmad Jamal, John Coltrane, Yusuf Omar, La Lupe, Girija Devi, Biohazard, Fishbone, High Tone, John Cage, etc. 

Hahah your French and you don’t like Celine Dion? I don’t buy that. I’m sure she’s your favorite. Cmon admit it.

https://giphy.com/gifs/anchorman-lies-lie-EouEzI5bBR8uk

1 hour ago, Shamil said:

 

before @Gauravbhai found this meme and tagged me in it, i posted it myself!

When I’m out in the desert busy climbing and destroying dunes, I put on - My heart will go on, by Celine dion on high volume and I like to sing along loudly and mind you I ain’t a decent singer so I go off tune most of the time. Who’s joining me as a passenger this weekend?

1 minute ago, desertdude said:

Then you have a defective OBD port and if what you say is true then seems like it's a common problem..

I would get that sorted out first. It's probably not getting power or wiring issue. Because no way it's not OBD II compliant on such a late model car. 

In the mid 90s it became law in the US that all cars have to be OBDII compliant by late 90s most GCC cars were so post 2000 model car not OBD compliant is hard to believe.

If the port is defective, it wouldnt work with the bigger and more expensive OBD scanners that the garages use, but it does and thats how i know that the port is fine. I am aware off the law introduced back in 96 which mandates all cars to have OBD ports but i dont know why Nissan dropped the ball with the Xterra.

12 hours ago, Gaurav said:

@Shamil @Atif @Brette @AKR @Fuad @Halit Mert Issever @Julien V @Xaf

What do you guys think?

I guess the earlier answers have pretty much covered it well. I see the main culprit here being the tires not deflated due to which there is a lot of wheel spin and less traction on the sand.