Thomas Varghese

@Zixuan Huang - Charlie I have joined. That makes it 4 plus @GauravSoni.

I can answer this. Dobinson is a brand leader in offroading stuff. If they are selling something it must be good. Price is good. I can afford it. Let me have it. If I really need it I will know once I subject it to test. If it works I'm happy. If not consider this as a hobby and learning experience.

All I wanted to say @Gaurav is a better amp battery will prolong the death of a battery when its not charged properly by a competent alternator. The OEM battery is enough if you have an alternator which can power up the battery as per demand. But ultimately the battery will die if the alternator cannot cope with the power demands you subject the car. Light mods are taken lightly until you end up in the middle of no where with a dead battery

Let me share you my experience. I have aux fans installed which someone suggested will cool the engine. Now fact is they don't. In fact they disrupt the air flow drawn in by the main fan and makes the engine run hotter when switched on. The only time they help is when you are idling in a traffic bottleneck. It helps the AC condenser to cool better and give you better temperature control inside the car when you are at snail pace. Due to the summer I use them often and forget to switch them off sometimes and end result is when I come out of a 2 hr meeting I find a dead car. Thankfully I have the good jumper cables being an offroader and I can even get a micra car owner to convince him to jump start my car. The proud look on his face after my car springs to life is really funny. Its because the jumper cables are so good and can really draw all the power from his battery to power a bigger car like mine. In that sense my better jumper cables is also a mod.

I have to disagree with you on light mods dear @Rob S. They may seem essential when you drive in places too dark at night but from my experience when you add additional lights you need to provide a better power source to power them up. The OEM alternator doesn't have that much power to supply the discharge from the battery when you switch them on. Getting a higher rated AH battery is not going to help you when you switch on the aux lights for long. Very soon the battery will tell you it doesn't have the 12V to keep your car running ok. This is an area where no one has dwelled into. As @munkybizness said even adding an amp and running it demands more power from the alternator you have to consider this when adding additional lights. Sadly higher rated alternators are not available in local market. Even if you find one there are additional mods to be made when you fix that alternator. As is the case with every mods you need to research and study how its going to impact the systems in your car when you veer off from OEM specifications and then implement it. Otherwise you will find yourself using a jumper cable to start your car once you stop it.

The speaker and amplifier upgrade was the most satisfying upgrade I have done. My car is a daily drive and I travel between 300 to 400 kms daily and it gives proper entertainment and refreshes my mind and takes away the fatigue listening to all the great songs

Dear Mayank @munkybizness, Great topic. I'm always against major mods to the car which was designed by competent engineers who has designed a machine keeping a balance between weekend funs with offroading and daily use. I don't like to make any mods before understanding how its going to benefit me and my driving style. I have tweaked a little bit here and there to squeeze out a little but no major mod till now. The 1st mod was putting wider tires which I believed will help me to have an advantage. Now I have gone back to the stock tire size as increasing the width only increased the weight of the tires and I didn't gain any significant advantage and increased the rolling resistance. When engine temp became a problem I made the fan clutch a little tighter enabling it to engage faster and run more efficiently. Of course the shock absorbers were changed to Bilsteins which was again Nissan's choice for their offroad version and anyways my stock shocks were really bad. I have put 4 additional lights on the roof top under the impression that they will give me better luminance during night drives but due to poor brackets and placement defects I don't use them much. They actually aid me in finding where my car is parked in a parking lot as they rise above most cars and helps me in identifying where my car is parked. Another reason I don't use them is the limitations of the alternator which really cannot cope up with the high demand. Looking out for a higher rated alternator which can cope up with the supply demand. Of course higher rated alternator fix needs a higher rated battery terminal cables. I'm not against any major mods but believe me they are not worth it. The amount of money we spend doesn't justify the performance. At the end of all the mods you get a machine which you no longer recognizes and cannot use much.

Congrats @varunmehndiratta. Looking forward to drive with you sometime.

I was driving without the thermostat valve for more than 8 months. It never created any major issues except it takes longer for the engine to reach optimal operating temperatures. I fixed the thermostat valve back for only 1 reason. I bought an OBD 2 scan tool and it was impossible for the scan tool to set the idle air vol learning as it can only be done when the engine reaches operating temp of between 84 C & 91 C. The car was always running at colder temperatures and I could only execute the relearn program on a desert drive when it reaches the temp specified for the learning specifications. I had to do this procedure as my wiring harness was a mess and sometimes CEL comes on and even after clearing the codes the engine idles rough for sometime. Now I'm permanently rid of that problem because I brought a new Engine wiring harness from Nissan USA and is fixed. The new harness has created a fresh problem when all the signals are now proper. The CEL light illuminates sometimes because the Catalytic Convertor was deleted sometime before by the previous owner. The car runs very smooth, has increased fuel efficiency but now I got to solve the CAT deleted problem and the related CEL from a tuner who can do it. @Gaurav if you can share some knowledge of solving this issue it would be a great help.

After sometime you will start liking the roar. Makes others think you are driving a high performance engine with all the roar.

After researching on this subject I found out why Nissan engineers have designed the fan clutch like this. All Xterras are built as per US, Canada weather which is colder. Not much of an issue if you drive your SUV on tarmac. Different ball game when you take it to the hot desert. DON'T switch on your additional fans if you have any when you drive. This will make the engine run hotter as the air flow is disrupted by the additional fans. Only switch it on when you are idling. Dismantling the thermostat valve will help you cool the engine more but I will not recommend if its a daily drive. This procedure will not help the engine to reach operating temp if its a daily drive.

@Zixuan Huang - Charlie how much did u fill the silicone? The silicone comes in 10ml in one plastic bottle. After my experience you don't need more than 5ml ie half a bottle. This way the fan roar will be less. The fan roar makes up for the slight loss in power but you will feel you are driving a race car.

Further to this thread I wish to write up a little more about the car going into limp mode. It can be the A/F sensor aka the O2 sensor connection issues or a broken sensor too which can prompt a car to go into limp mode. In fact it is always an electrical issue related to the myriad number of sensors which puts a car into limp mode. If the car stops while running most probably the crankshaft position sensor or the camshaft position sensors are going bad. If the car misfires and coughs it maybe the knock sensor. Recently found out a very interesting phenomenon which makes the car stops while in idling and you try to park. The power steering sensor is the one which creates this. This sensor tells the ECM to increase the RPM while you are turning the steering wheel so that the engine can accommodate the additional power requirements demanded by the steering pump or the engine has no clue the pump is turning and needs to rev up, stalls and dies off.

Congrats @Rajiv Sam

congrats @munkybizness

Congrats @Ranjan Das. It was due for your performances.

Hi all, I am sad to leave the drive but not that sad. I had brought an engine wiring harness from US for my car and a gallary gasket which is inside the timing cover. The wiring because all my wiring connectors were breaking apart. The gallary gasket because my car VVT was getting starved of oil and it was rattling at low rpm's. Car was in garage and both got fixed. The rattling stopped and engine is super silent after fixing the gallary gasket. The wiring fit like a glove everywhere except at the A/F sensors. The wiring as it was bought from US came with US specifications, not GCC specs. The A/F sensor for GCC spec has 5 wires whereas the US model has 4 wires. After rummaging through the 2nd hand market for a A/F sensor with 4 wires I found out its the same for Armada and Infinity QX 70. Unfortunately I will get the sensor only today afternoon by 12.30 and there is not enough time to fix it and join the drive. Will see you all soon in the sands with a better performing car soon.

@Ale Vallecchi I have to leave the drive as my car has a check engine light and I need to source an A/F sensor.

Really sorry @ASAD.. As @Looper mentioned I was looking at the convoy list too to thank everyone. Thanks for helping me out with the pop out. By the way you had such an uneventful drive. Never heard you on the radio seeking assistance. Well done buddy.

Don't be annoyed @Tom B. You provided us with an opportunity to practice what @Gaurav taught us and pass on to new drivers the skills needed very much. Situations like this happen when you do an extreme sport like desert driving. It could have been anyone in the convoy including me in that situation. The most important thing in these situations is give up all your intuitions on what to do. 1st thing 1st is immediately shut off the engine and wait for instructions from the team lead and others in the convoy without panicking. You did great in all the 3 areas. By the grace of God we tackled the situation with ease and you and your car came down unharmed and we continued our drive.

THE UNEVENTFUL DRIVE - IM LEVEL. Looks like @Shaaz Sha's faqa adventures are uneventful. Of course for a convoy consisting of @Ranjan Das, @Simon Dawood, @Mus_hus78, @Zed, @Tom B, @Mohamad Anwer, evercool @Matt.T, @Anoop Nair, veteran @Ashok chaturvedi, me & the not so looping @Looper this is business as usual. A split tire, a pop out and a non starting wrangler is not going to deter us from pursuing our adventure. Just business as usual. The crowning moment came when @Tom B's car decided to scare him with an angled stop at the slip face of a dune. There were 5 of us who had witnessed almost the same situation in a previous drive at LIWA and how the legend @Gaurav handled the situation to bring the car down to the flats. The lead @Shaaz Sha, @Ashok chaturvedi, @Ranjan Das, @Mus_hus78 & me were the witnesses and students. For us the situation was perfect to sharpen our skills which @Gaurav taught us. @Tom B was level headed to switch off the engine, cool to obey the instructions of the lead, and courageous to stay in the car and execute the necessary maneuvers called for by the lead. End result - A big grin on everybody's face and a sigh of relief to see a successful recovery. With this @Shaaz Sha has proved he is worthy enough to be a lead and to go on to be a marshal. Special thanks to everybody else in the convoy to climb up the dune and slowly shovel out the car to bring it angled perpendicular to the ground down and to let gravity help the car to slide down to safety. Kudos and cheers. Will not bat an eyelid to join a convoy of such strength and comradeship. @Mohamad Anwer had a split tire which was exchanged with his spare tire. I am amazed by the tool kit of @Ashok chaturvedi which had all the box wrenches, extenders and even a clutch ratchet. Got to shop for 1 and keep it in my car. This was soon followed by a rear right pop out from my car. Fixed in no time and we continued the adventure. Soon after @Anoop Nair's wrangler gave him a nail biting moment of not starting. My X had given me some tense moments like this before and I knew what to make the car start. @Anoop Nair please go to a good electrical shop and change the solenoid switch of your starter motor. The solenoid motor is now beginning to fail. All this only added to the excitement of the drive. Then came the tense moments at the slip face of a slide slope of @Tom B's car. Nothing deterred us to stop the drive. Thats why I called it an uneventful drive. This is all now routine to us IM drivers of @Carnity club. We go in as 1 unit and exit as 1 in the same convoy order. SEE YOU ALL SOON IN THE SANDS.