Wheeling Dealing

For thirtly long months I had no clue about how to take out the spare wheel of the vehicle from under the body of the car. In the mean time I had gone to Delhi and Bharatpur in the north and Jagdalpur in Central India, not to speak of the umpteen number of sorties to Katwa. While taking delivery I had taken a basic look at how it is done but after that I had quite forgotten everything about it.

This morning I tried to give it a shot. There is a bolt on the floor of the boot which you turn anti-clock wise with the other end of the OE spanner. I did. I had expected the cradle would come down slowly. Well nothing happened. The cradle was exactly where it was. I tightened the bolt back and came home. After seeking some online help I called Abdul - the Renault workshop driver who takes my car for service. He said just turning the bolt is not enough. After that you have to hold the wheel and jerk it up a little to unhook it from the J type hanging latch and then lower the wheel on the floor. 

This worked perfectly. I took the wheel out completely. It has gathered a lot of dust obviously. I wonder how much air pressure it has. Anyway, I now tried to push it back up. This is where the challenge is. Putting it back up is quite a task. You have to find out the J type latch blindly (that is, without being able to see it) and engage the iron hoop of the cradle there. After some struggle Monisha and I managed to do it. 

I felt quite a sense of accomplishment. So the steps are as follows

1. Take out the OE spanner. Locate the bolt on the floor of the boot. 

2. Unscrew it by turning anti-clockwise. Nothing noticeable will happen as you unscrew. It will just stop turning at one point. 

3. Hold the spare wheel with two hands and jerk it up a little. It will get unhooked from the J type latch hanging behind the bumper.

4. Lower the wheel gently to rest on the floor and then slide it out. 

5. Put the wheel back on the cradle and push it up. This part will take some getting used to, as you will be doing it blind. You cannot see the J type latch. But you have to engage the loop over it.

6. Screw the bolt back tight.

The cradle is made of GI wires. Quite fat and adequate for the job. However, there is a plastic tray where the wheel sits. The hoop is flexible and can fold ninety degrees. The photograph is taken from the website of motoroids. Even that website has a small error that will cause problems to people trying to do it on their own. It says as you unscrew the bolt the cradle will come down. It doesn't happen like that. You have to jerk it up a little to unhook. 

Going Nuts

The other day I had posted a question on the HVK forum about my Duster's spare wheel. My question was - does the same bolt work for the steel wheel as well as the alloy wheel when you put it in the cradle? Someone said yes but it requires a different set of lug nuts.

I got one of the biggest jolts of my Duster ownership life. Now where the hell are those different nuts for the steel wheels? I was never explained this during delivery, some 30 months ago. I cannot remember this at all. I have to buy these before leaving the city. Not only that I have to use them at least once to see if they fit. So many thoughts were racing through my mind. Like where do I buy them from? Chandni or Maheshtala workshop?

Somehow, I thought let me give the boot a try !! I mean I literally gave it a boot !! And sure enough I found a small plastic blister pack with five lug nuts neatly tucked in a corner of the boot for the last 30 months. Made in Italy !! And I never knew anything about it. Come to think of it.

In this period I have done umpteen Katwa-Kolkata trips. One trip to Delhi and Bharatpur and another to Jagdalpur!!! I had no idea that the spare wheel uses a different set of lug nuts. I just cannot imagine this.

These lug nuts are a little different from the type I had for my Esteem. They were just four fat nuts. Perhaps a little cylindrical. These are like hex nuts on top of a fat screw. More like a bolt. I don't know what they are or should be called. Perhaps lug bolt.

I have to change the wheel at least once before I start off on the journey to Ranthambore on 6th October. I guess I will do it tomorrow (Mahalaya holiday) at the Deshapriya Park petrol pump, after filling in air in the spare wheel.

I intend to replicate an exact puncture situation without the puncture. That is take out the spare wheel. Take off the alloy wheel after jacking the car up. Put the spare on. Put the alloy on the cradle and drive off.

This will answer a lot of unanswered questions like is the jack strong enough? Is the spanner good enough? Or do I get some after market solution from Chandni?

As of now, I have another unanswered question. Is there any notch where you place the jack? My Peugeot had them. Does the Duster have them too? Have to find it out.

Setting The Clock

One of the problems of using any gadget these days is the lack of finer details in the user manual. They expect you to work it out from youtube. Indeed there is a how to video on virtually any and every gadget. I think the manufacturers know about it and don't invest in the manuals. 

The problem with a car like Duster is that there aren't too many youtube videos on it. So I was really at a loss to find out how to adjust the time in the dash board clock. I had actually sent the car for a brake overhaul (they changed the front brake pads at 21,000 km). It came back with the time quite off on the clock. The intuitive thing to do is push the trip meter reset lever. And indeed that's the only thing to do. But when you do that the minute side starts flashing. So how to adjust the hour side?

I just couldn't work that out. The manual as usual was of no use. Nor did youtube have any entry on the subject. So I asked team-bhp after trying in vain for two days. The answer is you keep the lever pressed hard. First the minute flashes, then the minute side changes one by one like 12,13,14. Keep it pressed. It changes by 10s. Like 23, 33, 43 .... Then the hour side starts changing. The entire movement is one way. You cannot make it 3,2,1. If you want to change it from 3 to 2 you have to run through the entire 24 hour. It takes a few seconds really.

Once you do it, it obviously looks very simple !!!.If you don't you might need to spend the entire life time. 

Mahindra XUV 500 has a series of official videos on youtube where they explain various small things for self driven owners. Renault doesn't seem to care, it seems.