In mid-May, Denis Pak, director of the automotive industry and the railway engineering department of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade, announced that Renault Duster under the Lada brand would be located at AVTOVAZ’s Togliatti plant. Until recently, the crossover was produced (of course, under the Renault brand) at the Renault Russia plant, which has now been converted into Moskvich.
A week later, there were indications that the crossover on its way to the corner from Renault to Lada would get a VAZ-21179 engine (1.8 liter, 122 hp) under the hood, which in combination with a manual gearbox on Vesta . The reason is that the basic French H4M engine, not to mention the rest of the Duster units, cannot be sufficiently localized in Russia. The expert of the oldest and most authoritative car publication “Behind the wheel” Nikita Gudkov said that he could be behind such a “heart transplant”.
Expert opinion
Nikita Gudkov, Deputy editor of the magazine “Behind the wheel”:
– I suppose that technically it is not difficult to put the VAZ-21179 engine under the hood of the Duster – in dimensions it is comparable to the VAZ 1.6 engine, which has been installed on Largus for seven years now. If you theoretically compare the Duster with the Alliance H4Mk engine (1.6, 113 hp, 152 Nm) and the same car with the VAZ-21179 (1.8, 122 hp, 170 Nm), the second option will clearly have a higher torque be and more dynamic. However, the history of the transition to VAZ Largus engines raises the question of whether such a Duster would be noisier and more prone to vibration. The 1.8 engine is also not particularly economical.
But the plus is the maintainability. The H4Mk’s cast iron versus aluminum block is an opportunity for a cheap overhaul, if not more than one. Such a Duster can last longer – but certainly bother with minor problems inherent in the components of VAZ engines – thermostats, pumps, rollers, and so on. I don’t even know which is better.
However, in the whole story with the possible transfer from Duster to VAZ traction, another question is interesting. With what gearbox are they going to install the VAZ-21179 engine? VAZ does not have its own box for 170 Nm of torque, and this engine is installed on Vesta with the Renault JR5 “mechanical”. The assembly is localized, but will it continue without Renault?
Making a new gearbox or adjusting the engine to 150 Nm to couple an existing VAZ-made unit from Lad with a 1.6 engine is a big and long job. In addition, there are currently no options to integrate four-wheel drive with the VAZ box, which is so necessary for Duster. Well, it is clear that “automatic machines” with a 1.8 engine are not to be expected in the near future.
- At the end of May, it turned out that the switch from Duster to the AVTOVAZ conveyor belt may be further away than initially thought.
- “Driving” can be read in Viber.