Bora 4Motion: What to look for?

[Golf-Sam]

My advice is to check the fluids in the rear diff and gearbox as well as the heldex. If the fluids have any trace of metal walk away.

Mine had been serviced as per VW standards, which is to say the gearbox and diff had never had a fluid change as VW says they are "lifetime" parts but they fail to point out that lifetime means "until the warranty runs out and we don't have to care anymore"

Since I bought it just on a year ago my Bora has cost me more than $4000 in repairs (I think it might be closer to $5000) and has been off the road for the last 2 months as the pinion bearing has gone now too.

whoa ! that's horrible man .. so gearbox and diff oil ... how do you go about checking them ? sorry for being a noob .. never played with gearboxes before.. thanks

[Peter Jones]

You really need to drain the box to see the oil unfortunately.

[djorkboy]

whoa ! that's horrible man .. so gearbox and diff oil ... how do you go about checking them ? sorry for being a noob .. never played with gearboxes before.. thanks

Gearbox is pretty easy, you just need a 17mm hex socket (rare enough size and type of socket that supercheapauto won't have it but not so rare that repco won't) and the inspection hole is at the front, you don't need to jack the car up or anything. So just remove the fill plug, stick a little syringe with a piece of flexible hose on the end in there and suck up some fluid.

Not sure about where the fill hole on the diff is but once you find it the process is the same. I have always had my mechanic do that one, it was easy enough that they didn't charge me anything for just checking it and it took less than 10 minutes, so I'm sure someone around here can enlighten us on how to do it ourselves. I'm suspecting that due to access you might need to jack the car up.

And if the fluid looks like this, run away!



I would happily buy another Bora 4motion, but not without checking ALL the fluids first.

(note: I am talking about the rear DIFF here, not the Haldex, which is not a diff, it bolts to the front of the diff but is in fact nothing more than a very complicated clutch. I say this because there has been, and continues to be massive confusion due to loads of people referring to the haldex clutch as a diff)

[Golf-Sam]

Gearbox is pretty easy, you just need a 17mm hex socket (rare enough size and type of socket that supercheapauto won't have it but not so rare that repco won't) and the inspection hole is at the front, you don't need to jack the car up or anything. So just remove the fill plug, stick a little syringe with a piece of flexible hose on the end in there and suck up some fluid.

Not sure about where the fill hole on the diff is but once you find it the process is the same. I have always had my mechanic do that one, it was easy enough that they didn't charge me anything for just checking it and it took less than 10 minutes, so I'm sure someone around here can enlighten us on how to do it ourselves. I'm suspecting that due to access you might need to jack the car up.

And if the fluid looks like this, run away!



I would happily buy another Bora 4motion, but not without checking ALL the fluids first.

(note: I am talking about the rear DIFF here, not the Haldex, which is not a diff, it bolts to the front of the diff but is in fact nothing more than a very complicated clutch. I say this because there has been, and continues to be massive confusion due to loads of people referring to the haldex clutch as a diff)

Thanks very much for the Info. .. i went home to Canberra and a Bora Popped up .. will go have a look at it tomoz ..
Sam

[sandivee]

Hi all,

I too am looking at getting a Bora 4motion v6. After reading through this post it really helped in knowing what to look for.

I drove one today and did the small circle/u-turn test and the car virtually stopped and then clunk clunk clunk as I kept moving the circle.

I could hear the rear wheel slipping and the little orange light came on on the dash.

Does this mean the car is.... far from perfect?

I assume doing a u-turn should be as smooth as a normal car regardless of whether its 4x4 or not right?

Does anyone have a service guide from VW?

[HaydEn]

Do not own a mk4, but of the wheel was spinning and a light flashed, that would be the ESP?

[Golf-Sam]

Hi all,

I too am looking at getting a Bora 4motion v6. After reading through this post it really helped in knowing what to look for.

I drove one today and did the small circle/u-turn test and the car virtually stopped and then clunk clunk clunk as I kept moving the circle.

I could hear the rear wheel slipping and the little orange light came on on the dash.

Does this mean the car is.... far from perfect?

I assume doing a u-turn should be as smooth as a normal car regardless of whether its 4x4 or not right?

Does anyone have a service guide from VW?

mate id say that's not a good sign .. could be a number of things wrong with the drivetrain .. i'd get it looked at by a mechanic

[kapowww]

I drove one today and did the small circle/u-turn test and the car virtually stopped and then clunk clunk clunk as I kept moving the circle.

I could hear the rear wheel slipping and the little orange light came on on the dash.

Exact same problems I had an had to replace the rear diff ($2k was the cheapest quote I could find). Stay away! Rear diff oil and haldex should be serviced every 60000km IIRC?