bora 2000 problem

[vwbora1]

Hi guys!

Have Bora for the last 6 years. Never had any problems until lately.

The car is 11 yo its 4 cylinder sedan. Ir still runs fine but sometimes it makes some noise under the stirring wheel and with the noise car starts running a bit rough. As soon as you put the gear box to Neutral its runs smooth as new.
The trick is it starts and finishes anytime. Went to a mechanic but it was running smoothly fine.

Hope my explanation make sense and someone had such experience.

Thanks for the help.

[Manaz]

I have a whirring steering setup - had one of the power steering hoses replaced, doesn't seem to have fixed the issue, but the steering does seem to work fine.

On the rough running - get the car diagnosed by a VW specialist (they have access to appropriate tools for interrogating the VW ECU, which keeps track of a surprising number of things). Not overly familar with the 4pot engine, but if it runs individual coil packs, they'd be something I'd be investigating.

The other thing to look at would be engine/gearbox/dogbone mounts, particularly if the behaviour changes as you take it out of gear...

[vwbora1]

Thanks Manaz. The car is at the mechanic, will see what they find this time

[whiteVR6]

The 4 cylinder runs a single coil and it doesnt have the misfire fault code feature found on the later v5/v6 engines.

[vwbora1]

just got a phone call from the mechanic. Looks like the computer is stuffed.

[Manaz]

VW specialist with the correct tools to query the ECU (no standard OBDII doesn't count)?

[vwbora1]

VW specialist ?

I wish I had that money to afford VW specialist.

[Manaz]

I wish I had that money to afford VW specialist.

Really not that expensive, compared to say, a replacement ECU (particularly if you find you didn't need it and replacing it doesn't resolve your problems...

There's a VW specialist down your way if I recall (not talking dealers here, specialist independant workshops), and Golf_Loon at Camden GTI wouldn't be a horrid trip for you...

[vwbora1]

I actually haven't tried non dealer VW specialists. The guy who's doing my car right know I can trust him. The only problem is I can't leave car for too long. I need it almost every day. So the guy is really doing A good job. But this time I ll leave it until its fixed.

[Manaz]

I actually haven't tried non dealer VW specialists. The guy who's doing my car right know I can trust him. The only problem is I can't leave car for too long. I need it almost every day. So the guy is really doing A good job. But this time I ll leave it until its fixed.

Unless he has the correct tools to interrogate the ECU, I'd be concerned with a claim that the ECU is dead...