My Bora's first trip to the doctor

[djorkboy]

So, 4 weeks in and my Bora has developed a problem. I can't say I am surprised, any car with 168,000kms on the clock is going to have an issue or two, no matter how well serviced it is. I got a big enough discount on this car over what an 01 4motion would usually cost (there are cars with more miles than mine on sale for almost $5000 more than I paid) that I am expecting some expenditure.

The car had a quiet cycling whine from the rear that fell into the "I must get those bearings looked at" category. It was only noticeable over 70-80kmh.

Then last night driving home I heard what sounded at first like a rock or something landing on the roof. At the time I was just coming out of a 60 zone into an 80 zone on a straight stretch of road, I was surprised but thought maybe something had fallen out of a tree onto the car. Then the same bang again about 20 seconds later. So I slowed down and opened the window, as I did there was another bang, with the window down it sounded like it was coming from the rear drivers side wheel and it sounded sort of like the metallic sound a hubcap makes when you bang it on and the metal clip springs into place, only louder.

At this point I pulled over and got out to check things out. I had a look around and everything looked OK, shook each wheel a bit and checked they were on properly then I drove slowly down a side street and did a couple of slow hard turns to see if I could hear anything, all was well, nothing sounded funny, no more bangs.

So I drove slowly the rest of the way home (about 6kms) with all the windows down and the bang didn't happen again, everything sounded fine except the regular soft whine from the rear.

Today the whine from the rear was quite a bit louder and starts to be noticeable at 40-50 instead of 70-80. Also I feel that the rear wheels seem to have some camber on them that they didn't have before but I could just be paranoid, it has happened before

So it was off to my local trusted mechanic, he is hoping to have an answer for me tomorrow.

I'm thinking either wheel bearings, hubs, CV joints or (please no) diff. I'm guessing that if the diff is gone I will be working some overtime to pay this repair off.

[Back Door Shenanigans.]

Could also be the Haldex unit. If the clutches have gone could cause that noise although i don't know what would be causing it to kick in.

[djorkboy]

So my mechanic says that he believes the noise is coming from the diff, this does not make me happy.

He says that we are not quite at the "diff recondition stage" yet, he wants to try draining the fluid and seeing what it looks like first.

I noticed on the service record that at the service before last it has pencilled in "diff fluid" at the bottom, I really hope some pickle didn't put the wrong fluid in it and kill it!

[grtuned]

**** go, I've heard of story's and seen when a haldex change is done but the oil is put in the diff and not the haldex and after short period diff is no good, Hope this isnt the case for you. You call them pickles i call them useless F@#$s

So my mechanic says that he believes the noise is coming from the diff, this does not make me happy.

He says that we are not quite at the "diff recondition stage" yet, he wants to try draining the fluid and seeing what it looks like first.

I noticed on the service record that at the service before last it has pencilled in "diff fluid" at the bottom, I really hope some pickle didn't put the wrong fluid in it and kill it!

[djorkboy]

I believe the last 5 years servicing of my Bora has been done by European Auto Tech at Mona Vale and from what I hear these guys are VW experts and very well regarded so I am reasonably confident they wouldn't make such a stupid mistake as putting the wrong fluid in.

....but, my mechanic says he called Volkswagen to find out what the service interval is for diff fluid in a Bora 4motion and he was told it is a life of unit thing and should never need replacing as a routine servicing thing, so if that really is the case, why did the fluid get changed in mid-2010? Was there something wrong that they were trying to remedy by changing the fluid? Or was it the Haldex fluid that got changed in mid-2010 and not the diff fluid?

[Bora Sport]

I had a problem with my 2001 4Mo diff around 60,000 k's ago. It was ok when cold but then after say a 100 k drive at highway speeds it would make a god awful noise when turning. I took it to VW dealer and other people and eventually after changing the Haldex oil and filter to no benefit I got the diff oil changed and it fixed my problem. I was told at the time the same as you that the diff oil doesn't need to be changed but obviously it does. My mechanic mate told me it was fairly common with Commodores. The diffs clunk and bang. Change the oil and all is good.

Mine Bora has over 200,000k's on it now so yours is still low mileage lol.

[djorkboy]

So they took the diff oil out and there is a considerable amount of metal in it. So it is diff recondition or replace time.

Anyone have a spare Bora rear diff lying around?

[djorkboy]

This is what came out of my diff

[Coralon]

eeeeewww!!

Hope it doesnt cost too much, drive train parts for these things can be pricey.

[Jmac]

Eww, that looks yuk mate, some case hardening in there for sure. i had a whole Haldex and diff sitting in the UK from a 4Mo Golf. They do come up now and again. Im trying to set up a DHL acct so will be able to import heaps of thjis stuff soon. The unit i had sat around so long it went white with corrosion, what a shame.
Jmac