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.