Replacement Transmission VW Bora

[Bora03]

Hi everyone, I am new to the Forum, just joined so pretty excited to be part of the group. This is my first car group forum so forgive my lack of knowledge. I have a 2003 VW Bora v5 2.3L , which i have owned for 15 years, it has served me pretty well, bar a few cheeky problems and electrical gremlins along the way and still really enjoy driving it. Recently though the Auto gearbox has given me much trouble, it started with intermittent loss of reverse gear, which then developed into permanent loss of reverse gear, and now it is slipping in forward gear. I wanted to keep the car so i hunted around for a used transmission and have finally managed to find a compatible unit from a wrecking yard. I have called around a few auto trans mechanics about remove and replace costs and am getting varied costs and varied answers regarding the need for re-calibration. Quotes have ranged from $1100 - $3000 and some mechanics have said it should be a straight changeover ( plug and play ) where others have said it will need a new module and re-calibrating ( re-programming )...forgive my lack of tech knowledge here can anybody shine some light on this subject for me please, before i proceed? Thank you very much everyone

[MIG]

Welcome, head on over to the mk4 section and I am sure someone can help.

I had a 2001 VR5 Bora and loved every moment of it, got it up to 250,000km when i sold it.

The auto transmissions on those come two flavors, the 4 speed and the 5 speed, being the V5 i would think the 5 speed? you can tell if it has the triptronic shifter, if it's the 4 speed give up.

They are actually made by Jatco (Nissan) and are "filled for life" they had a number of issues from that, including valve body failures and bad solenoids.

Even with the fluid changes, mine would still flare bad then slam into gear on the 2-3 shift sometimes.

No mechatronics or re-programming like the DSGs on these, I would check and change the fluid first (Penrite make compatible stuff) then look at solenoids.

Edit: here is some great info Gears Magazine - Basic Test Procedures: Isolate No Reverse on a Jatco JF506E

[Bora03]

Hi MIG, thanks so much for your response to my post, I appreciate your insights and suggestions. I had initially taken it to several vw mechanics and specialised trans mechanics and they couldn't give me any indication of what it could be sadly, and all said to find out it would mean pulling the trans apart and it could cost $1000 or $5000 depending on what they found and given the value of the car and other mechanical problems it has, they didn't suggest it, so i left it and was just going to scrap the car sadly, but then i found this used transmission from exactly the same car, for $550 so i have decided to take the gamble and have it replaced, hopefully that will keep me going for a while still. Thanks again mate