Davies four wheeled fun

[bigfella2]

PD's are renowned for lazy starters, usually if the starter is lazy it's takes a few seconds to fire because it won't fire the injectors until it spins over at 400rpm I think. Got a 130 Ibiza sat in garage that does this, and has done for last 8 years or so, but always starts.

[Zelandeth]

That's probably one of the last cars to have the red and blue dash lighting at that age isn't it?

They're decent motors, just deathly boring...aside from the cool dash lighting.  If you just want something to be "an car" hard to go wrong with one that's been looked after though.

[drewd]

6 hours ago, Daviemck2006 said:

Well both myself and my son really like the bora. There does seem to be a very minor niggle though. The starter seems very slow. I am wondering if either the battery is not quite up to scratch, or if the starter is on the way out. I wonder if any of the previous owners of the car noticed this. It could just be due to my usage of the car, its stop/start short journeys and being started quite a lot over the course of a night.

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I don't recall it being slow when I had it, but I didn't really do many short journeys, just the 18 mile each way commute or 150-200 mile each way jaunts to visit family. That said, it's quite high mileage now so it may be showing signs of age. Or the earth may just need cleaning up?

My mate had an identical Bora and his starter motor failed about 3 years ago. I helped him to replace it and it wasn't too bad. No need to support the engine etc as per earlier golfs but I do recall having to remove the battery and battery tray to get access to it.

[Agila]

First thing I'd look to is the battery. It's the easiest to test and replace. Then buy an uprated battery with higher cca. 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

4 hours ago, bigfella2 said:

PD's are renowned for lazy starters....

Mine might be the exception. Never had a problem starting, except for the one evening when the throttle flap got stuck and the AA had to be called out....

[Daviemck2006]

That's another 90 odd miles done tonight of its usual stop start short journeys. It starts every time just sounds slow. I'm going to try a jump lead from the negative battery terminal onto one of the starter bolts to see if that improves it. Then the next step will be nick the battery out of something else, then it will be forget about it until it doesn't start. Only then will I think about a starter!

I think Zel is not going to believe this, but as the guy who bought his old xantia td with an upgraded leather interior, I find the bora as comfortable as the xantia was. It was about the same kind of mileage on it, and was used in the exact same way. And the bora has much better pull than a 1.9td xud ever had. I prefer it to the xantia which is saying something, as that xantia, although old and well used was as good a driving car as any. In fact I preferred it to the activa I previously owned! I need comfort and ease of entry/exit as the major things in a car now. Hence why I sold the citroen c1, as otherwise it was perfect for my job, just far to jiggly and sometimes harsh suspension on it. And it wasnt such a good car as the original pug 107 of which I had owned 3 of. Also the heated seats will be a godsend for me in the winter.

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[Lacquer Peel]

I found my Bora with cloth seats quite comfy too and I find some VAG stuff unbearably uncomfortable, Boras are set up with softer suspension and softer seats than the related Golf. They are good at being A Car. 

[Daviemck2006]

It's certainly comfier than the 12 plate Leon, which I suppose is basically the next version of the same basic chassis. The seats in it are ok, but the ride in it is a bit poorer than the bora, which is quite possibly because of its 17 inch wheels and 45 profile tyres instead of the poras 16 inch and 55 profile. I don't drive

fast enough nowadays to notice any difference in cornering. They just both go where I point them. They are both good at being a car. The seat is more stylish, but more boring being the dsg gearbox.

 

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[Daviemck2006]

I've just been checking my MOT dates. I hate winter mots. 3 cars, leon mot22/1/21, hilux mot 14/2/21, bora25/2/21. That's not worked out very well then.

The bora is now officially a moon mileage car. It's now just a kick on the arse short of 240K. It's doing nearly 500 miles a week, 1/2 with me and 1/2 with my son. Sons friend has just broke a 1.9tdi bora which was a mot failure. It had a remapped ECU in it and a fancy exhaust. Son wants these parts to make this one faster, but I have said no. I don't need it any faster and he is not getting it any faster. And it does said 500 miles on about £55 of diesel so that's easy enough on fuel for the usage it gets. My mileage is mostly stop/start, his is a 35 mile each way commute, probably driven at illegal speeds. It's a good car. The thing I'm wondering about is the timing belt. It was done at 80k, again at 160k so is due again. So the question is do I get it done again, or play timing belt roulette? Probably should bite the bullet and do it, the car runs and feels like an 80k car, and I've just got the Leon's one done at 75k, so doing it would be the right thing to do.

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[paulplom]

Do the timing belt. Worth it on a good car that you like. 

If it goes you'll need a new car and all the hassle that goes with it.

[DaveDorson]

It it done.

When you get it done also make sure you do all the TTY bolts on the engine mounts as well as the pulleys and idlers.

Don't skip the stretch bolts, no matter what Internet wisdom tells you.

[5speedracer]

Yeah, the drivers side wing is mint, and the passenger side just showing very slight bubbling. There is also a 5litre oil bottle in the boot with just a little oil left in it which I would assume would be the remains of that oil change. That's good to know when it was last changed, it will get changed again soon, better for the sake of a few quid to look after the engine as it is so good at its age and miles. Goes to show how if you look after a car it will look after you.

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Take it to VW and kick off about the wings. Apparently it's an admitted fault and new wings have been had under warranty well past the timeframe you'd expect. Worth a try anyway.

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[Jazoli]

15 minutes ago, 5speedracer said:

Take it to VW and kick off about the wings. Apparently it's an admitted fault and new wings have been had under warranty well past the timeframe you'd expect. Worth a try anyway.

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Hahaha that would be one way to make yourself look like a total idiot, would you really go and stand in a VW dealership and 'kick off' that the front wing on your 15 year old end of life car (no offence intended to DMK) is a bit rusty, you'd get laughed out of the dealership, what an odd suggestion.

[Daviemck2006]

Hahaha that would be one way to make yourself look like a total idiot, would you really go and stand in a VW dealership and 'kick off' that the front wing on your 15 year old end of life car (no offence intended to DMK) is a bit rusty, you'd get laughed out of the dealership, what an odd suggestion.

I can be an idiot at times but not that much of an idiot! I very much doubt that this car will ever see the inside of a vw dealership again. I doubt if it will ever even see the inside of a garage again apart from MOT time. I wont be doing the timing belt personally, I have a mechanic son in law who is a serial vw licker who will be the guy wielding the spanners for a timing belt. And if the wing that is slightly rusty, it's also slightly bent, ever does need changing it will be yours truly who will sort that out.

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[Tadhg Tiogar]

38 minutes ago, Daviemck2006 said:

... if the wing that is slightly rusty, it's also slightly bent, ever does need changing it will be yours truly who will sort that out.

Have obtained new left wing panel. Changing wing took me half an afternoon the last time. Will combine with changing the headlamp lenses for less foggy ones

[Zelandeth]

The thing I can't quite believe is that you're even letting him sit in it, much less drive it unattended given his history of killing cars...

If it were me I'd definitely be getting the timing belt done sooner than later.  If it's a sound car that you're getting along well it's well worth it.  Last thing you want is it to snap and leave you stranded in the back of beyond up where you are.

[bunglebus]

VW will contribute towards corrosion repair up to 10 years old - how much depends on how loyal to VW servicing you've been.

[Jazoli]

31 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

VW will contribute towards corrosion repair up to 10 years old - how much depends on how loyal to VW servicing you've been.

Yep and the Bora is 15 years old at best, and VW will only contribute if the car has regularly been serviced and 'inspected' by themselves, as an aside I saw my old one running around last week, its wings were still intact and its now 18 years old.

[Daviemck2006]

I wonder if Seat are good for corrosion repairs. There is just the start of bubbling on one wing of the leon, which is 8&1/2 years old. I may make a trip to seat about it. It has a full service history apart from the last service which was done at a decent independent. It will be worth asking the next time I am in Aberdeen with it.


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[Daviemck2006]

Yes zelandeth you know about his car wrecking exploits from the FCF. However since I took the big step of throwing him out of my house two years ago and basically disowning him and rarely seeing him or even about him for over a year he has screwed the nut and settled down. He has never driven my Leon, never driven the hilux, and only ever once driven the newly departed BMW. The bora was bought between us, 60/40 in my favour, I pay insurance and tax, he pays all the fuel for both of us. This is as much a test to see if he is trustworthy now as it is to save my Leon from getting destroyed at my work, which is seriously hard on the car. The 16 reg c1 I bought at 4400 miles then sold with 15k covered less than a year later needed a new clutch, front discs and pads and front tyres when it left. It's better for me, and other delivery drivers to have elderly cars that are cheap to run then get binned when they need major money spent on them. At the moment he is actually saving me money, having contributed to the buying of it, and doing the fuel. The very minute I hear about him abusing it he will be taken off the insurance and I will buy him out of the car. So the bora is actually much more than just an old car, approaching life end, although I hope it does quite a few more miles before it is at life end. Because I like it, and the Leon, and I'm trying to keep cars for longer as from now, I would be happy with the bora doing say 2&1/2 years, then it leaving me and the Leon then becoming the work hack and something about 4 or 5 years old taking over from it. The hilux, well it is a toy really, it's not really needed but a man needs a toy. The 540 was going to be my toy, but although a gearbox service may have sorted it out, a gearbox overhaul or replacement would have scrapped it for me. The guy who bought it knows it needs work and he is quite happy. It made 460 miles home with him without any incidents, and he is a serial bmw e39 licker who has a good gearbox to fit and he can do it himself. He wanted a 540 v8, theres not a lot for sale, and he had contacted me, got the description warts and all, and agreed the deal within an hour of the ad found live on an e39 Facebook group. So I'm hoping my wee fleet is now going to be steady now for a good while. Shaun is going to do the service and fit the new discs and pads the car came with, Dan will do the timing belt for us, and in deference to the mileage and useage of the car it will get decent oil and do no more than 10k between each service. The ambition is really to get it to 300k before it leaves us.

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[drewd]

I'd do the belt and as Dave mentioned ensure new stretch bolts are used on the engine mount. I've seen what happens when the bolts aren't replaced and they fail, it's not pretty.

I know nothing is guaranteed but there's a load of service history with this car to show it's been cared for and as you say it drives well. These engines can do 300k plus miles so it might well survive another 80k miles with regular servicing.

[Daviemck2006]

Between it and my Leon they both have the most comprehensive service history ever. And they both drive superbly. Which to me does show the benefits of servicing regularly. More so with the bora at 240k when I told Dan about it his comment was nicely run in. His golf with the same mechanicals is on 150K and hit transporter converted into a camper is 180K, again it it a 1,9td but in a lesser state of tune.

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[5speedracer]

Hahaha that would be one way to make yourself look like a total idiot, would you really go and stand in a VW dealership and 'kick off' that the front wing on your 15 year old end of life car (no offence intended to DMK) is a bit rusty, you'd get laughed out of the dealership, what an odd suggestion.

When I said "kick off" I may* have been using some artistic licence.

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[juular]

20 hours ago, Daviemck2006 said:

I wonder if Seat are good for corrosion repairs. There is just the start of bubbling on one wing of the leon, which is 8&1/2 years old. I may make a trip to seat about it. It has a full service history apart from the last service which was done at a decent independent. It will be worth asking the next time I am in Aberdeen with it.


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In my experience with an Ibiza with a prematurely rotten wing, they will laugh at you and give you every excuse under the sun. That was with a 6 year old car, full dealer history. I deliberately drove it 50 miles to the previous owner's dealer where it had been stamped up, plus they held the best dealer in the UK award at the time so thought it was worth a punt. Instead I was told "road chips LOL, impact from outside, not covered m9, want to test drive a new one?"

It was clearly caused by the lump of soundproof foam sitting behind the arch which soaks up a salt water mixture and slowly fizzes away. 

In contrast my stepdad's Jetta was done under the perforation warranty at 10 years old, no questions asked. Same stupid foam pads, which they removed before fitting new wings.

[Daviemck2006]

That's £125 worth of timing belt kit, stretch bolts and auxiliary belt ordered. My son in law is going to do the needful. Far better safe rather than sorry. Easier to get and change the belts rather than an engine. It will make the car easier to sell, if it ever does get sold.

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[Tadhg Tiogar]

11 minutes ago, Daviemck2006 said:

That's £125 worth of timing belt kit, stretch bolts and auxiliary belt ordered. ...
 

Any part numbers we can note down for future reference?

[Daviemck2006]

Timing belt kit KP55569XS-1. A gates kit. I just typed in vw stretch bolts and got them, don't know the part numbers. Theres two long bolts, two not so long bolts and one little one.

 

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[Daviemck2006]

Filters and oil also bought to give the old girl a good going over. I think it will be next week sometime, Dan has his 4 days off that he gets once a month so that's when it will be service bora time. I am suffering with sciatica just now so haven't been at my work so I've not seen it for nearly two weeks. I am assuming it is still in one piece and working properly.

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[Daviemck2006]

The bora is dropped off to Dan's in Elgin. He should be doing it at the weekend. The car certainly is good enough to get the money spent on it. Its racking up the miles faultlessly

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[Jamie]

glad its still going the guy i got it off originally had it about 9 years i think, it was rough as fuck when i got it, your hands stuck to the steering wheel with grime - im sure it had a belt about 210k have you not got the receipts with it?