1.6 16v Bora on a budget

[gruz]

Last weekend I managed to sort out a thing thats been bothering me since I lowered my car- the traditional MK4 non centered rear wheel thingy. IDF plates went on, and to be honest, once we figured out all the niggly bits from the passenger side, the drivers side was a doddle.


hey look, its me! i'm 19, live in south london and sell car parts for a living.

The thing is, IDF plates also drop the rear end an inch or two, which meant I was tucking. Good news, you'd think, right? Wrong. Lots of rubbing. Poor Pirellis.



So, after some raising, plastic cutting and driving around the local park with people in the back, I can proudly say it still rubs, but only with people in the back, or under compression. The rear adjusters are nearly halfway up, but they made like a few mm difference haha. Could be worse I guess. Would prefer the tuck to be even front and rear, but front is at its max. The sill is level though. Either way, thanks to @kuba.fwcz for helping.



Toe is questionable on passenger side too. Same shim and washer setup, yet a noticeable difference. Maybe its had a fight with a kerb in its lifetime...

In other news, I've joined the official VW Owners Club! A leak has emerged from the Bora! Not sure where its coming from, but its not directly under the sump. Its sort of behind it. Not sure whats leaking either, but its not water or fuel, must be oil. Could be worse.



Either way, this development has convinced me to raise my engine, and because this is a budget build, I am unfortunately going to have to wait till the end of the month. But with MOT only a couple months away, tyres rubbing under compression due to soft springs and my FKs horribly leaking, this may turn into a slighty less budget build quicker than we may think...



But here is a picture by a closed down VW showroom, and a photo dump of me and my girlfriend gathering a table and chairs over the weekend.









Thanks for reading!

[laBeef]

Thank you! Personally I'd want to space the front out more more, to match the rear, but I already have some rubbing issues on slow speed full lock.



Thanks! In terms of this particular car, the only issue I've had is the engine mount giving in, and driveshaft going; and it sounds like one of the drive belt rollers are on their way. But apart from that, and the engine light you see above being a faulty lambda sensor, its mint

Haha... Fair point. That check engine light just means the cars running lol.

[gruz]

Very cool, the wheels and fitment suits the car very well

Thank you! Personally I'd want to space the front out more more, to match the rear, but I already have some rubbing issues on slow speed full lock.

Car is looking fresh. I've always liked these Boras(Jettas). They have a great design - but the lack of reliability always kept me away

Thanks! In terms of this particular car, the only issue I've had is the engine mount giving in, and driveshaft going; and it sounds like one of the drive belt rollers are on their way. But apart from that, and the engine light you see above being a faulty lambda sensor, its mint

[gruz]

I very rarely clean my car, mostly because I'm lazy, but also because I don't have anywhere at home to clean it. So usually I take it to the local tesco jetwash, and use the finest foamy brush thing. If I had immaculate paintwork I'd probably care for it, but its everything but.

However, on Sunday morning I gave the Bora a good scrub and a few wipes of trim dressing on the plastics, and took it to a cars and coffee type thing where I got stuck on some tree root things and nearly crashed into a E38. Nice.



Then later on in the evening I took it to a slightly less sophisticated meet- the monthly CCK meet at Beaconsfield Services, just off the M40. Got to park up next to a fellow Bora owner in the form of Rohens bagged 1.9 TDi, personally one of the best Boras in England purely because of the attention to detail- check it out on insta - @rohen.h




(excuse the awful quality)



The mighty 1.6 16v has also made it to 120,000 miles, which means I've driven it around 7,000 miles. I would say it has been a pleasure, but to be completely honest with you, until perhaps recently, I've never been completely happy with it, whether its how it sat, wheels, driving experience, electrical issues etc. Its certainly cost me more than I thought it would, and although the whole build has certainly been very budget, I still spend more than I would've liked to. But that goes for most builds, right? Right?

Anyway, with the IDF plates ordered, its all slowly coming together to be the perfect little daily.

Thanks for reading.

[laBeef]

Car is looking fresh. I've always liked these Boras(Jettas). They have a great design - but the lack of reliability always kept me away

[Freddye]

Very cool, the wheels and fitment suits the car very well

[gruz]

It has certainly been a while since my last post, but thats mostly because not much has changed. Terrible quality picture alert.



Fogs are something I've been looking into for a while, and when a guy on the owners club messaged me saying he had a set laying about, I had to grab them. Now Boras don't come with bumper fogs, so most of the kits online are Chinese ones, they aren't terribly cheap and the wiring kits are stupid. However, seeing as I got the new kit unopened for half the price it was going for on eBay, I'm not complaining. When I first put them on, I wasn't too keen the sense of security, but so far they haven't fallen out. I haven't wired them in yet either, as I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep them, but I'm getting round to it soon. Got the loom and the switch, just need the willpower.

The dented wing and scuffed bumper were annoying me from the day the Bora touched the ground. Wings are hard to come by, as all of the ones available are either rusty, expensive, far away or the wrong colour. Fortunately, a breakers yard 140 miles away had a 1.8 ST in Reflex silver, with a rust free wing, and a scuff free bumper with only one paint chip. I picked up a grille while I was there too, and didn't pay too much. Win win!



New arms were also put on while the car was having the front end fitted. I decided against TT arms, as I'm not keeping the car long term, but if I was I'd go for the whole TT/R32 hub and arm setup. I attempted to solve knocking while cornering with another new driveshaft, but I think its just binding of sorts.

But that concludes the Bora update. I dropped the rear more and am in desperate need of centering plates. But after I sort that out, I think I'm just gonna enjoy the car as it is, and stop putting money into it.
Thanks for reading.

[gruz]

It's nearly the end of May, which also means its nearly summer! This week has been lovely so far in south London, right up until today. Its all grey and miserable this Friday morning. However, not all is grey and miserable in the Bora!

Last night I received a DHL bag, in which there was a box, in which there were two 20mm spacers and extended bolts. Nothing major really, chucked them on the back, and immediately realised two things- I have loads of toe in, and the passenger side is higher up than I thought.







The toe is a easy washer fix, which I will get around to doing when I get rear centering plates, and the height difference should in theory just be winding down that side a bit more. I want to get it to the drivers side level, and leave it there until I get bored.
Moving to the front of the car, nothings changed, apart from some new odd noises coming from the car in terms of low speed steering maneuvers. I suspect the 3 month old Powerflex top mounts have something to do with it, seeing as passenger side has a 10mm gap between the cap and chassis. Hmm.





Anyway, after a short drive to work with a combination of high speed turns and roundabouts, I can confirm there is no rubbing. Epic!


Thanks for reading!

[gruz]

If I told you I've been busy over the last couple of weeks, I'd be sort of lying. If I told you my mechanic has been busy over the last week, I wouldn't be.
Now when it comes to work that requires anything more specialist than a socket set and a hammer I usually go to one of my two select garages. So when my engine fell out, I naturally didn't even bother looking at it myself, but instead waited till payday, called a man with a flatbed, and took the Bora to a garage in Thornton Heath. Where it immediately got stuck on the flatbed. Went on fine though.







Now seeing as I dropped it off Saturday afternoon, and it was nearly closing time, I didn't get any news until Monday. And the phone call consisted of two parts- the good and the bad.
The good- the stripped thread and snapped bolt was repairable. No new gearbox needed.
The bad- passenger side driveshaft said bye bye. The engine and gearbox falling on that side put a lot of pressure on the inner CV joint and it was just easier and more economical to just replace the whole shaft.





Working at a motor factor has its advantages, and one of those is the staff discount. A new driveshaft set me back 83 quid. The reverse switch I had fitted months ago was a faulty one, so one of those as well as a oil service was done to the car.
A chassis notch was needed too- mentioned before, I thought as it was in the garage I might aswell have it done.





And on the Thursday I picked it up, in all its dusty glory.





And so with most of the mechanical issues out of the way, it was time to address the aesthetic issue that has been bothering me for months- the white wheels.
Armed with sandpaper, primer, silver wheel paint, lacquer, playing cards and a helpful girlfriend, we set to work on the bank holiday Friday. It turned out quite well I think, took around 6 hours (thats including redoing one wheel due to misjudgment on dryness).











When doing the rear wheels I realised just how bad the tyres were- the inner edges were bald, there was a puncture on the nearside bang in the middle, and the inner edge had cord showing. I'd say 10 more miles would've finished it.





The sunny Saturday consisted of finding rear tyres. Fiveways Tyres in Croydon sorted me out two basically new Pirelli Cinturatos in the same size as the front (205/40) so no more chunky 225/40s. Epic work. The broken/missing/found/lost again/found again bumper grille was also sourced from Euro Car Parts (I also failed to resist temptation to buy 15L of screenwash for £3).









A quick wash, tyre shine, Rainx window cleaner and you can really see the scratches and dents come out. Here's a few I took on a Huawei Mate 20 Lite on a overcast day.













Thanks for reading!

[gruz]

Looking good, cant wait for more updates...wheels look good but I have always loved Corvette wheels on a Bora.

thanks man! and I've never seen a Bora on corvette wheels, got a pic?

[James Q]

Looking good, cant wait for more updates...wheels look good but I have always loved Corvette wheels on a Bora.

[gruz]

Resurrecting my account to comment!

Love the Bora, remember wanting one as my first car. Shame I never went through with it. I also know the budget life, where I had absolutely no cash to do anything.

If I were you, I would of course fix the mounts as a priory once you get some cash. I would then invest in 3 or 4 cans of silver paint for your wheels and some sandpaper. Should be super cheap from halfords, like £25 cheap for it all. Grab a sunny day, and you can sand and repaint all 4 wheels and wait for them to dry during the day. It won't be professional but it'll look good enough if you're patient! I did my 6n2 wheels dark grey (what was i thinking...) and did all 4 of them in one sunny day. I'm sure I wrote the details down in my old thread.

What is stopping you from dropping the rear lower by the way?

Its going in this Saturday to a friends garage to sort the mounts and notch out! Also doing exactly what you did with your 6n2 when it comes to wheels, paint where I work is like 3 quid a can.

And my pure laziness and lack of tools is stopping me doing the rear- my rear adjusters are a bit seized up, so if I want to wind them down (or take them out) I have to take the spring out. If I go along the taking out route again, I've already got DIY bump stops in my boot, as last time it kept bottoming out the shock.

Make a 39 thread!

[Mehowski]

Resurrecting my account to comment!

Love the Bora, remember wanting one as my first car. Shame I never went through with it. I also know the budget life, where I had absolutely no cash to do anything.

If I were you, I would of course fix the mounts as a priory once you get some cash. I would then invest in 3 or 4 cans of silver paint for your wheels and some sandpaper. Should be super cheap from halfords, like £25 cheap for it all. Grab a sunny day, and you can sand and repaint all 4 wheels and wait for them to dry during the day. It won't be professional but it'll look good enough if you're patient! I did my 6n2 wheels dark grey (what was i thinking...) and did all 4 of them in one sunny day. I'm sure I wrote the details down in my old thread.

What is stopping you from dropping the rear lower by the way?

[gruz]

My last update involved my gearbox mount bolt snapping. Now when I wrote that, I had driven my car to work that day, and left it at work as I took a van home because I didn't want to damage it more. Now yesterday I thought it was time to rescue my car from work so it doesn't sit under some tree in Mitcham.
Was a lovely day, car started right up, and I was well on my way. Now mind it isn't a long drive, only 3.5 miles or so. I was 2 miles from home, and it gave up on me.






The mount said its final goodbye to the gearbox and they seperated. On a dual carriageway.






I waited an hour for the AA lorry to come, but he couldn't recover it because he didn't have the equipment to drag the car on the flatbed.





So I waited another 3 hours for recovery truck that was the same except it was a different colour and was armed with a hammer and some plastic wedges. Nice.







Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and social distancing guidelines, I had to sit in the back of my car with my girlfriend while being taken home. Certainly an odd experience.






So now my car is home. Only took 5 hours. Yes, probably wasn't the best idea to drive it back, and it only took a mile and a half to kill the mount completely. The battery is also dead, seeing as the hazards were on for so long. So until I get paid in two weeks time, I guess the Bora is gonna sit at home, dead.

Stay safe.

[gruz]

regarding the drive shafts, i remember reading somewhere about using either V5 or one of the variants in the Mk4 range drive shafts as they were slimmer and did not rub

I've been trying to look for some sort of solution to the rubbing that isn't a notch, but no one really talks about 1.6s, unless I just can't find it lol