VW Bora stalling - Ken Graham
My VW Bora 1.6 is under 4000 miles and has been to a vw main dealer three times because of stalling when moving off and particularly when reversing. There is a lengthy delay between pressing the accelator and the engine picking up - hence the stall. After the last visit, VW said the car was within VW specifications and nothing could be done. A "VW insider" tells me that many petrol-engined owners have made similar complaints but VW's response is that it is a "characteristic of the car". It's a very dangerous characteristic. Any advice/comments?
Re: VW Bora stalling - Adam Going (Tune-Up Ltd)
Ken,
This certainly doesn't sound like normal to me ! If your VAG dealer won't sort it you should tell them that you are taking it to a diagnostic specialist (see your Yellow Pages under Car Engine Tuning) and that you will expect them to pick up the bill - that may put them into a helpful frame of mind ! They can call a factory engineer in if they can't sort it themselves, but you should start putting things in writing and get their agreement before taking it elsewhere if the car is still under warranty. Possible faults include the throttle position sensor, the MAP sensor (also check for blockage in the vacuum pipe to it) and the EGR valve. I don't recall seeing it on a petrol Bora, but some VW diesels have a spring "damper" in the throttle cable - if this was too slack it could produce your symptoms. Good Luck!
Re: VW Bora stalling - Roger Jones
Get very firm with both the dealer and VW head office, but stay polite and factual. Restrict your further communications to letters -- that minimizes the emotion and the scope for error and misinterpretation. I had a completely unrelated problem several years ago on a brand new top-of-the-range Golf VR6, and eventually got a satisfactory response only by dogged persistence.
Re: VW Bora stalling - Alex
just check back to the vw reliability myth in the older thread. This unwillingness by dealers and vw seems par for the course in my experience.

we're all just unlucky!