Freelander 1 2004 TD4 IRD/VCU

Following on from my previous posts regarding my IRD, I have the car back now and all appears to be OK.
With regards to the VCU, there is no binding reversing on full lock and a OWUT today using the suggested methods gave a time of 51 seconds.
The car had not been driven for 24 hours or so and temperatures got down to below freezing last night so I assume this could have increased the viscosity of the fluid in the VCU?
Is a 51 second time getting close to suggesting a new VCU, or is it still OK?
Also, should I carry out another OWUT with the car and fluids at normal operating temperatures?
As always, any advice much appreciated.

Did you do it a number of times? Did they start longer than that then settle at that sort of time?

I don't think 51 seconds is to bad - especially if you only did the test once on a cold VCU. Even if you did it a number of times, starting over 1 minute and settling at 51 seconds, its the sort of time that you are probably OK running the VCU, but similarly swapping it out would not be seen as overly cautious.

Would be interesting to see other's thoughts.

I did the test 5 or 6 times and all the results were 50 to 52 seconds averaging 51.
Likewise, other opinions would be interesting!!

Jonny H said:

I did the test 5 or 6 times and all the results were 50 to 52 seconds averaging 51.
Likewise, other opinions would be interesting!!

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What weight were you using? 5Kg at 1.2 Metres or 8K at 1.2 Metres

5kg at 1.2 metres.

The VCU would appear to be OK at the moment. However a replacement isn't far off. Make sure the tyres are spot on to the owners hand book. The more stiff the VCU, the less tolerance is for tyre mismatch.

Tyres are all same make and model, all same size, all inflated to 2.1 bar, slightly less worn on the rear.
I'll monitor the VCU. I'm doing around 1000km a month, should a OWUT once a month be OK?

Jonny H said:

Tyres are all same make and model, all same size, all inflated to 2.1 bar, slightly less worn on the rear.
I'll monitor the VCU. I'm doing around 1000km a month, should a OWUT once a month be OK?

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Doing the OWUT every 1000Km is a good way to monitor it

Are there any members out there, on the Iberian peninsular, who know of reputable suppliers of reconditioned VCUs?

Jonny H said:

Are there any members out there, on the Iberian peninsular, who know of reputable suppliers of reconditioned VCUs?

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I don't know about good reconditioners down that way. However Bell Engineering who are recommended here for reconditioned VCUs will ship worldwide

There have been lots of dodgy recon suppliers putting on a knowledgeable front - but fleecing cash off people for a heap of junk. There are also some suppliers who start out as the nice guy - but turn very undesirable if you so much as question what they've supplied. We've even had reports from Portugal of VCUs that have to low viscosity fluid (assuming it was silicone fluid) that won't transfer meaningful drive to the back wheels. There may be good ones out there other than Bells - but knowing how many bad ones there are, I think Bells is about the only recommendation you'll get from people on this forum.

You should be OK running that VCU for a while though. I bought a Freelander that has a working IRD and the oil came out looking reasonably good (admittedly unknown how long it had been in there for). When I did the OWUT it settled at about 2 minutes. That VCU is sitting in my garage and won't be used until its reconditioned - but it hadn't destroyed the IRD up to that point. I'm not saying run yours till it gets to 2 minutes, just that I don't think its in imminent danger of destroying your IRD.

Thanks to all for the valuable advice.