Would that be the test as quoted by bell engineering as a load of rubbish test here is what they say!! (Freelander IRD's are a common failure on these 4x4's. If the vehicle is making a clonking or grinding noise when letting on and off the power or turning a corner, especially noticable in reverse, or you are intermitantly losing drive followed by a loud bang/grinding noise, then your IRD has/is failing. The root cause of this failure 9 times out of 10 is a faulty viscous coupling unit (VCU), which should be changed at the same time as the IRD.
If your Freelander feels "tight" or it appears the brakes are binding, especially when reversing on full lock, this means your existing VCU is past its servicable life and you should change it as soon as possible. A damaged VCU put massive strain on the rest of your transmission line, causing the IRD unit, rear diff and gearbox to wear at a hugely accelerated rate, and will cause a very costly failure of these parts. A VCU's servicable life span is usually no more than 70k miles, but it can be a lot less (we have seen cars with failures at 30k miles) depending on how the car has been driven.
It is a common fallacy that VCUs seize. In all our years of experience we have never come across a seized VCU. What actually happens is the silicon viscous fluid gets thicker and thicker with wear and slowly causes the viscous coupling to become stiffer and stiffer to rotate. More and more strain is therefore put on the gear train and failure eventually occurs to the IRD and rear diff.It is a common fallacy that VCUs seize. In all our years of experience we have never come across a seized VCU. What actually happens is the silicon viscous fluid gets thicker and thicker with wear and slowly causes the viscous coupling to become stiffer and stiffer to rotate. More and more strain is therefore put on the gear train and failure eventually occurs to the IRD and rear diff.
It has been reported on some internet sites that to test the VCU if you jack the one back wheel of your Freelander without the handbrake applied you should be able to turn the rear wheel and that if you cannot turn the wheel your VCU has seized -THIS IS TOTAL RUBBISH! You would hardly be able to do this by hand as you would need a 2 foot breaker bar and stand on it, the wheel will move very slowly - this still does not indicate whether the VCU is any good or not as all wheels will turn regardless of the condition of the VCU.
Another common fallacy for testing VCUs is the tipex test whereby you put a tipex mark on the shaft next to the front prop shaft and one opposite on the viscous coupling and if these marks have moved out of line after being driven round)
Their words not mine and these guys are well respected in what they do.Like i say mine drives perfect in all directions.
If your Freelander feels "tight" or it appears the brakes are binding, especially when reversing on full lock, this means your existing VCU is past its servicable life and you should change it as soon as possible. A damaged VCU put massive strain on the rest of your transmission line, causing the IRD unit, rear diff and gearbox to wear at a hugely accelerated rate, and will cause a very costly failure of these parts. A VCU's servicable life span is usually no more than 70k miles, but it can be a lot less (we have seen cars with failures at 30k miles) depending on how the car has been driven.
It is a common fallacy that VCUs seize. In all our years of experience we have never come across a seized VCU. What actually happens is the silicon viscous fluid gets thicker and thicker with wear and slowly causes the viscous coupling to become stiffer and stiffer to rotate. More and more strain is therefore put on the gear train and failure eventually occurs to the IRD and rear diff.It is a common fallacy that VCUs seize. In all our years of experience we have never come across a seized VCU. What actually happens is the silicon viscous fluid gets thicker and thicker with wear and slowly causes the viscous coupling to become stiffer and stiffer to rotate. More and more strain is therefore put on the gear train and failure eventually occurs to the IRD and rear diff.
It has been reported on some internet sites that to test the VCU if you jack the one back wheel of your Freelander without the handbrake applied you should be able to turn the rear wheel and that if you cannot turn the wheel your VCU has seized -THIS IS TOTAL RUBBISH! You would hardly be able to do this by hand as you would need a 2 foot breaker bar and stand on it, the wheel will move very slowly - this still does not indicate whether the VCU is any good or not as all wheels will turn regardless of the condition of the VCU.
Another common fallacy for testing VCUs is the tipex test whereby you put a tipex mark on the shaft next to the front prop shaft and one opposite on the viscous coupling and if these marks have moved out of line after being driven round)
Their words not mine and these guys are well respected in what they do.Like i say mine drives perfect in all directions.
Last edited:
