gareth123 · Feb 9, 2013

Hello!

Just playing with my 1999 Freelander Di 5 door 190,000 Km and enjoying it. Looks nice and tidy and generally sound and I am pleased with it. My first job is to get the VCU tested and I just had a look under the car this afternoon and took the photo here

I am not really sure what I am looking at (I know a VCU!) but is it suposed to be welded together in the middle? Also, what is the metal bracket bolted to one end of it? Obviiosuly the unit has been off before because there are arrows ont eh prop and marks where thing have been lined up. It does get a bit heavy on full lock so I guess I will need it replaced soon.

Any advice to a novice?

Thanks
Gareth

Hippo · Feb 9, 2013

No. Some idiot has welded the damper to your vcu.

You can test the vcu yourself with the One Wheel Up Test and the Turnip Test.

gareth123 · Feb 9, 2013

Hippo said:
No. Some idiot has welded the damper to your vcu.

You can test the vcu yourself with the One Wheel Up Test and the Turnip Test.

Thank you

Is this going to do damage - what does the damper do and why would they weld it?

Nodge68 · Feb 9, 2013

The damper is there to reduce torsional vibration. I expect the rubber part of the damper failed but welding it on is not a fix!! It would have been better to simply remove it. The V6 Freelander doesn't have the damper at all. The problem you are going to have should the VCU be fauly is no one will want your old one in part exchange

gareth123 · Feb 10, 2013

Nodge68 said:
The damper is there to reduce torsional vibration. I expect the rubber part of the damper failed but welding it on is not a fix!! It would have been better to simply remove it. The V6 Freelander doesn't have the damper at all. The problem you are going to have should the VCU be fauly is no one will want your old one in part exchange

Thanks for clarifying this. Some people go to extreme lengths to 'fix' things. Looks like I probably need to brace myself for the cost of a new VCU then at some stage.....

Hippo · Feb 10, 2013

Test the vcu yourself as above. The least you can do is Turnip Test it by putting your hand on the vcu after a drive. The temp of the vcu will indicate what it's doing, OR what your car is doing to the vcu.

Your L series diesel should have a damper I think.

bukko · Feb 10, 2013

I have an L series VCU in my garage (and the rest of the prop!).
Can't remember if it has a damper though. If it came with one new, then it does.

It probably needs reconditioning as it did 170k (mainly motorway) miles plus I think the bearings are knackered.
I'm pretty sure my L series had the old IRD ratio (which was altered for new cars around 2000 I think), so the chances of this one being in good order are practically zero, especially as I used to change tyres 2 at a time cos I didn't know better.
(I remember the LR dealer asking my why my rear tyres were feathered...)

But if you need one for reconditioning there's an option. Would be happy to help if you just paid the postage.
Otherwise will probably flog it to Bell Engineering as I'm not working too far from them at the moment.

gareth123 · Feb 11, 2013

bukko said:
I have an L series VCU in my garage (and the rest of the prop!).
But if you need one for reconditioning there's an option. Would be happy to help if you just paid the postage.
Otherwise will probably flog it to Bell Engineering as I'm not working too far from them at the moment.

Thanks that is helpful. I actually live in France which complicates things regarding postage but I will bear it in mind. My first job is to test the current VCU.

Thanks again

austen · Feb 11, 2013

We (bell engineering) are happy to ship to france

digby · Feb 11, 2013

Hi Gareth

I also live in France and Bell shipped to me.
worked a treat and return postage is not so much (around € 30 to send back the old VCU complete with bearings)

gareth123 · Feb 11, 2013

digby said:
Hi Gareth

I also live in France and Bell shipped to me.
worked a treat and return postage is not so much (around 30 to send back the old VCU complete with bearings)

Thanks
That's good to know! I may well be in touch with them shortly ....

gareth123 · Feb 11, 2013

austen said:
We (bell engineering) are happy to ship to france

Thanks - I will test the VCU tomorrow and suspect I may need to contact you. If you saw my first post in this thread you will have seen the photo of my VCU which has had the damper welded to the rest of the unit. Would you take this as part of a recon exchange or would I need to pay a surcharge?

Gareth

austen · Feb 11, 2013

gareth123 said:
Thanks - I will test the VCU tomorrow and suspect I may need to contact you. If you saw my first post in this thread you will have seen the photo of my VCU which has had the damper welded to the rest of the unit. Would you take this as part of a recon exchange or would I need to pay a surcharge?

Gareth

We can come to some arrangement

gareth123 · Feb 11, 2013

austen said:
We can come to some arrangement

OK great will keep you posted!

teddywood1 · Feb 11, 2013

they seem to be very good blokes at Bell

gareth123 · Feb 12, 2013

teddywood1 said:
they seem to be very good blokes at Bell

Yes - they do indeed. Very impressed and I am sure I will have dealings with them in the future.

Right now it seems my VCU is still doing what it is supposed to do - I actually took the car along to a Land Rover workshop in Beziers and they tested the VCU for me (free). They said it was certainly not new but still performing quite well so I will leave it as it is for now - perhaps a job for the warmer weather! I was curious to have a Land Rover mechanic take a look just in case there were any surprises I needed to be aware of . I think I will be home-servicing, though, as the cost of a Land Rover standard service is 300 and a full one is 700 !

Thanks for all yur help so far everyone. I will be a reguler browser and hopefully contributer on this forum.

sijwhite · Feb 12, 2013

gareth123 said:
Yes - they do indeed. Very impressed and I am sure I will have dealings with them in the future.

Right now it seems my VCU is still doing what it is supposed to do - I actually took the car along to a Land Rover workshop in Beziers and they tested the VCU for me (free). They said it was certainly not new but still performing quite well so I will leave it as it is for now - perhaps a job for the warmer weather! I was curious to have a Land Rover mechanic take a look just in case there were any surprises I needed to be aware of . I think I will be home-servicing, though, as the cost of a Land Rover standard service is 300 and a full one is 700 !

Thanks for all yur help so far everyone. I will be a reguler browser and hopefully contributer on this forum.

What did they do to the VCU to test it?

gareth123 · Feb 13, 2013

sijwhite said:
What did they do to the VCU to test it?

Good question as I was sat upstairs in a showroom and the mechanic went downstairs - but he said this beforehand

il faut contrôler le contre poids sur le visco et les paliers ............on fait un bilan cela prendra 15 minute

Roughly meaning they would check the counter balance on the VCU which would take 15 minutes ............

austen · Feb 13, 2013

gareth123 said:
Good question as I was sat upstairs in a showroom and the mechanic went downstairs - but he said this beforehand

il faut contrôler le contre poids sur le visco et les paliers ............on fait un bilan cela prendra 15 minute

Roughly meaning they would check the counter balance on the VCU which would take 15 minutes ............

Sorry but that means they haven't checked the vcu operation at all. In my experience there are very few places who know how yo test these properly, with land rover dealers being the worst! If you send it we will check it for free, OK you will have to payout for postage, but if it fails the test then you won't have spent any extra, depends how much you want to spend for peace of mind

gareth123 · Feb 13, 2013

austen said:
Sorry but that means they haven't checked the vcu operation at all. In my experience there are very few places who know how yo test these properly, with land rover dealers being the worst! If you send it we will check it for free, OK you will have to payout for postage, but if it fails the test then you won't have spent any extra, depends how much you want to spend for peace of mind

And naively I thought Land Rover would know what they were doing .... Thanks for your offer of testing it. What I had in mind was to replace it anyway over the coming months on account of its mileage (192k km) - I guess I was trying to find out whether this should be done sooner rather than later and now I am back to square one.

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