How to recondition a VCU yourself.

So had some time today and opend up the VCU I had laying around. Cleaned and refilled half and put the plates in. Drilled the top and put 2 grease nipples. And welded everything.
Continued to refill the rest and seems to have done the job.
To refill I used a 60ml syring on 1 nipple which I drilled to remove the ball bearing and from the other I put on a vacum bleeding gun so I could suck the air out while sucking the silicone fluid in from the other syring and it worked a treat.
Now I left it to rest so all boubles can raise to the top. Tomorrow will check it again and pump more fluid if needed while testing on a bench. Will keep yuj updated.

So just finished the job and its back on the car. Seems to be working fine. I over filled it so I could drain it when on the car. Infact I draind about 10ml. Process was pretty fast from start to finish. Found my method to be quite effective to refill the VCU and only took a couple of pumps. Here are some photos of the vacum pump I used and grease nipples I modefied to re fill the VCU. Wider hole to allow the fluid to flow better and the other to auck the air out. Photos of the vcu installed on the car with new bearings. Also punched the month and year of refurbing for future reference.

Charlot said:

So just finished the job and its back on the car. Seems to be working fine. I over filled it so I could drain it when on the car. Infact I draind about 10ml. Process was pretty fast from start to finish. Found my method to be quite effective to refill the VCU and only took a couple of pumps. Here are some photos of the vacum pump I used and grease nipples I modefied to re fill the VCU. Wider hole to allow the fluid to flow better and the other to auck the air out. Photos of the vcu installed on the car with new bearings. Also punched the month and year of refurbing for future reference. View attachment 261210 View attachment 261211 View attachment 261212 View attachment 261213 View attachment 261214 View attachment 261215

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Sorry I missed this earlier.
So how much fluid did you put into it in total?
Have you tried the one wheel up test since?

Alibro said:

Sorry I missed this earlier.
So how much fluid did you put into it in total?
Have you tried the one wheel up test since?

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Don't know exactly. Have it written somewhere in my garage as I kept it for record. Between 150ml or 160ml if not mistaken.

Have tried it on the bench in a vice like the video Austen had posted on youtube some time ago and also on the road in full lock reverse. And everyday driving feels much better.

Also no understeer doing round roundabouts at some speed. So handling is good too. Will keep you updated as we test it more.

Thank you very mutch Alibro i follow your instruction and my VCU is now brand new

I've didn't read every post and someone may have talk about that before but here is few tip that could help.
First of all i use a heatgun thats make the old fluid a lot easier to flow out
To fill in the new fluid i use two litle syringe 10ml that i stick into the holes with a gluegun to prevent any leakage

Put the silicon oil container into warm water , pouring it into the syringe with a funnel while heating it up with the heatgun.
When the syringe is full put the piston back in it. Do it fifteen times and here we are !

I also choose to weld two tinny screw in the holes because my tap wasn't hard enough ( These VCU are made in UK ? It is god damn quality steel ! )

The process takes me about 4h to fill in fluid refill the holes grinding the welds it and paint.
These no traces left , but i can't drain fluid.

landycrowford said:

Thank you very mutch Alibro i follow your instruction and my VCU is now brand new

I've didn't read every post and someone may have talk about that before but here is few tip that could help.
First of all i use a heatgun thats make the old fluid a lot easier to flow out
To fill in the new fluid i use two litle syringe 10ml that i stick into the holes with a gluegun to prevent any leakage

Put the silicon oil container into warm water , pouring it into the syringe with a funnel while heating it up with the heatgun.
When the syringe is full put the piston back in it. Do it fifteen times and here we are !

I also choose to weld two tinny screw in the holes because my tap wasn't hard enough ( These VCU are made in UK ? It is god damn quality steel ! )

The process takes me about 4h to fill in fluid refill the holes grinding the welds it and paint.
These no traces left , but i can't drain fluid.

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Some great tips here, well done for sorting yours.
How did you flush out the old fluid, did you use white spirit? I still think the best way to do it is to cut the top off, remove all the steel discs and clean them properly but that is 5 times the work and you need to be good at welding.

Brake and clutch cleaner appears to be the solvent to break up the silicone.
It comes out coloured where as I have found white spirit does flush but not breakdown the silicone.

I use gazoline as it is the cheapest way, it work as well , just need to be carefull with the heatgun lol.
Cutting the top is the best way for sure but i was afraid to destroy the whole unit.
I think im done for a few years but i will buy a proper welding machine and get a little bit practice until the next time.
A good TIG machine is half the price of a new VCU xD

landycrowford said:

I use gazoline as it is the cheapest way, it work as well , just need to be carefull with the heatgun lol.
Cutting the top is the best way for sure but i was afraid to destroy the whole unit.
I think im done for a few years but i will buy a proper welding machine and get a little bit practice until the next time.
A good TIG machine is half the price of a new VCU xD

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I tried diesel, petrol and kerosene when cleaning the steel discs and they all were fairly similar to white spirit.

andyfreelandy said:

Brake and clutch cleaner appears to be the solvent to break up the silicone.
It comes out coloured where as I have found white spirit does flush but not breakdown the silicone.

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I might try that next time.
There are different types of brake clean so does that matter? I got some from Lidl a few months ago that smells like paint but strips grease like nothing I've seen before. Maybe it's raw paint thinners in a spray tin, I don't know but unfortunately I haven't seen it again since.

It's great to see that people are still having a go at this. I'm impressed.

It is certainly a long running fred

Brake cleaner won't leave behind such a toxic chemical on the internal of the vcu like white spirit does. White spirit would need cleaned out in theory.