Advice required

Going to pick up 2004 Freelander TD4 Commercial 117,000 tomorrow and looking for any advice on serious points I should be aware of and check out before parting with the readies.

John.

does it have a VCU fitted?
any funny clonks or bangs, particularly when reversing in a tight circle?
does the coolant all look good?
are all the engine hoses in good condition?

If vcu feels faulty would you buy?

vanduara37 said:

If vcu feels faulty would you buy?

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No, run - do the wheel up test.

dont take any spheroids about " I removed it to give good fuel economy"

Got it, seems allright, does have vcu fitted and felt it after running about 20 miles, no heat (phew).Drove it home 180 miles not a glitch.Will give it a good going over tomorrow get some pics and post them up.

vanduara37 said:

If vcu feels faulty would you buy?

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Depends on the price.

Old cars all have problems and that's when they get sold.

Price the problems and the fixing of them into the purchase cost.

VCU is not a hard problem to fix, but with bearings you are looking at £600+ for a garage to do it.

lenny1234 said:

Depends on the price.

VCU is not a hard problem to fix, but with bearings you are looking at £600+ for a garage to do it.

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Bu&&er me, really? A recon VCU from Bell with bearings is £262 delivered (and old one collected). Where does the extra £338 come from?

Labour charges!!!!

freelance said:

Labour charges!!!!

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Quite, If you get a new unit with new bearings - and you are a fool not to fit them - and allow about 3 hours at £60 an hour its well over £600 with VAT....

lenny1234 said:

Quite, If you get a new unit with new bearings - and you are a fool not to fit them - and allow about 3 hours at £60 an hour its well over £600 with VAT....

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I'm not disputing either of you, but... wow. I haven't put my cars into a garage (except for MoT) for 16 years or so. I reckon for the labour and VAT of that one job I could re-buy most of my tool kit and still save money, even if I took an unpaid day off work to do the job.

All I can say is, thank goodness for this forum, online shopping, and my little workshop!

The VCU and bearing change is quite a simple task even for a novice (must be if I can do it), there's detailed info on here and even video tutorials on YouTube to assist you, given the relatively low cost of a recon unit and new bearings I'd do the job on any Freelander1 I wasn't sure of the history of.