New Freelander owner. What should I do first?

whats with the vcu paranoia just be aware if things start to feel tight- check it out, its a 2001 freelander worth less that £2k, if you start going down the route of replacment on all the items that can go bang you might as well get a new car,

FFS test the vcu and only buy another if it has failed. There's no point changing it if it doesn't need changing. There's no proof a vcu should be changed at or before 70k miles. It's become an unban myth due to many having failures. "I've seen this..." doesn't count. "My expert opinion..." doesn't count. Put a 70k Freelander into a main dealer for servicing and I'm sure they'll find a whole page of faults you should pay them to fix. Companies on the web often state changing it at 70k is a good idea but they have a vested interest in you buying another vcu. I spotted mine fail as I test it regularly. My vcu failed at about 35k miles. If I'd listened to the so called experts my vcu wouldn't have been removed because the dash display mileage counter said it was ok. If you really want to part with yer cash then give it to me.

Rant over.

Hippo said:

FFS test the vcu and only buy another if it has failed.

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How do I test it?

One wheel up test will give you a good idea of its condition as I said previously.

duncanpage4 said:

How do I test it?

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Method in the text in the video

One Wheel Up Test Results - Viscous Coupling Unit VCU Torque Test - Freelander 1 - YouTube

Hippo said:

There's no proof a vcu should be changed at or before 70k miles.

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Changed mine at 120k. Was absolutely fine until then, even with mismatched tyres.