one wheel drive

could some please shed some light on this.
my wife has always said that my TD4 feels more sturdy than her 2.0D and the fact that 90% of the time weather she is just running the kids about or towing the trailer she is on the road i just put it down to the age gap. as the snow has now hit it seems she is right, her car only seems to be driving on the front N/S wheel the prop will turn when the car has grip but on the ice nothing. it has had a new VCU and clutch so im thinking either the IRD or gearbox. when i put my TD4 in the same position all 4 wheels were trying to get traction. any advice would be appriciated

Martyn

Logically, I'd say IRD since there's no drive to the OS or the rear.

What caused the VCU change?

Was the car put back together properly after the clutch change?

Going to show my ignorance of the FL (and everything else) now. If it was the IRD, wouldn't he get drive to either both front wheels or neitherl? Doesn't the IRD just spit the power out front and rear, it's then split either side of the axle by the diffs? To not get drive to a pair of wheels means there's got to be a diff or drive shaft issue at the front?

Yakko said:

Going to show my ignorance of the FL (and everything else) now. If it was the IRD, wouldn't he get drive to either both front wheels or neitherl? Doesn't the IRD just spit the power out front and rear, it's then split either side of the axle by the diffs? To not get drive to a pair of wheels means there's got to be a diff or drive shaft issue at the front?

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Drive is transmitted from the IRD to the front wheels via conventional unequal length driveshafts. The driveshafts have a CV joint at each end splined into the wheel hubs and IRD.

Drive to the rear wheels from the IRD is via a two section prop shaft with a centre VCU.

above from Haynes

My thinking was: If there is no drive to one front wheel and it's the IRD that, ultimately, provides drive, then it's likely to be the IRD / driveshafts at fault.

Lack of drive to the rear wheels could be a lot of things from IRD through to the Final Drive Unit.

There's an open diff between the front wheels! These pass the power to the wheel that slips hence it looks to be one wheel drive when you spin one wheel! That's normal for a front wheel drive car. My guess would be a freelander spares vcu not passing drive to the rear! Does the front part of the prop spin and the rear is stationary? If so vcu, if neither part spins it'll be ird. If both parts spin it's rear diff

we had another freelander that smashed the IRD due to the VCU being shot. so i decided that before it happend i would change the VCU on the wifes car as only done 80,000. i suppose i really need to get it up in the air and brace the front NS wheel and see what happens. one more thing their is no noise, grinding, squealing from any of the drive train. i have also replaced the OS front drive shaft the inner cv was in bits.

Where did you get the vcu from

it came from Freelander spares off fleabay

martyn78 said:

it came from Freelander spares off fleabay

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Hmmm - you might want to do a search on the forum for them.

Actually, don't bother, here's one I did earlier

thank you for the suggestion never would of even given the VCU a thought, my 03 plate TD4 is working on all 4 wheels (been playing in the snow) ill drop the prop and try it.

Martyn

If the VCU is a Freelander spares unit then it could be faulty, as previous post, also does your Wife's car have traction control ? If not and if yours has then that could be the problem especially if there's no drive to the rear through the VCU. If your Wife's car had traction control then the wheel that's spinning should be braked which then allows drive to the wheel on the other side.

What he said ^^

i would phone freelander spares up and complain you would have had a 12months warrantee ,that happened to mine vcu went open

teddywood1 said:

i would phone freelander spares up and complain you would have had a 12months warrantee ,that happened to mine vcu went open

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Mine to They replaced it and it's working well now

Well done to all that's received a free replacement from Freelander spares but what a crap company this must be. Do we really need to go to all this trouble when we supposedly buy a reconditioned VCU, the answer must be NO. Bells must be the choice of most members, who wants to be conned by yet another rip off merchant.

nickcc said:

Well done to all that's received a free replacement from Freelander spares but what a crap company this must be. Do we really need to go to all this trouble when we supposedly buy a reconditioned VCU, the answer must be NO. Bells must be the choice of most members, who wants to be conned by yet another rip off merchant.

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Ashcroft in Luton supplied my replacement VCU - its been fine.

DD3 said:

Ashcroft in Luton supplied my replacement VCU - its been fine.

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Ashcroft along with Bells are certainly the preferred suppliers on this and many other LR forums. I believe we just need to get the point across to other members that Freelander spares appear to have a dreadful reputation according to members of this and other LR forums and would be best avoided.

Hi guys, thanks for all the advice. The car has been up on axle stands and the OS front and rears all started spinning but the rears seem to struggle. The NS front stopped, so I applied a highly technical test of grabbing each wheel and forcing them to stop. The prop was spinning fine so my thought was rear diff. Then I applied the hand brake front part kept spinning rear stopped . Would this happen, is my so called reconned VCU not doing what it should be?

martyn78 said:

Hi guys, thanks for all the advice. The car has been up on axle stands and the OS front and rears all started spinning but the rears seem to struggle. The NS front stopped, so I applied a highly technical test of grabbing each wheel and forcing them to stop. The prop was spinning fine so my thought was rear diff. Then I applied the hand brake front part kept spinning rear stopped . Would this happen, is my so called reconned VCU not doing what it should be?

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Since the handbrake operates on the rear wheels I'd expect the behaviour you've observed. Not sure it proves anything though.

If you jack up the one rear wheel only does it turn freely or not ? If it turns freely and the rear half of the prop also turns, but not the front, then the VCU is shot.