Rear wheels not driving

I got stuck in the mud the other day, and when I tried to exit, I noticed only the front wheels were driving. I've had someone take a look at it, and they thought it was the centrafuegal clutch not kicking in.

Has anyone else experienced this? Can it be fixed, or would it need replaced?

The car is a year 2000, and I only bought it 3 months ago.

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers

Either your vcu has been drained or your ird is bust or a 2wheel drive unit.

has it got a rear prop shaft?

mjrimmer said:

Either your vcu has been drained or your ird is bust or a 2wheel drive unit.

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Cheers for the quick reply. I'm not really any use at fixing anything mechanical, how would I know how to check for either of these? Is this a common problem?

When you say drained, what exactly do you mean? What is it thats in it? I'm actually unsure about what a VCU or an IRD even are to be honest.

barmatt said:

has it got a rear prop shaft?

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Yes. It's got a front prop shaft, then it connects into what I would describe as a donut type thing, then carries onto a rear prop shaft.

did you buy it from a dealer?

Best advice I can give you is get a forum member to have a look for you!

barmatt said:

did you buy it from a dealer?

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No, I bought it from Gumtree

biggoldieyabass said:

No, I bought it from Gumtree

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then I think Snowmanv8 gave the best advice, put up your location and ask for someone local to come and have a look for you.

They contain a silicone type of fluid that can deteriorate with age causing the vcu to start to fail causing the drive train to wind up and then take out the ird or diff or both.
Common practice when this happens is for the owners to remove the rear prop and continue driving the hippo in just front wheel drive.... as long as the ird isnt totalled.
Some dodgy resellers sell so called recon vcu's with the fluid drained to give the impression the vehicle is still a 4x4 and this normally gets noticed when the owner gets stuck in the mud.

Its probably had a 2wd fake vcu fitted as they never really fail in 2wd, if that's the case its a pretty crappy trick but an easy, slightly costly fix!

ok thanks

Jack up one side of the FL (both front and rear wheels) spin the front wheel and the rear should rotate too as I understand. This should prove that your IRD is functioning and intact. If both wheels don't spin = IRD problem.

Also do the 1 wheel up test. My FL had a Beaumont recon VCU fitted which also got me stuck in a muddy field with only front wheels spinning .... Here is mine in YouTube...... http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a9INgmeYgoA

Hope this helps

Just to clarify the one wheel up test would see a good/healthy VCU return a drop time of around 15-18 seconds so I am told

mikey7985 said:

Just to clarify the one wheel up test would see a good/healthy VCU return a drop time of around 15-18 seconds so I am told

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I thought that, but it seems anything up to 30 seconds can be shown on a new/newly refurbed VCU.

bukko said:

I thought that, but it seems anything up to 30 seconds can be shown on a new/newly refurbed VCU.

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I would have thought that was pretty stiff but I would be happy to see somewhere in the middle.