I'm in the middle of buying a full service history, 2 owners 2004 54 (facelift) Freelander td4 se with 90k on the clock. I've been reading different things about the "vcu" viscious coupling unit. Some people saying to change them around 70k. Phoned several LR dealerships and all said they don't need to be changed unless faulty. It's just the earlier freelanders apparently that tend to go wrong if any?
Could someone please shed some light on this, I hope I'm buying a good capable 4x4 but reading things about this just gets me thinking.

Hope you can help guys!!

get a defender mate

Spend some time searching VCU threads on here and take a balanced view. I bought a 2006 TD4 about three years ago, thankfully before I discovered this forum. Been an excellent buy (had 83000 mile on the clock) I am changing the VCU soon - not because anything has gone wrong - just to be on the safe side. However peeps on here have seen 100k 120k miles and more with nothing going wrong. I think this is my first post on here however it is a brilliant source of info and I spend a fair amount of time searching and reading on here - which is what you should do. I might even go and "introduce myself" now. As for the Freelander - go for it.

Just change it, it's not a big job and the actual VCU costs about £30 - I used to have a freelander 1 and the VCU got changed at about 80,000