Recon VCU, who to trust

I need a new VCU (and bearings) and wanted to know if anyone has good (or bad) personal experiences of VCU remanufacture company's, specifically I have been looking at bell engineering: http://www.bellengineering.co.uk/freelander-1-products/

Bell Engineering are the suggested reconditioner on here.

Thank you Nodge 68, is a recon unit as good as a new unit? the difference in prices is quite dramatic.

just as good, bell did minea few years ago and as far as i know its still going strong just shy of £400 fitted by the owner of the company himself

330 posted and diy bell for me too

Angus-32 said:

Thank you Nodge 68, is a recon unit as good as a new unit? the difference in prices is quite dramatic.

Click to expand...

I don't believe GKN have made new VCUs for many years, so those new ones are really new old stock. I don't know for definite if they degrade in storage, but it does appear that they do.

I have had some problems with Bell recon VCUs, but they have been very good at sorting them out.

One support bearing rubber perished and failed after 1 year.
Another support bearing failed after 18 months.
A recon VCU failed after 20,000 miles, completely seized. It was a needle roller bearing, which perhaps should have been replaced at the recon. Quite a rare occurrence, apparently.

With that in mind, I would still recommend Bell, but get a VCU without support bearings and fit proper GKN ones. The bearings should be branded ‘Fag’.

Thank you for the info, So it sound like bell are recommended but need to watch the replacement bearings, thank for the advice

There is a thread on here, started by Pro.

Cheap VCU bearings on ebay with good rubbers and Chinese bearings. There is also details added by me about replacement bearings from a reputable UK bearing company which simply press in.

A pair of bearings and rubbers can be had for £16 then £11 for a pair of UK bearing replacements.

Just fitted this to my car.
Why not get the VCU less bearings from Bell??