My TD4 handbrake would not hold the car on a slope, I had to leave it in gear. Following the advice found on this forum i armed myself with appropriate tool and a can of plus gas to free the rusty leaver in the nearside brake.
On inspection i found the handbrake cable had not been fitted...
Iv had my hippo for about a month now. Its a 2002 TD4 drives very well.
Done the wheel up test 52 & 55 seconds so changing the VCU looks like the next job to be ob the safe side.
Lots of usefull info on this site.