MOT defect file
Wheel bearing has excessive play or is rough
Last updated
Quick answer
A wheel bearing has worn enough to let the hub move, or has gone rough inside. It gives a droning noise that rises with speed and changes when you steer, and it does not recover — bearings only get worse.
- Typical cost
- £140–£320
- DIY viability
- Possible with care
What you might notice
- A drone or growl that grows with road speed, changes pitch as you swap lanes, and typically fades when the load moves off that side of the car
- A rumble you feel through the floor or the seat rather than hear, on a rear bearing especially
- Grinding or a cyclic whirr at low speed with the windows down, once the bearing has broken up internally
- ABS or traction control warnings appearing intermittently, because many bearings carry the wheel speed sensor ring inside them
What causes it
- Ordinary wear, generally after 80,000 to 120,000 miles, with pitting starting where the rolling elements sit
- A failed seal letting water and grit into the grease, which is what usually kills a bearing early rather than mileage
- Kerb and pothole impacts, or driving on an unbalanced or badly buckled wheel
- A previous replacement fitted by hammering rather than pressing, which dents the races and shortens the new bearing's life dramatically
Advisory or failure?
Excessive play in a wheel bearing is a major defect and a failure. The tester checks by rocking the wheel top to bottom on a free-spinning hub, with the brake applied where necessary to separate bearing play from suspension joint play, and slight play within the manufacturer's tolerance is recorded as an advisory or a minor defect rather than a failure. A bearing that is rough, noisy or too tight when the wheel is spun is also assessed as defective and graded major. It escalates to dangerous where the wear is bad enough that the hub could collapse or the wheel become detached, which is the realistic end point of a bearing left to run until it destroys its own races.
Can you fix it yourself?
Possible with care
It depends entirely on which type your car uses, so establish that first. Many modern cars use a bolt-on hub assembly with the bearing already inside, and that is four bolts and a driveshaft nut — a real driveway job with axle stands, a large torque wrench and a good breaker bar, since the hub nut is usually tightened to several hundred newton metres. A press-in bearing is not a driveway job: it needs a hydraulic press or a proper puller kit, and any attempt to drift it in with a hammer will damage the new bearing before you have finished fitting it. Either way the hub nut is normally single use and must be replaced and torqued to specification, not guessed.
What it costs
A complete bolt-on hub assembly is £45 to £130 in parts with an hour to an hour and a half of labour, which lands most jobs in the middle of the band. A press-in bearing is cheaper as a part, £25 to £70, but adds labour because the hub has to come off and go to the press. The top of the band is a rear bearing integral to a hub carrier, a bearing that has seized in place and needs heat or cutting to release, and cars where the bearing includes an encoded magnetic ABS ring that must be fitted the right way round. Where a driveshaft nut or a hub carrier has been damaged by a bearing run to destruction, the cost leaves this band.
What happens if you ignore it
This is one of the few defects with a genuinely abrupt end point. As the bearing breaks up it heats, the races gall, and eventually the hub seizes or the wheel develops enough play to shear the studs — at motorway speed either is very serious. Along the way, the play holds the wheel slightly out of line, which scrubs the tyre and can confuse the ABS through a damaged sensor ring. Costs escalate too: a bearing left running long enough destroys the hub carrier or driveshaft it sits in, so the part list grows from one bearing to a hub, a driveshaft and sometimes an ABS sensor.
Common questions
- Is a noisy wheel bearing an MOT failure?
- Excessive play in a wheel bearing is a major defect and a failure, and a bearing that is rough, noisy or too tight when the wheel is spun is assessed the same way. Slight play within the manufacturer's tolerance is recorded as an advisory or a minor defect. It escalates to dangerous where the hub could collapse or the wheel become detached.
- What does a humming noise that changes when I turn mean?
- It is the classic worn wheel bearing. The drone rises with road speed and alters as you swap lanes, because steering moves load off one side of the car and onto the other, which usually quietens the failing side. On a rear bearing you tend to feel a rumble through the floor or seat rather than hear it.
- Can a wheel bearing collapse?
- Yes, and it is one of the few defects with a genuinely abrupt end point. As the bearing breaks up it heats, the races gall, and eventually the hub seizes or the play grows enough to shear the wheel studs. At motorway speed either is very serious, which is why the worst cases are graded dangerous rather than major.
- Can I replace a wheel bearing myself?
- It depends entirely which type your car uses, so establish that first. A bolt-on hub assembly with the bearing already inside is four bolts and a driveshaft nut, which is a real driveway job with axle stands and a good breaker bar. A press-in bearing needs a hydraulic press or a proper puller kit, and drifting one in with a hammer ruins it before you finish.
- How much does a wheel bearing replacement cost?
- Usually £140 to £320. A complete bolt-on hub assembly is £45 to £130 in parts with an hour to an hour and a half of labour. A press-in bearing is cheaper as a part at £25 to £70 but adds labour, because the hub has to come off and go to a press. A bearing left to destroy its hub or driveshaft costs more again.
Cars this happens to most
Of every model with at least 2,000 tests in the DVSA data, these record wheel bearing has excessive play or is rough on the largest share of their MOTs. Across all of them the typical rate is 0.8% of tests.
- Chevrolet Matiz6.0%
489 times in 8,112 tests
- Toyota Starlet4.1%
120 times in 2,893 tests
- Isuzu Rodeo3.7%
156 times in 4,178 tests
- Suzuki Wagon R3.7%
236 times in 6,444 tests
137 times in 4,726 tests
- Isuzu D-Max2.3%
843 times in 36,794 tests
- Jaguar X-Type2.1%
409 times in 19,214 tests
220 times in 10,429 tests
A high rate here is a property of the fleet as much as the car: these models skew old, and almost everything fails more with age. It is a reason to check the item on a used example, not proof the model is badly built. Models with fewer than 2,000 tests are left out because a rate drawn from a few hundred cars moves too much to rank.
Warning lights behind this
This defect is what a tester writes down. What you see from the driver’s seat is a symbol, and it is worth checking which one, because manufacturers reuse the same shape for more than one system.
Fault codes behind this failure
A failure certificate records that the lamp was lit, not what lit it. If this is what your certificate says, one of these codes is usually stored behind it, and reading it is the difference between a diagnosis and a guess.
This is general guidance, not a diagnosis. The severity DVSA records depends on the specific fault found, so the same item can appear as an advisory on one test and a failure on another. Ask a qualified tester or mechanic to inspect the vehicle.
Has this been recorded on your car?
Check the full MOT history for any UK registration.