MOT fail!

[Fishboy]

Gutted. This is the seventh MOT I've put my Lexus through and the first failure ever. Mileage is now just over 125k and I've done over half of those miles.

What did it fail on you may well ask? Both rear wheel bearings are worn, you could hear them when the tester spun each of the wheels but there was no audiable noise when driving the car which is unusual for worn bearings. Has anyone else had wheel bearing failure and if so at what mileage?

[Linas.P]

dam...

Some MOT'es goes extra and above, I guess new rules.... 

Mine still has original bearings, just ticked over 183k. Now I will go and spin my wheels to see if I can hear anything... 

[Fishboy]

I had problems with the rear parking brake a few years ago. When reversing or moving slowly in traffic there was a noise from the rear, my local garage took them apart and they were full of debris. Once they had cleaned them out no problem, I wonder if it was that which is causing the noise not the bearings? I can't believe how expensive the bearing hubs are just looking on line.

[Farqui]

Drat, that's a shame.

It's odd they failed on worn/noisy bearings, did the bearings/wheels have any play?

You say it failed or was it an advisory?

Although the MOT categories have been expanded recently.

[Fishboy]

Failure, rectify immediately. 

[normski2]

Sounds to me.... and this is just conjecture based on a bit of experience of working on the rear brakes/drums.

My guess would be the rear parking brake shoes were binding...possibly not releasing correctly or adjusted up too tightly. This can produce a heck of a lot of friction which then causes high temperatures at the hub. The bearing grease gets cooked and before long the bearing is shot. 

Had you ever noticed any hot metal smells at the rear of the car or been aware of the wheels being hotter than normal?

Thats bad luck that it was pulled by an MOT tester, hope you get it sorted soon.

[Fishboy]

No previous signs of overheating, I had new rear discs and pads fitted 12000 miles ago so I would have thought I'd would have picked up an issue with the parking brake before now? As I've said the car drives perfectly with no noise from the rear wheels which makes me think it could be something else. I'm going to jack it up tomorrow to see if I can detect any play.

[johnatg]

I guess it failed on 'excessive roughness' - that sounds a bit subjective to me, especially if there's no actual play. This is what the tester's manual says:

5.1.3 Wheel bearings

Vehicles with a DGW more than 5,000kg don't need to have rear wheel bearings inspected.

Assess play in wheel bearings by either:

• rocking the wheels in turn while they’re jacked clear of the ground
• using wheel play detectors in the side to side mode

Also, rotate each wheel to check for noisy wheel bearings due to excessive roughness.

Defect	Category
A wheel bearing:
with excessive play	Major
play so excessive it is likely to break up or directional control impaired	Dangerous
A wheel bearing:
excessively rough	Major
likely to collapse	Dangerous

 

 

 

 

 

[Linas.P]

I was generally for tougher MOT, but it seems they took it in wrong direction. This always happens when people who don't really have any clue starts making executive decisions. Wheel bearing going to make annoying noise well before it makes car un-roadworthy, never-mind dangerous. So it is mostly annoyance like cosmetic defects.

The only place where it would make sense is heavy equipment, but it seems they have skipped anything over 5000kg 

[Fishboy]

The car has now gone in for inspection/repair, I'll keep you updated on the outcome and the cost.

[Farqui]

Were you able to drive it away?

 

Under the revised rules, fails aren't allowed to be used/driven away?

 

[ColinBarber]

25 minutes ago, Farqui said:

Under the revised rules, fails aren't allowed to be used/driven away?

That isn't true. If you still have an in date MOT and it didn't fail because of a dangerous issue you can drive it away.

[Fishboy]

35 minutes ago, ColinBarber said:

That isn't true. If you still have an in date MOT and it didn't fail because of a dangerous issue you can drive it away.

I don't think you can? I guess if you do it's at your own risk which I took, insurance would probably fail to pay out if you had an accident post MOT.

[Fishboy]

1 hour ago, Farqui said:

Were you able to drive it away?

 

Under the revised rules, fails aren't allowed to be used/driven away?

 

I did but I shouldn't have done but I was sure the bearings wouldn't fall apart in 8 miles.

[Farqui]

That isn't true. If you still have an in date MOT and it didn't fail because of a dangerous issue you can drive it away.

'Failure, rectify immediately' (quoted above) sounds like a park it and get it fixed regardless of taking your MOT early.

[johnatg]

You can legally drive home or to a repair place as long as it's not a dangerous fail. Your old Mot is no longer valid once you have a fail.

(Noisy wheel bearing is just major)

But I drove home after a dangerous fail (low rear brake pads - less than 2mm - Lexus serviceability limit is 1mm)

Sent from my PSP7551DUO using Tapatalk

[mikes5]

Could the noise be coming from the differential not wheel bearings. When was the differential oil last changed? 

[Fishboy]

Diff oil is due now but I don't it's that, the noise was definately coming from the hub when the wheel was turned not the diff gear box.

[ColinBarber]

22 hours ago, Fishboy said:

I don't think you can? I guess if you do it's at your own risk which I took, insurance would probably fail to pay out if you had an accident post MOT.

From the Government's website:

[Fishboy]

Sorry for the late update but now all sorted with a new offside rear wheel bearing hub fitted. The work was completed by Green Lane Garage in Berkeley Gloucestershire who were excellent as always.