Possible wheel bearing

KimBee_2

Hi any advice on this topic will be greatly appreciated.
My car is making a slight rumbling sound on acceleration and a slight vibration on the accelerator, the steering has a bit of play in it too. I went to my local garage who said it was a wheel bearing going but he couldn't work out the exact one without jacking it up. Does this sound about right and if so, how much will it cost to repair? It is a 2010 Vauxhall Corsa 1.2.

Many thanks.

dotdash79

Could be, it could also be track rod ends.

You can check these yourself and you don't have to get both changed at the same time.

You can check by jacking one corner up so the tyre is off the ground then try to wobble it with your hands at the top and bottom, if it wobbles then it's the bearing. If nothing just rotate the tyre if you have a rumble then it's a bearing.

You need to do this in each corner, to find it. Make sure the car is correctly jacked, and start on the near side front.

dotdash79

If it is the bearing then a new one is about £25 - £45 and is about an hours labour at a garage.

KimBee_2

Thanks for the info. He seemed pretty confident it was a bearing but as I said, it had been jacked up. I'm taking it on Friday to get properly inspected and repaired, with VAT I guess £150ish is what I will expect with an hours labour.

dotdash79

I paid £115 for mine which was bearing and labour with vat for a clio front bearing 2. Is this a main agent or independent garage?

KimBee_2

An independent garage which family have used with no problems so far. I'm not sure how much they charge for labour though.

dotdash79

yea about that, it's highly unlikely but they might me more than one bearing gone in which case the the time saving for each one is limited so it almost doubles up.

arcon5

If you're feeling vibrations, rather than just rumbling then with suspected wheel bearing failure in the mist, try to avoid driving it!

Also check brakes aren't binding or anything daft like that, i've previously had a wheel bearing fail because the rear drum has stuck on and overheated the bearing. Just worth checking its not just a sympton.

KimBee_2

My brakes seem to be working fine, how would I know if they're binding? It's barely a vibration, just more of an accelerating feeling in the pedal if that makes sense!