Lorpet Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 My Bessacarr E645 12 years old has just failed the MOT for worn front wheel bearings. It has done only 71K miles fairly hard driving. It seems a bit early to have this ammount of wear. Has anyone any experience of Fiat wheel bearing wear that might shed some light onthis issue. Lorpet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 Funny that, it must be the MOT peoples latest pet 'bee in their bonnet'!! Our Peugeot Boxer, essentially the same vehicle, has passed every year with no problems. I check it over, including the wheel bearings, before the MOT every year and this year I had not noticed anything untoward or changed from previous years. This year, although not failing I was given an advisory on all four wheelbearings. When I returned home I checked them and could not see or feel any real change from previous years. My nieghbour, who is an MOT examiner at his own garage (can't do the motorhome because he can't get it on his lift), checked them out and could not find any problem. He says that the type of bearing they are does have some very slight movement even when new, something I had noticed myself. His advice to me, leave it and see what happens next year. Clearly if your has failed the MOT you can't do this but it does make me wonder if maybe someone is being a little 'over enthusiastic'! Our milage is 89000 by the way. Bas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DuxDeluxe Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 Quite a number of people have had failed wheel bearings at much lower mileages. It has been mooted that it might be due to standing in one place for extended periods. Alternatively, cheap Fiat parts could be the culprit......... ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maggyd Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 Last year going down to Folkstone on our way to the tunnel I noticed on my passenger side a sound as if the wheel was catching on the wheel arch as we were travelling around a bend coming out of Peterborough services, we checked it the next opportunity to pull in but couldnt see what was causing the sound We travelled for 6 weeks around France Germany with no problem, we forgot about it but the next M.O.T it failed on the offside wheel baring ! this had been the noise I had heard our van had done about 30.000 mls at that time, we had it changed and never heard that noise again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casey Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 Hi all, When i bought my 2006 (56 ) ducato based motorhome 2 years ago with only 16k miles on the clock my sensitive hearing picked up a slight rumble on the osf wheel, no one else could hear it but i took it to the garage and only when they took it off did they find it rough to turn. cheers casey.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Brown Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 It is normally the nearside bearing which goes first as that wheel runs effectively in the gutter in this country. I have a 54 Fiat which only had 12k miles when I got it. Most of the next 20k miles were on the continent which means it is the drivers side which travels in the gutter. I heard the grumbling and had it checked out. Yes, new wheel bearing on the offside - no more noise. So, it is quite possible for bearings to go this quick. Just a point, Fiat will tell you that they no long make the bearings for certain models in 2004. There are two types, the earlier one fiat will not provide a bearing but quote a full hub complete with bearing - lots of pennies. Don't forget the people who make bearings have not stopped, I got my replacement for £80 including labour. Aftermarket bearing. Art Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairweather camper Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 We have a Fiat Maxi and 4yrs ago we had an advisory that the front n/s wheel bearing was noisy, MOT'd every year since, and no mention of it when being MOT'd (by same man at same Garage), anyone explain that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
euroserv Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 Hello Campers, The earlier Ducato's before 2002 were not known for any particular problems with front wheel bearings and in fact we changed very few even up to the 300,000 mile vehicles that we owned and continued to service. I think that it is not unreasonable to need new bearings by 71,000 miles and 12 years old though and this would be considered quite normal for any make of vehicle. They are probably showing an excessive amount of 'play' but are not necessarily 'rough' yet. Another MOT tester may consider them to be acceptable. The 2002 to 2006 Ducato was a different matter. It was appalling how many bearings these vehicles used and it became almost enough for me to look elsewhere for vans! The worst affected vehicles seemed to be in the range of 2002 to 2005 by which time different hubs and bearings were used and the failure rate did drop. They rarely exhibited any play but became very rough and some could barely be turned by hand! The X250 since 2006 has shown a few problems but nowhere near as seriously and I don't consider them any worse than other makes. Ford and Renault certainly have more issues with bearings than Fiat do. Our adventures with 2002 onwards bearings have been discussed elsewhere and are pretty lengthly so I won't go into it here because that was not the question. Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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