Can a gearbox cause play/roughness in the driven wheels?

[dabofoppo]

Hi, My car failed its m.o.t on saturday and it is currently being fixed. It failed on two front wheel bearings. One side was rough the other had a lot of play the garage said that this might not be the wheel bearings but that was the most likely culprit. Now a different garage is saying that the steering rack and gearbox need replaced they said that the gearbox is causing some of the play and roughness. Is this possible? The gearbox feels fine to me when Im driving its just a little difficult to use due to a worn linkage.

[Eighteeteewhy]

Cv joints more likely. Wait until wheel bearings are done, then see if it's still there. If it is you know you've got bigger problems.

[dabofoppo]

Eighteeteewhy said:

Cv joints more likely. Wait until wheel bearings are done, then see if it's still there. If it is you know you've got bigger problems.

Cheers bearings were done and it was still there .

[Fish981]

Gearbox is highly unlikely to cause any MOT problems. And if it didn't fail on the steering rack why is it being mentioned?

[dabofoppo]

Fish981 said:

Gearbox is highly unlikely to cause any MOT problems. And if it didn't fail on the steering rack why is it being mentioned?

The guy thats fixing it said once he replaced the bearings he found the play was still there and appeared to be coming from the rack.

[andy-xr]

The MOT declination sheet should say exactly what it was failed on, just replace that and get it in for a free retest, see if anything else is picked up

[Fish981]

dabofoppo said:

Fish981 said:

Gearbox is highly unlikely to cause any MOT problems. And if it didn't fail on the steering rack why is it being mentioned?

The guy thats fixing it said once he replaced the bearings he found the play was still there and appeared to be coming from the rack.

The MOT tester, of which I am one, can easily tell the difference between play in the bearings and play in the rack.

Your mechanic is incompetent or taking you for a ride. Or both of course.

[dabofoppo]

Cheers guys im getting the car back tomorrow and ill check for myself if there is play.

[freecar]

Fish981 said:

The MOT tester, of which I am one, can easily tell the difference between play in the bearings and play in the rack.

Your mechanic is incompetent or taking you for a ride. Or both of course.

This.

[busta]

In any FWD car I can think of, the gearbox and driveshafts should be isolated from any loading from the wheels other than the rotational loads from transmitting drive.

Any play in the wheel is either bearing, steering or suspension related. As above, it seems very unlikely an MOT tester would wrongly diagnose a steering fault as a wheel bearing.

ETA Is this the VTR in your profile?

Edited by busta on Wednesday 22 February 18:09

[dabofoppo]

Thanks, yes it's the vtr.

[busta]

Are you thinking what I'm thinking Doogz? Wrong driveshafts for the hubs?