I have been told that there should always be a small amount of play in the front wheels of a fwd car?

Whether this is the case or not, i believe i have excessive play in the front offside wheel. My car is a 1995 felicia 1.3 lxi (SPI i think).

The wheel and hub nuts are secure and my (extremely) untrained eye cannot see any obvious damaged gubbins.

Any ideas what the cause could be....if only to go to the garage with a bit of lingo to avoid being ripped off?!

bearing or steering rack i would think.

hold top of wheel and pull/push, play in this plane is usual the bearing.

hold both sides of the wheel and push/pull. play in this plane can be steering rack or bearing.

this is of course, if its not the bottom ball joint or shock.

Thankyou...I will present that to the garage in an in "i know what i'm talking about" manner...and hope for the best!!

i would say if play is up/down then definately bearing.

However, i had both my front bearings replaced recently and after picking it up from garage (couldnt do it myself no hydraulic press) had a little play in both.

i simply got a 29mm deep socket, as large an extension bar as i could find and proceeded to tighten the hub nuts up to the torque specified in the haynes.

problem sorted. - garage only tightened them to an "average for most cars" torque. it was very diffucilt and i nearly broke my arm in the process.

ha yer, you try getting the dam things off!

ha yer, you try getting the dam things off!

:iagree: even harder when your down the scrappies and you cant use the brakes to slacken the nut off:O

Further to PinkScud's comments on how to check the bearings, repeat the test with the brakes applied. If the play vanishes, it is definitely the bearing. If it doesn't then it's equally definitely bushes or rod end.

good call ken, spot on.

:iagree: even harder when your down the scrappies and you cant use the brakes to slacken the nut off:O

i totally aggree.

once i needed to remove a drive shaft from a fiesta (was knackered anyway so didnt car if it survived - had new nuts too) but at the time i did not have the best tools available.

i managed to find a socket and a 2ft bar that fitted on the nut, so i got it into a position where the extension bar was wedged against the ground and the socket hammered on so it was tight.

I then simply reversed the car (nearly burning out the clutch) and eventually there was just enough torque in the engine + the weight of the car balanced on the extension that it literally undid itself.

fun times

hehe done that befor.