How to tell if a wheel bearing has gone?

[Ponomis]

Hi, bought a 57 1.9 passat last week. My wife swears she can hear some sort of noise at speeds higher than 50 coming from the front. I can't hear anything other than the engine, which I'm pretty sure isn't the noise she's talking about. Anyway, upon jacking the front up and when spinning the nearside front wheel there is a faint clicking sound that isn't present on the offside front. Could this be causing the noise my wife hears? Would it be a wheel bearing? Trying to get to the bottom of this as its driving my wife crazy.

Thanks.

[Crasher]

Jack the car up off the floor (both front wheels) and spin the wheels, listen to the bearings.

[davmal735]

Jack up and preferably mount on axle stands! Grip the tyre at 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock positions and give it a good rocking (as though you are trying to wiggle it off), do the same at 12 and 6 o'clock positions. You are listening and feeling for a clunking and movement, though very little movement.
The noise you mention could be coming from the CV joints.

[Ponomis]

Well, turns out the noise is coming from the rear, which is why I couldn't hear it as I was focussing on the front. The rear tyres are AT the legal limit on the inside portion. When I bought the car last week I didn't look all the way to the inside as the outsides were fine. Silly me. Anyway, considering this is a used approved vehicle and the MOT doesn't even have any advisories I'm not happy. How difficult do you reckon it will be to get VW to give me two new rear tyres free?

[manity]

what you have there is called sawtooth it is quite a common problem with the passat and with need a wheel alignment otherwise you will just get it again when you replace the rear tyres. check google for passat sawtooth for more info.

[Crasher]

This sawtooth wear pattern on the Passat and Golf 5 is becoming a real issue, certain styles of tread design seem to be more prone to problems than others. I was able to study this on a taxi 3C that went through many rear tyres as I serviced it every 10k over 3 years. It ate cheap Chinese tyres for breakfast.