The inner diff bearings on my gearbox have a lot of play in them, and probably not much life left. Just wondering what happens when they actually go... will I just not be able to drive, or will the driveshaft pop out/something dangerous happen ?
Can be anything from you loose drive, diff locks up, gearbox casing explodes.....
What car is it?
The idea of a bearing is to reduce friction to a very low level. As they wear out, the friction increases, as does the play.
If the friction is not low, the bearing will get hot. A worn out bearing will get hotter and hotter until something either buckles or seizes up. This can cause damage to anything nearby.
If your vehicle is an older model and there are plenty of compatible gearboxes stacked up at the scrap yard, it may be reasonable to wait for something serious to happen before you fix the problem - assuming you know someone who can give you a tow to the garage.
With older vehicles it's also worth considering just swapping the gearbox rather than dismantling it.
& they normally get really noisy.
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