You may not be able to but obviously easy to check and compare rear wheels. I think from memory my 83 one that failed was noticeably 'grindy' when rotated by hand.magnumpi wrote:
I had considered it to be wheel bearings, but when they went on my Beetle they never made any noise, just moved back and forth a bit when i rocked the wheel in my hand.
Would i be able to feel it if the rear bearings have gone, i mean like above, not when driving it?
Generally I would describe bearing failure as grindy rather than whiney, it should not be high frequency. You get high frequency whine when flat surfaces get rough and touch each other (like a crank bearing), bearings have balls or rollers, they only grind until they collapse, the surfaces are never stopped with reference to each other like in the crank.