Are the front wheel bearings on a 1988 volvo 340 sealed or tapered? The reason I ask is because my car recently failed its MOT on having play in its front offside wheel bearing and the mechanic that I got a qoute from to repair it wants to know if its sealed or tapered? Apparently if its sealed it will cost me a lot more to repair as it's a more difficult job?...

Not sure which they are but your mechanic aint all that if he moaning about a casette bearing tbh. Yeah you have to press them in but they're far from rocket science! Have you tried looking for the part online to see what it shows up?

The rear ones are sealed (later ones) and a bit of a job to replace, but not impossible, need to follow advice here.

Front ones are tapered and fairly easy, if the bearing isn't damaged you just need to tighten it, and usually it just the outer thats damaged. If you have a spare/used bearing a bit of a bodge is to just replace it and not the track (if the track looks ok), then its a 15min job.

Main difficulty is removing the calliper carrier and knocking out the tracks. The calliper carrier bolts are often rusted and have a huge torque so you need a 6 sided socket.

Just tighten them up, but not to tight!

I've just realised that I replaced the suspension leg on the front offside of my car last summer. On removing the brass dome this morning to reveal the central nut I discovered that the nut was pretty loose and had to be considerably tightened! I can only think that when I replaced the suspension leg I forgot to "tap-in" the softer metallic outer ring that stops the nut from travelling.

Am I correct in thinking the central wheel nut is part of the wheel bearing and the fact that Ive tightened it should have now stopped the play which it failed on in the MOT?...

Yes, but it needs to be tighten to a spec, I'd be surprised if it wasn't damaged.

Tighten to 52Nm, then loosen 90 degrees, then stake it.