I suppose its possible for the bearing to fail due to heat build if the rear brake was dragging.
yes it is possible, you have to undo the hubnut to take the drum off, and adjust the shoes up.. sometimes they stick on the axle a bit and never tighten back up quite right.
they cant be overtightened by nature of the design dosn't matter how tight you do those bearings it wont overtighten as it just tightens against the face of the axle (precision machined to load the bearing up at this point)
if it was undertightened however it could do it.
thats true, but they still tighten up in the same way (mk3 onwards im talking)yes it is possible, you have to undo the hubnut to take the drum off, and adjust the shoes up.. sometimes they stick on the axle a bit and never tighten back up quite right.
they cant be overtightened by nature of the design dosn't matter how tight you do those bearings it wont overtighten as it just tightens against the face of the axle (precision machined to load the bearing up at this point)
if it was undertightened however it could do it.
This depends on the year as the older ones had tapered rear bearings.