Hotpoint Auqarius CTD00 - Loud noise from motor/back fan?

Hello,

I'm looking for some advice on my Hotpoint Aquarius CTD00 tumble dryer as I'm not sure if it's on it's way out or not.

About two days ago whenever it was started it initially made what I can only describe as a loud (not that it was ever a quiet beast to begin with, however this was an entirely new level) "grinding" noise (hard to describe without sound, it doesn't sound to me like gears grinding but then again I'm not the best in these areas) which would then stop after about 5/10 seconds and it would return to normal. Now it's doing it pretty much constantly.

At first I though maybe something had wound itself around the fan at the back and from what I can decipher from having a look inside the machine it is either the motor itself or the plastic fan at the back of the machine as there was nothing there that shouldn't have been there. An earlier incident when it was under warranty turned out to be the plastic fan on the front of the machine and since the symptoms are similar I'm wondering if it's the fan or the motor.

Does anyone with knowledge of this machine have any advice or should I just bite the bullet and get an engineer out?

Thanks!

Alastair H
February 2008