I think you have answered your own question Mark ...... change the bearings. A good check to see if the bearings are about to fail is to try and move the inner drum up and down ... if you get any play then it's time to change them. Front panel off, remove clips from around the outer drum, pull the drum cover off, take the drum pulley off from the back, wallop the drum spindle, inner drum out, all that just to gain access to the bearings ...... and that's the easy bit! Good luck.
Chris
September 2007