I have now spoken to Hotpoint about this problem and was greeted with no surprise at all!
I can confirm that you can get the appropriate spares for ÂŁ25 which include the bearing and also the seals - which are presumably the root of the problem. However, I estimate that it would take most of a day or a weekend to sort this out yourself, provided that nothing else has gone wrong.
Hotpoint will fix the problem, whatever it is for ÂŁ89.11 including parts, labour and call-out fee (this is on a machine still with its parts warrantee intact)
So, despite it being an apparent design flaw and ultimately Hotpoints fault, for the sake of ÂŁ65, they can have the hassle.
Learning point? - Checkout howtomendit.com before buying ANYTHING!!
Slewthy
August 2004