I have been doing my M3W Winter service and noticed a slight rumble in one of the front wheel bearings. The hub inner bearing seal looked to have been leaking a bit of grease so I thought I had better have a check of the bearing condition. On inspection both the inner and outer bearings had signs of corrosion on them and the grease had emulsified with water ingress. I have replaced both bearings and the inner seal on that side. Checking the other side there was some signs of grease leakage from the inner seal, the bearings were OK but I cleaned the grease out and replaced it along with the inner seal.

My car has done 46,000 miles and is almost 12 years old. It may be worth checking for signs of grease leakage from the front hub inner seals and doing a bit of preventive maintenance by replacing the grease and inner seals if the signs are there. I can assure you it is a lot easier to replace the grease and inner seal than both the bearings. If you don't have a hydraulic press handy then some threaded bar and a selection of sockets will do the job.