T300GTE groaning/squeaking under load - lubrication issue?

[tpw]

Hi all

I've had my T300GTE for 6 months and have been delighted with it in general. Over the last few weeks though it has started to develop an annoying noise which I can best describe as a groaning / squeaking noise as though there's some metal on metal rubbing going on. If the wheel is not under load I can hear the noise faintly when I move the wheel about 5 degrees right (or if the wheel is already right, it makes the noise when moving back through 5 degrees). During operation in any sim, the turning the wheel through 5 degrees right under load results in a very loud groaning. If I take the wheel and plastic front facing off and just turn the shaft, the noise is still present, which makes me think the problem lies internally with a bearing somewhere. It's at the point now where I always race with headphones because I've become so hyper sensitised to the groaning.

By the way, it's not the knocking noise that I've seen described and fixable by adjusting screw torque on the front panel.

So on to my questions:

1 - has anyone experienced anything similar?
2 - is is possible to lubricate some internal component to get this bloody noise to abate? I hesitate to just start spraying WD40 around inside my $500 wheel...

Thanks people

EDIT: I should add that the actual FFB is completely fine, it's just the noise that is giving me the @#$%s

 

[PicoBp]

Mine developed the same squeeking noise at every 120° of the turn. Just sent back for RMA, hopefully I'll get a shiny new one back. I must add once again, as the original set had a bad bearing out of the box and been replaced weeks after it was bought.