Interesting, like you, I never heard of bearing freeze unless it was noisy prior to, so I am shocked, just rebuilt my alternator and checked bearings for any hint of noise or excess friction, spun easily and quietly and I was debating whether to replace bearings or not since I had it split apart where a diode corroded lead was issue. Wish I had known about bearing freeze issue sooner, oh well, will keep an ear out for any signs of freeze. Thanks for posting this, news to me and I thought I heard of every problem with bimmers. Learn something new every day. As to battery note, yes, I have had several bimmers and batteries all lasted on average 7 years, unheard of in any of my other vehicles over the years, and I did not use trickle charge.