Samsung washing machine wearing away door seal

[paltibine]

Samsung WW90J5456MWEU

The door seal was getting torn up and bits of the seal appearing both in the seal lip and in the filter. So I changed the seal last week and it seemed fine until today having been used about 6 or 7 times since.
I was in the house while the machine was on and while it was spinning and first heard a bang from the machine then it was very noisy like it had a very uneven load (it didn't) and when it finished and I opened the door there was a smell of burning rubber and lots of grey gunge which appear to be worn off the seal.
It seems like the spinning drum has been rubbing against the seal and eating it away.

The bearings don't sound bad and the drum rotates smoothly and quietly by hand? The drum is closer to the seal at the bottom than at the top but not excessively so. When rocking the drum assembly by hand it seems a bit looser than I would expect and can easily be pulled and pushed forwards and back to bang the front and rear of the machine case - I'm not sure if this is normal?

There must be something else wrong for it to completely destroy the original seal and to start to damage the second one.

What do you think is causing this - thanks in advance for your advice and suggestions.

 

[Wayners]

Sounds like bearings. I don't think it's ever worth replacing them plus you need to press in so maybe not something you can do yourself.
Can't think of anything else although I'm only a DIY person.

 

[jj4091]

Check the spider if you bother to go in the back rather than scrapping it

 

[accelerator]

The spider arm assembly, that holds the drum in place and connects it to the drive shaft, it likely to have broken.

 

[paltibine]

I thought that if it's the spider arm then you can hear and/or feel it moving but it seems to be smooth and quiet when turning and rocking the drum manually?

 

[accelerator]

It may be that it is failing, e.g. bending, only at higher g-forces.

 

[paltibine]

So I took the machine apart - removing front and back panels but not going into the drum assembly - looking for anything that might be wrong but found nothing. However the machine has run flawlessly 3 times since with no problems at all.

Can it be the bearings or the spider arm if it's an intermittent fault or does that rule them out?

When it showed the problem there was definitely a bang before it started chewing up the seal and banging around, is there anything that could have slipped out of place but goes back when the machine stops?

 

[jj4091]

Is it possible you just had an unbalanced load. That can make the drum crash against the casing with a loud bang. Not sure it could damage the door seal though

 

[paltibine]

It looked and sounded like an unbalanced load but it shouldn't have been as it wasn't anything big. The machine is supposed to sense an unbalanced load, stop and throw an error code. It's the bang that preceeded the problem that I think is the key to this but I may be wrong.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

The bearings don't sound bad and the drum rotates smoothly and quietly by hand?

Despite that, I would still suggest it likely that the bearings have failed. The only other possibility, is that the inner drum is somehow misaligned with the outer drum.

 

[paltibine]

But can it be the bearings if it's intermittent? The last time I ran it, it was spinning at 1400rpm with clothes in and it was quiet and looked as smooth as it ever was.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

But can it be the bearings if it's intermittent? The last time I ran it, it was spinning at 1400rpm with clothes in and it was quiet and looked as smooth as it ever was.

As did/was mine, yet the bearings were totally shot.

 

[paltibine]

OK thanks for that - I didn't know that damaged bearings could show as an intermittent fault, I thought if the bearings wore out or broke it would be faulty all the time.

The outer drum can be split so is it a viable DIY fix?

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

OK thanks for that - I didn't know that damaged bearings could show as an intermittent fault, I thought if the bearings wore out or broke it would be faulty all the time.

The outer drum can be split so is it a viable DIY fix?

If it is bolted together, then yes it can be split, to replace the bearings and seals. If the bearings and seals for the model can be bought, then they are replaceable. I paid around £20 for the bearing kit. It's probably an easy day's work. I did it in a day, despite having to remove the drum in our very constricted utility room.

I used a bit of threaded rod, plus large washers, to press the bearings out and in.

 

[assuhors]

You have most likely got a fractured drum support arm, only noticeable with a heavy or uneven load accompanied by a heavy thumping.
The inner tub would have to come out and be split in half to extract the drum. If you look in the drum from the front you can see the shape of the spider through the stainless steel drum. Getting each of the the drum lifters in turn to the bottom and pushing down hard will probably show excess movement in one of the three arms.