Washing machine - mystery brown spots - please help!

luap2411

Sorry, I've had this brown spots one before as well, and I've changed the bearings on several w/m over the years.

Usually the seal that protects the first main bearing fails, allowing the water to wash the grease out of the bearings. Warm water and washing powder soon make the bearings rusty, and consequent use will wash the rust out onto the washing.

Symptoms usually are that you can move the drum vertically, open the door and try and lift the inner drum upwards, anything more than a few MM's is suspect. Sometimes it can be possible to move the drum backwards and forwards.

In the early stanges of failure the machine may be louder or make a growling type noise on spin, if left for too long and the bearings start to break up it can rattle and bang on spin, though not to be confused with the 'usual' noise if the drum is overloaded, or on an uneven surface. Has the WM started to make different noises recently ? rotating the drum slowly by hand you may also feel roughness or hear noise.

It used to be fairly easy to replace WM bearings, but now machines are not really designed to come apart that easily. The last one (a Servis, about 3 years ago) took an evening, and the bearing kit was about £20. Haynes do a manual on how to repair white goods, I've seen it for sale in Halfords before, pretty sure this would explain the principle of changing the main bearings. But really unless you are vey mechanically minded, and have a comprehensive tool kit I would not attempt the repair.

You can still get them repaired, but the cost means it's often worth just buying a new machine. You also have to bear in mind if you do get it repaired, often the seal will have scored the drum shaft, this means the new seal get's damaged quickly, and you are back were you started a few months later. Assuming you are satisfied it is the bearings the unless you have a newish Meile or something expensive then maybe time to call it a day.

Eventually bearings will go on WM's, but overloading them kills them off much quicker. Have replaced the main bearings on 2 x Zanussi's, 2 x Hotpoints's, 2 x Servis's. The wife knows if she kills the current AEG by overloading it there will be trouble !!

Good luck

mr_moneysaver_2

Thanks very much luap2411, that is really helpful.

I still have a suspicion that the bearings are the cause. However my experience doesn't seem to be entirely consistent with what you'd expect with this. I can't lift the drum vertically at all, though I can rock it backwards and forwards by a centimetre or so. Also there don't seem to be any odd sounds during the spin. I almost wish there were as at least I'd have a conclusive answer!

If anyone has any further comments or similar experiences I'd still be very keen to hear these, however it's looking like I'm probably going to be buying a new washing machine...

Thanks again

kaya

15 years of repairing washing machines (sad i know)
it's your bearings, the inner bearing seal is split or corroded, the spots are actually grease from the bearings, thats why it wont come out with soap and water, there is nothing else that causes spotting in wm's

dinsey

Sorry to hijack thread:

Have a 2 year old zanussi washing machine which makes a noise on normal use (when the drum turns in washing). It doesnt appear to make a noise on spin (fast spin 900 / 1000/ 1200 / 1400). Have a engineer booked but was asked when it makes the noise, as this is dependant on which engineer comes out.

There is some movement when pushing the drum back, i would say too much play.

Any ideas if it could be bearings of anything else, as would hate for the engineer to only part fix the problem and have to call him out again.

Cheers

Bikertov

mr_moneysaver wrote: »

Hi. My washing machine is sometimes putting small brown spots on clothes. The spots do not come out so the clothes are being ruined.

I have also got this on some of my shirts, and I thought it was to do with the iron and 'Iron Mould'. Changed the iron but it still happens occassionally.

Has anyone found a way of removing the marks ? I'm faced with ruined shirts that were not cheap ...