Bosch WFO2866 Drum rubbing on door seal, bearings OK, drum OK

Jongar - did you solve this problem?

Hi, just browsing through these older threads, and think the problem could have been a broken spider arm, I've had it on a Bosch w/m, and on some models you can buy a spider repair kit, and on youtube there's a demo how to split the drum and replace the spider and fit a new drum seal and bolt it together. To test if if is the spider, grip the inner drum and see if it wobbles up and down and side to side.

If it gets really bad , the inner drum starts to saw it's way through the heater and outer drum and you find bits of grey plastic in your washing. Then I guess it's the scrap man.

I'm having a very similar problem with a 10 year old Bosch WAQ28461GB/12.

It's been working fine, but last week there was a sort of burning rubber (we think) smell during the last spin cycle of a rather large load. After searching online and a careful inspection, I guessed it was the door seal and bought a new one online (not a Bosch, a generic, but specifically for that model). After installing, the inner drum wasn't moving smoothly - it's clearly rubbing against the seal rubber.

The inner drum is not loose (so it's not bearings) and the gap between inner and outer drums doesn't vary when it spins (so not spider arm?), however it looks like the gap at the bottom is a bit larger than the top and sides - is this normal? (see pic)

The old seal has been worn away in places (see pic), but there have been no leaks and we have noticed no grey rubber debris in the wash.

Any advice or insights would be most welcome, as I don't want to trash a working machine if it can be repaired.

Thanks!

Update: I have re-installed the old door seal, cleaned as well as possible, and done a test load. No smell, no noise, no problems. It was a medium-sized load and nothing too heavy though.

Perhaps the smell was due to a rubber gasket rubbing with a heavy load, and as long as we keep the loads moderately sized we can get a few more years of use? Or am I being overly optimistic?

Very curious to hear what others with more experience than I have think of this.

Hello Odilon. If the drum is definitely okay, and there is no excessive play in it then this problem can be caused if an item of clothing gets trapped between the revolving drum and the back of the door seal. This can drag an item around and cause a lot of friction. It is totally normal for the gap to vary, the inner drum room is never totally circular.

Thanks Andy, that's reassuring. I'm still baffled why the new door seal rubbed (perhaps being a non-original part it wasn't quite the same?), and I certainly haven't noticed anything trapped between the drum and the seal, but I'll keep an eye on the seal and fingers crossed it will continue working.

No problem. The trapped item that can cause this problem usually frees itself in the end, so it's possible you wouldn't have been aware. If the drum is perfectly okay, then it can only have been an item of laundry that caused it. It's possible that the replacement door seal wasn't a perfect fit if it wasn't a genuine part. Make sure that the old door seal hasn't been damaged so that it has left a larger gap between itself and the revolving drum. That would invite items of laundry to get sucked down into the washing machine or dragged around again.