Miele drum rubbing door seal

In my experience, I've never seen any drum bearings fail, or need replacing, that wasn't caused directly by the bearing seal failing and letting water in. In my opinion it's a terrible design fault. I do remember sometimes bearings used to wear out without this seal letting water in, but that was probably in the late 1970s

Did you replace the rubber sealing ring for the front of the tub, when you replaced the bearings, presumably no.17 in that diagram?

If you reused the old, perhaps it had got squashed, or got soft with age, or if a replacement part, was a different thickness, possibly that might move the front a millimetre or so closer to the drum, depending on how thick or thin it is and I'd imagine the normal gap between the seal and the spinning drum wouldn't be much more than a couple of mm.

I do like the way the bearings are separated from the tub in that diagram, and by the looks of it there's more than one part to the seal, so when the seal does start weeping, it would probably just leak harmlessly into the base of the machine and not rust the bearings. That explains why they are supposed to last 20 years, the ones in my zanussi would have probably gone on to last that long if the rubber seal hadn't worn and leaked.

EDIT: Thinking about it, they way that clamping ring work, a thicker seal probably wouldn't make a difference.

This is a better diagram.

Thanks for clarification. I was misled by the lack of drum. It’s an unusual design by Miele.

Me IS is correct in that number 3 is the bearing housing and not the drum spider. I have stripped the whole drum down and still cannot see where the problem lies with mine. The spider, attached to the rear of the drum, was filthy but hasn’t corroded. I have cleaned it all up and will put it back together today.

On many washing machines the drum spider is just the arms and the shaft, but on some washing machines they are also designed to hold the bearings as well. In either case if one corrodes or cracks it can cause exessive play in the drum .

Hi MelS. Yes that's the drum spider. They usually have 3 arms and a shaft, but can have 4. It is bolted onto the inner drum.

I could be wrong, but I think no. 3 in that diagram is actually the cast iron support that the drum bearings are installed in, that attaches to the back of a Miele's stainless steel tub, bolted to the tubs cast iron weights. No wonder Miele are so expensive, I wish my machine was built like that.

I was recently reading that one cause of spider corrosion is biologically induced intergranular corrosion cased by biofilm build up, from not keeping the machine clean, and not leaving the door open etc. This was from the summary of a failed US class action against whirlpool over mouldy and smelly washing machines.

Page 15 to 18 if anyone is intereested https://web.archive.org/web/20140329080420/http://classproceedings.ca/files/2012/09/Whirlpool-Certification-Denied-Reasons.pdf

Hi. It could just be the door seal that has become floppy or distorted. Rather than go to any more expense (assuming you can't see that the door seal needs replacing) I attempted to just try and carefully cut away any part of the door seal that is catching on the drum with a very sharp Stanley knife. Apart from any annoyance, if it isn't too severe it's not likely to cause any problems as the drum would normally only catch on the back flange.

The drum spider is number 3 in your diagram. The drum shaft is not shown as the view is from underneath, so the shaft is obscured. In most cases, you cannot buy a separate drum spider and staff any more. Even when you could, they were very difficult to replace. You would normally have to buy a complete new drum and spider - although these days, especially with a lot of the cheaper washing machines, you can't even buy a new drum and spider. You have to buy an entire outer drum with the inner drum already fitted.

Dadla us - did u get this sorted? Was it the inner spider like Paul007?

Paul007 - did you manage to source a new drum/spider or did u end up buying a new machine.

I ask as my Miele has started to squeak and it is the drum rubbing on the door seal. I changed the drum bearings as I thought that is what it was but having put it all back together I am getting the same noise as before and on closer inspection I see it is the drum in contact with the door seal.

Thanks for posting this Paul. I have the same problem. I had Miele tech come out and they told me I needed a new drum and drum bearing.

When you say the "inner drum spider" is corroded, do you mean this. Seems like if this is corroded, the inner drum would be loose??? In my case, from what Andy said, the inner drum has moved forward slightly--because the shaft slipped in the bearing or???

Any help much appreciated. Sure not getting any from Miele. They just want to sell me a new one while my 11 year old machine is in excellent condition.

Thanks for the update Paul.

Found the problem inner drum spider corroded, everything else was very good condition for a 10 year old + washer .now need to find one at a good price or buy a new washer.

The rims can appear slightly out of true, they are often not perfectly circular. Can you push the drum back on its shaft? In other words has the drum somehow come forward on its shaft?

Try pushing and twisting at the back of the drum to see if it will push back at all. Did you check the drum pulley?

Looked at inner drum its slightly forward and rotates off centre compared with the rim of the outer drum probably 10mm out( it looks worse than the measurement suggests, but not any noise and not loose, do they normally rotate pretty much central can they be adjusted? Stripping drum down later

Check that the drum pulley hasn’t come loose allowing the drum shaft to move forward.

No noise has been noticed, checked a new Miele today and the inner drum is slightly behind the outer drum so mine has moved forward slightly