I have a 4 yr old Kenmore dishwasher (model 665.16879). Recently, it has not been cleaning well, I can hear a high buzzing sound when earlier I used to hear the "wash" sound. I suspect that something is obstructing the motor from running smoothly. Any ideas?

PS: Recently, there was a lot of clunky sound from the dishwasher. Upon opening it up, and checking the food grinding motor, I found a piece of plastic spoon and a toothpick. After removing these, the dishwasher worked fine for 3 weeks, and now I have this problem.

Oh no,

There is no food grinding motor in a dishwasher. That is a pump motor and its not made for grinding food, spoons, or toothpicks. Your dishwasher has a strainer to help prevent this kind of stuff from being drawn into the pump. Your household dishwasher probobly just has a plastic impellar that a spoon will shred to pieces. Even commercial diswashers that have cast iron impellars can be stopped dead in their tracks by a smal spoon, normally bending the shaft of the motor.

Your pump motor is probobly stopped up with garbage and if you continue to run it without cleaning the impeller out, you risk damage to the pump, motor, and the impellar.

You will need to remove the pump and clean it out thoroughly. It may be to late for that pump, it may already be damaged and need to be replaced. If it has been removed, you will need to reinstall the strainer on the pump to prevent this kind of stuff from happening in the future. Also, if the impellar looks chewed up, replace it.

Also, contrary to the old commercial of the housewife putting a whole cake in a dishwasher to clean the cake plate it sits on, I will tell you that this is not good for ANY dishwasher. Always clean the scraps off the dishes before loading them in the dishwasher.

Good luck!

Thanks andrewcocke. Any suggestions as to how to remove the pump? I have removed the filter mechanism and make sure that there are no food articles near the strainer and the pump, and that the blade is able to rotate freely.
I was reading the ratings for this model, and read a comment that this model doesn't do a good job of preventing small objects from motor/pump and jamming it. Anyone else had similar problems?

Clear and concise, what about removing the pump? Thanks