The washer appears to have agitator problems, uses too much water and ends with overload message. The automatic diagnostic in C1 fills to the top (way past the expected minimum), the basket does not disengage and the manual says to determine the cause of friction.

What does this mean and what should I be looking for? I did remove the agitator and didn't see any obvious problems with the plastic spline gear or seal.

The control panel has 2 screws in the back and with power and water off where do I go from there?

Thanks,

CA Traveler

The problem is a drum leak that has caused the bearing to rust shut and the drum will not disengage. The solution is to replace the drum and a new one is on order. Apparently this is a common problem due to a faulty drum design which has been corrected.

I called Sears and decided to pay $218 for a 1 year service contract. The service call would have been $75 for the diagnoses and $175 for the drum replacement. So I'm a little ahead for not doing it myself. The drum itself has a 10 year warranty. It sounds like a big job as the tech asked if he would be able to move the washer to the garage where he would have more room to work.

There were a number of other problems like the spin cycle didn't always work and all of the problems are likely caused by the bad drum, but no way to tell until the drum is replaced.