Bosch Avantixx 6 – drum rubbing noise

[divenal]

Hi, my first post here… apologies for the length.

I have a Bosch Avantixx 6 washing machine, model WAE24366GB/23
We’ve just noticed a rubbing noise as the drum is (manually) turned. First suspect was something trapped between the inner and outer drums. Couldn’t see anything through the holes. Have removed the big drain hose and the heating element, but still no foreign objects (and the noise is still there). So I’m looking for suggestions. I’ve ordered one of those USB endoscope things (which I needed anyway for an entirely different investigation).

The noise comes in two phases, repeating 3 times per full rotation. Since the drum has 3 paddles (moulded into the drum, rather than stuck on) my conclusion was that the change in noise was whether it was a paddle or the drum that was passing over a foreign presence, if you see what I mean. Very hard to describe noises. One part is just a scraping/rubbing, and the drum is slightly harder to turn. The other is a sort of flapping noise – sort of like the edge of a piece of paper is slightly over a desk edge and being brushed up and down. (Does that make any sense?) Or riffling through the pages of a book, maybe ?

It might be something stuck in the inlet from the soap drawer – we tend to remove that when the machine is not in use, to let it dry out. (Washer lives in the garage, BTW.) Not sure if something could have fallen down the inlet. I can’t see anything, but I’ve not yet figured out how to remove the drawer enclosure from the front left of the machine to gain access to the inlet. Probing through the drum holes from inside has so far revealed nothing.

Could it be a piece of scale detached from the heater and got itself lodged somewhere ? Shining a torch through the outer tub from either inside or outside, and looking for shadows has revealed nothing.

Perhaps I’m looking in entirely the wrong place. Not sure what worn bearings would sound like. Not sure that would exhibit the same periodic behaviour ? The inner drum doesn’t seem to have any excessive lateral movement (though I’m not really in a position to know what would count as excessive). There are three spokes on the back wall of the drum – could there be something trapped behind there which could cause that same periodic sort of noise ?

Thanks for reading (if you got this far)

Dave

[electrofix]

go to the front of the machine pull the rubber back so you can see the metal part of the drum

look at the distance between the metal inner drum and the plastic outer. As you revolve the drum does this gap change. 5 mm or so is not a problem but am looking to see if its a lot more

Dave

[divenal]

No, I’d say the gap remains pretty uniform as the drum is turned.

I had noticed previously, when probing through the holes in the inner drum, that the gap between the two is much smaller at the back than the front. I guess the back half of the outer tub is a slightly smaller diameter. But it seemed pretty uniform all the way around.

[electrofix]

at this point i normally put my head inside the drum and turn it and try to listen where its catching

get a lot of bra wires stuck in machines. that gives a scraping noise

Dave

[divenal]

Yeah, I’ve been trying that, but hard to convince myself exactly where the noise is coming from. I can just about convince myself it’s in the vicinity of the soap filler. I was wondering if using a small microphone might make it easier to locate the sound.

I assume there’s not really many recesses in the outer drum in which something could lodge ? So it ought to be pulled round by the rotation of the inner drum and appear in the heater recess.

OH assures me no bra wires are missing 😉

[electrofix]

just look for a woman with lack of visible support on one side lol

soap draw sounds good. its a hole in the drum where things can lodge. Had a few of those

i would remove soap hose where it enters the drum. do it slowly in case there is something trapped and it goes back into the drum

also it was being pulled around by the drum it would not click as often. its probably stationary and clicking over the paddles

Dave

[divenal]

Okay, got the drawer and inlet detached… but nothing there 🙁

At least it’s running out of places to hide !

I guess I’ll have to wait for that endoscope thing to arrive.

We don’t really do any regular descaling or anything. Wondering if it could just be some limescale mixed up with some fluff, or something. (There was a lot of that around the heating element.) There is some crud around the front edge of the outer drum. If nothing turns up, maybe I’ll just reassemble it and see if a descale changes anything…

[electrofix]

find a small mirror and place it in the hole where the heater came out of. With a torch and at the right angle you can see behind the drum

Dave

[divenal]

USB endoscope arrived today – one day ahead of the estimated delivery window. Fascinating poking around inside the drum (but no result yet).

[andyjawa]

Having reached this point. Take the belt off. Then try. If the drum seems normal / spins around by hand now then investigate the motor – some motors the armature is plastic sheet coated and this peels off causing a noise – but is not a common problem. It will be unlikely that it would be the drum bearings under pressure tension via the belt. If the drum/noise is still there then probabal place something has got caught between the rear of the drum and the back of the tank possibly caught under one of the drum spider arms which can be a right bugger to get whatever it is out OR something trapped at the front of the drum / tank is far more common. So there is a starting point with your new endoscope thing.

[divenal]

Apologies for lack of response… finally got back to looking at it today. I thought I saw something a bit odd at the very back of the drum. but realised that even if I could identify it, there was very little chance of getting out. So… tried putting it all back together and running a short cycle with some vinegar, and lo and behold, the noise seems to have resolved itself.

Perhaps it was just scale all along ? Anyway, thanks for all your suggestions.
Dave

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