Indesit IDV65UK Tumble Dryer Squeaking Repair

Guide to repairing an Indesit IDV65UK tumble dryer which started squeaking (also applies to various other tumble dryers such as IDV75UK, IC85, HotPoint).

My tumble dryer (Indesit IDV65UK - UK variant of IDV65) started squeaking loudly when it was spinning the other day so I wanted to find out what was wrong before the issue got even worse or packed in completely. The tumble dryer is only just over a year old, but gets heavy use due to the drying demands of having young children.

I unplugged and took the tumble dryer out from its usual location in order to look round the back. I removed a plastic cover to find a load of black powder residue:-

Apparently squeaky tumble dryers are quite common in certain brands/models and are often a sign of a worn bearing at the back of the machine.

As you can see in the above picture, the metal rod that supports the drum seems to have worn its way through the tear-drop shape bearing - the end of the metal rod should ideally be central in the tear-drop rather than hanging low.

I removed the bearing and other components by first using pliers to bend the soft metal 'S' (or 'Z') shaped pin from the locking nut. Once removed, the locking nut could slide off.

The tear-drop bearing could then be removed after lifting the dryer rod up - this was a little fiddly due to possible wear to the metal on the actual machine, but I managed to do this by looping some metal cable round the rod to provide some upwards leverage - a second pair of hands might be useful here.

You can see from the picture above that the bearing has had some pretty hefty wear!

All that was needed to fix my drier was a cheap replacement rear tear drop bearing - I managed to source one of these on Amazon for about £5. The particular bearing I was after appears to be compatible with dryers from other brands which suggests this is a standard component.  You can also get these on some other dryer spare/repair website, but they seemed to cost a little more.

TIP: (Added 16th July 2015) - I would suggest ordering some WD-40 at this point too (if you do not have any!) as a quick spray on the new bearing once fitted should help reduce future wear and tear.
Updated Tip - 13/1/2018 - Copper Grease/slip/Ease is a better product to use (Thanks for the feedback in the comments)

A few days after ordering, my replacement part arrived. Below is a comparison of the new and worn parts:-

I fitted the replacement part (reversing the steps to remove the worn part) and after installing, the squeak was gone!