How to Troubleshoot & Replace Lg AP7220429 / 4581EL2002L Roller Kit

I have an LG dryer purchased in 2007. Model: DLE9577SM. It was squeaking at start-up and rumbling a little. Not knowing what parts I would actually need, I ordered rollers with/without assemblies, tensioner pulley-only, new belt. After viewing this video a couple of times, I attacked my machine which is located in the comfort of my garage. Lots of room to spread out. Nice. This disassembly went OK however because, I suspect, my machine is 13 years old, the removal of the control panel was different than shown in the video. No locking tabs. My control panel has a screw hidden behind a plastic tab "press here", on the right-hand side corner (as you face the machine) which you remove, THEN the whole control panel will slide from left to right for removal. You may have to use a mallet on the left-hand side with a light tap to unlodge it. With my control panel, it was not necessary to disconnect all, rather just some, of the terminals so I was able to lay the whole thing to the side and proceed. The rest of the disassembly went according to the video. Turned out my belt was frayed and one of my rollers was bad. Replaced both items and will return the unused parts for a full refund. Miscellaneous notes: Gloves on all the time, sheet metal sharps at every turn. No blood drawn! All of the Phillips screws are the same size. Some of the screws were VERY hard to remove. Fortunately, I had a new, correct size, Phillips screwdriver which provided a very tight fit, especially after I whacked it with the mallet, so I was able to get all screws out undamaged. But I could see why some people would have trouble and run-out/damage the Phillips heads. Good idea to have a hand-held impact driver on-site just in case. After you lift off the drum and the tension assembly is visible/available, do a dry-fit with the belt just so you are familiar with how it fits because when you put the drum back on, putting that belt in place is a little bit of a challenge. On my specific model: on top of the machine, on the top of the control panel, is a separate trim piece, about 2" wide and runs the length of the top of the panel: there is no need to remove it but if you want to, it slides either to the left or the right, can't remember now. If you pry it straight up (like I did), one or more of the clips will break. Fortunately, even though I broke one of the clips, it re-seated just fine. The bad roller I replaced: I replaced it with a "roller assembly" and not just a "roller". I may have been able to disassemble the bad roller assembly, retain the axle, and put on just a new roller? I will tear apart the bad assembly and will update this comment with what I discover. Re-installing the drum: I did it by myself, but it would have been useful to have another person help with this. It's a little awkward lifting the drum, getting the roller in place, getting the panel into the notches, etc..It's not heavy, just awkward, a kid could help. Cleaning out dust/lint: when everything is removed, a good time to clean out the vents. I stuck my leaf blower in the vent and blasted away. Not much came out which is good to know also, apparently has been venting properly the last 13 years. Did the same for the outside vent. Keep track of your screws: after I put everything back together, 2 screws left over--- However, within 4 minutes I was able to locate the voids and put everything back together. Took me 4 hours to do all this, learning along the way. If there is a next time, should be able to do it in less than 2 hours. Tools needed: Phillips screw driver with proper head size (whatever that is ??); maybe a hand-held impact driver; if replacing rollers, open-end wrench and sockets as noted in the video. 

I suspected the loud noise of the dryer was because of one or more bad rollers. The drum literally sits on the four rollers and nothing else. The front and back dryer panels keeps the drum in place. A belt around the drum driven by a motor makes it spin. The hardest part about the job is knowing how to access the drum rollers without having to take everything apart. There are YouTube videos that help with that except I couldn't find one that showed my model. Most videos are for models that have a front control panel just above the door, whereas mine is located on the rear of the top dryer plate. I was able to find and download a service manual which shows that the top dryer place can be opened like a door as there are hinges on the back. You just insert a putty knife below the top plate in the front. There are two clips on either side that hold the top plate down in front. Insert the putty knife a couple of inches from the left/right edge and then push back each clip. Lift up the putty knife to raise up the top plate in front. You might need to tap the back of the putty knife with your palm. I also used a second stiff putty knife, using it as a lever to help raise the top plate once the first putty knife pushed back the clip and created enough space to insert the second putty knife. There's no need to disassemble the control panel or anything else attached to the top plate, You just raise it up like a door and then use something to hold it up while you continue to work on the dryer. With the top plate opened up, the rest of the job is the same as for front panel dryers shown on the YouTube videos. I replaced all four rollers since I didn't know in advance which rollers were bad. Also, I didn't know how well the replacement rollers would match the original rollers. To avoid a potential drum wobble, I decided to replace all four of them and thus being assured they were all identical. The roller assembly from AppliancePartsPros.com worked fine. It is possible to find just the rollers online. Although this is cheaper, you then have to worry if the parts from the old roller assembly will work with the new roller. The roller assembly does not appear to be OEM, however, aside from the color, I couldn't tell any difference. The LG originals are blue, whereas the replacement rollers are white. I'll have to wait and see if they'll perform like the originals. The job itself can be done in less than an hour. However, I took the opportunity to vacuum out the loose lint that had accumulated inside the dryer over the years, as well as doing some additional inspecting/cleaning while I had the dryer open. 

After being made aware of a loud screeching sound from the dryer by a family member, I began googling using the LG model number and noise. I was returned the standard long list of possibilities and youtube videos. I searched for a tech manual of the dryer (one that shows diagrams, parts, etc.) but could not find one. So, I watched several short youtube videos on how to take the dryer apart. This one being helpful --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gijrvkg_ePE - I will note this is my first time taking a Dryer apart. Then, after getting the dryer apart somewhat, and by making an educated guess on the issue I googled the roller part number, 4531EL3001, and was returned several sites. After reading reviews, etc. I decided on using the Appliance Parts Pros website because of their informative videos, and FAQs that noted the part 4581EL2002c replaced my part. I ordered the parts, and they arrived on the date or sooner as expected. It is nice to have a place, ship items as advertised. Having taken the Dryer apart once and put it back together (I wanted to make sure I could get it back together) I arranged to have a family member assist with the replacement of the two (2) front rollers, when the part arrived. Having two people makes the effort a lot easier, I would also suggest using a hand free drill because the amount of torque required to get some of the phillips screws off can be difficult, and take a few pictures along the way to assist with the re-assembly, and finally lay the screws out in an orderly fashion so you get the right screws back into the correct slots. So, it took me 3 hours to take the dryer apart, get a couple of pictures for part numbers, etc., and put the dryer back together. Note several difficult screws to get off, and in fact I gave up on one (because I did not have the hand free drill. With a family, and a hand free drill, less than 1 hour. the repair/replacement went smoothly. All in all I would use this site again for parts, and more importantly their educational videos on how to do something. 

We have a 14-year-old LG clothes dryer. It started squeaking, then rattling. Everything I looked up online pointed to one of the roller wheels going bad. The roller wheels are small rubber wheels on which the dryer drum sits and they spin in place to help the drum rotate smoothly when the dryer is running. I wanted to verify the roller wheels were the actual problem before ordering any parts. I found a few YouTube videos showing how to change a roller wheel, which didn’t seem too bad of a job, so I took apart the dryer. It was a little different than the videos I’d watched. Our dryer has a raised control panel that sits on the top back edge. The models in the videos all had the more contemporary panel flush with the top front corner. But the concepts were the same. I got it apart and found our dryer had 4 roller wheels, two in front and two in back. The rear bottom roller wheel was very wobbly, its axel full of lint and grit from years of use. It made sense to me as it looked like that wheel bore the brunt of the drum's weight. I ordered 2 roller wheels to have a spare which arrived in 3 days. I wound up having to take an additional inside metal panel off to change out the roller wheel; there just wasn't enough room to get a wrench back there to loosen/tighten the wheel to the frame. But that was only 6-7 more screws, all accessible from the outside back of the dryer. The wheel was perfect and saved us a good-sized repair bill: VICTORY. I did manage to put a small gash in one of my fingers, so do wear gloves as much as possible; it's all sheet metal inside so there are sharp edges and corners to deal with. Also, be careful with the control panel. It should hang down wherever you put it (the power wires are heavy and won't break), but it's a little heavy and you may have to move it around a few times as you open up the dryer frame. You don't want to break the control panel which is the brains of the machine. Good luck with your own repairs! It saves you money if you can handle it, and is pretty rewarding in the end. 

Replacing the rear drum support rollers corrected the issue. The dryer is as quiet as it was when I purchased it. The repair was easy, but removing the top of the dryer was different than what was described in the video. Even so, it was easy and it took me about an hour to complete. 

Was going to order 4 new wheel & spindle sets, then saw you could get just the wheel for 1/3 the cost, so I ordered those. Then in the frequently ordered other items I saw the idler wheel assy. So I ordered one of those also. Glad I did, it was in worse shape than any of the wheels which still seemed to spin freely after I got all the hairs and crap off them. Anyways, went by the video step by step. Pretty straightforward. Have a good vacuum handy, I’m surprised that it used to dry at all considering all the lint that was in there. Actually had a sock in the blower wheel which was so covered in lint it blocked 60% of the wheel. 

Wasn't sure what was making the sound so I ordered all 4 drum rollers, belt and pulley. When I opened the dryer it was obvious one of the front drum rollers had seized with lint and hair buildup. I still replaced all the parts and it works great again. The videos on Parts Pros were exceptional and essential to this DIY repair! The dryer was fairly dirty and cleaning every part as I went along added extra time to my repair but I figure actual repair time to be about 1 hour. 

My LG TROMM had never given me problems in 10 years but I knew that noise was not common. I researched it and it showed me this video and that it might be a bad roller. Since I was gonna take it apart I might as well replace the belt and the pulley as well. I had no faith in myself since I had never taken anything apart and put back together, however the video showed step by step so I decided to give it a go. I followed it step by step and it was SUPER EASY. I was very happy with how easy you guys made it for someone like me to follow along and no more noise... Thankyou so much for your help 

Replace them. 

Replaced 4 worn rollers with new ones. The whole experience was very easy. I can't believe we have to pay the Maytag man hundreds of dollars to do this. Now that I've done it once I'm sure I could do it again in 30 minutes. If you need to change out the drive belt, rollers, control panel, heating element even the motor just do it your self. It's soooo easy.