About 2 weeks ago got an alert from my smart watch overnight of a loud noise, thought nothing of it. About a week or so later the washer started banging during the spin cycle. Though maybe the wife overloaded it and it was an unbalanced load. Tested with no load, worked fine, told her to not load it so much and see what happens. Issue persisted, and she could hear that the banging noise was coming from the front of the washer below the front loading door
Came home and took the back panel off, shocks seemed a little loose so I assumed a bad shock and ordered new shocks for the washer. Decided since I’m going to have to take off the front of the washer anyway, might as well do that now so when the parts get here I can fix it immediately. Taking off that front is a pain, but just go slow, watch some of the videos on this website and you’ll get it done.
Long story short, take off the front, and noticed that the basket weight is pulling away from the bottom of the basket. That was what was banging into the front of the washer below the door. One of the bolts that hold it on, came loose and must have shot off during a spin cycle (probably what caused that loud noise alert on my watch overnight).
ALMOST canceled the order and just replace the bolt since the weight was still intact, BUT I said since it had probably been unbalanced for up to 2 weeks and only recently started banging the shocks we’re probably worn out a lot or damaged. Since I had this machine opened up might as well replace the shocks and then find out after putting it all together again it still bangs during the spin cycle and have to take it all apart again.
Parts arrived, installed, put the whole machine back together and everything works great now. Spent $165 IIRC for the parts, tax, and overnight shipping. Don’t doubt the service call alone would have cost more than that, plus labor and parts.