Rust Colored Leak From Bottom of Dishwasher

Tonight I ran the dishwasher, and saw something I've never seen before in the two years we've lived here and owned the dishwasher that came with our house.

There was a rust colored leak in the floor below the left side of the dishwasher. Not a lot of water, but enough.

Upon putting my hand under the bottom of the door, I found it to be wet, and when I dabbed it with paper towels, I got more of the rust colored water.

This is a VERY old General Electric Potscrubber 640 ( model number GSD 640L - 03) that I'm guessing was original to this house. I found a manual for it online, but the trouble shooting section of the manual didn't mention anything about this type of specific problem.

It probably does need to be replaced, but if there is any way to patch it up for the time being, that would be great.

Any thoughts on what could be wrong and what we could try?

Thanks in advance.

 

It's a dishwasher that runs with water so there are multiple possible leak paths.

Could be the pump assembly, could be the water inlet, could be the discharge line. They are all possible but to find out your going to need to remove the bottom close off panel or pull the entire unit from it's current location to see where the leak is coming from!

 

Depending on the age it may be hard to find parts also. Look up on Google about changing door gasket on dishwashers. That is a very common problem.

 

Those machines were well built back then. Although it could certainly be a door gasket it might not be.

Have you used the dishwasher again after first seeing the water ?
A problem that can be intermittent and is hardly ever thought of is that something placed inside the dishwasher caused the water to be directed where it shouldn't have been and it came out thru or under the door.

 

Pete,

Yesterday I read an article online that indicated that dishes blocking the arm in the dishwasher could cause water to leak from the bottom of the door. Yesterday afternoon I ran just a rinse cycle with no dishes in the washer. No water leak. Last night I ran a small load and again, no water leak.

I think something blocking the arm was indeed the problem, and instead of "rusty" water, maybe a better description would be "dirty" water.

Thanks for your input.....and thanks to everyone else too.

 

Keep an eye on it for more leaking.