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Yes it's strange. Is the mark by any chance the same size as one of the holes in the drum? The first thing I would do is put the washing machine on a boil wash or at least 60 degrees. Put in some detergent but no laundry. You might also want to try some of the specially designed washing machine cleaning products. The closest article I have is about rust spots on clothes after washing but I don't know if they are rust spots or not.

I would give the opposite advice and suggest you may need to put more in. The symptom you describe of slight banging of the drum on the sides as the washing machine is slowing down from a spin is typical of a load out of balance. That's more usually underloading than overloading. Having said that I'm mindful of the fact that you've been using the washing machine for some time and this has only started happening so we can't rule out a fault somewhere. However, it's by far the most likely cause. Read my article here to get an idea of the issue Washing machine jumps and bangs on spin but essentially the biggest cause of unbalanced loads is not enough laundry in the drum to spread evenly all around it. Also having one or two very absorbent items such as towels in with a lot of lighter items.

Thanks. it was a few mm too thick, so I fixed it to a rod into my cordless drill, put it on reverse, turned on my bench grinder, and it took it off easily and left it perfectly round Also used rubber washerss, and it's very very secure (had to use washing up liquid to get the motor over them) I'm just wondering whether I've wasted a load of money. new bearings (got from local bearing shop so not too much) and new spider arm all to stop it banging on spin, but as the rubber had disintegrated/turned to dust, maybe that was the problem all along Ah well, its all back together and running perfectly at the moment, Did a quick short rinse and spin, zero knocking, now doing a full load, so far silence (it was so loud I reckon my neighbor two doors away could have heard it)

Holds the outer part of the seal to the front o f the cabinet

I couldn't give a definitive answer, but I would have thought if you put loctite on the threads and screw them in then the water wouldn't get to it and the loctite should hold the bolts.