Is this fixable / worth fixing?

[guyb]

Hey all.

My hotpoint ariston aq92f-29-fr has been making a lot of noise when spinning recently (for the past year to be honest) - I figured it was the bearings going - after taking the back off, I saw the attached (the belt was still in place before I took the photo)

 

2 things going on here - the obvious rusty brown water stain coming from the middle of the drum  - the second being the main belt wheel (big black 5 spoked thing - I'm no expert!) has worn a groove into the plastic drum housing.

I have tried to remove the torx bolt in the middle to see if the reveals anything, but can't get it to budge (is it reverse threaded?) - I also suspect that it's not going help anyway since it all seems to be spinning off-centre - causing the groove in the housing and, I'm guessing the seals to be compromised hence the brown stain. 

I think I can source a whole new drum for around 230 EUR (in France) - but not sure it's worth it as the machine is 5 years old - its likely to have more issues in the future... am I right? 

Cheers

[Whitegoodshelp]

Hello there. Yes that looks like typical drum bearing failure. I think you are  better replacing the machine. Replacing the drum and bearings is a very big job and very expensive.