For some time my dishwasher has been making a groaning sound but it always went through all of it's cycles. Recently it will run until it gets to 42 on the timer and stop. The first time I noticed this I opened the door and the heating element was glowing red. So far I have found that if I add water during the cycle the groaning stops and it sounds normal. I checked the float and it isn't stuck. I took the fill valve out and apart and cleaned the little screen. It is clear that not enough water is getting to the tub. Even after I added water it would not advance cycles. I even added boiling water to make sure it was hot enough. My heating element seems to be working because it will cause a quick blister if you touch it. I would really like to narrow the problem down before I start throwing parts at it.