We've had our dryer worked on one or two times in the past by the folks our warranty sends out. Have never been too impressed with these folks as they take weeks to get parts ordered/in and they have the innate ability to lose screws. The last repair was the heater coil.

Anyhow, recently the dryer has an awful dragging / grating / grinding metal-on-metal type noise when it heats up. It seems that the hotter the setting, the worse the noise.

I took the thing apart and upon pulling the drum, the only thing I noticed was that there seemed to be one or two missing ceramic insulators for the coil. I'm guessing that, after time, the heating and cooling cycle would have caused the coil to stretch to such a point as to allow the coil to dangle or bend toward the rotating drum and make this noise.

I've already ordered a heater assembly from the site, as well as a bearing kit (the ball seemed worn to me.)

Does my diagnosis seem plausible?