IF this hasn't been said, check the screw on top to make sure it is not stripped. My folks only bought Norges (they have a Norgetag or TOL Maytag Legacy now ironically, but don't know it's a Norge based machine).
I remember my mom use to take the agitator off to clean under it when she did rugs or things with lots of lint. I got cute one day and tried to 'clean under it,' but ended up stripping the screw. All of the laundry after then was ruined every wash. I think my mom still has sheets with those oil stains in them. What would happen is that in the middle of the agitation cycles, you could see the lid slowly rising up and it would just have a humming sound like something wasn't right. My folks started putting a heavy pot on it to keep it down, and that kind of sort of stopped the oil from ruining the clothes.
Thankfully (for my precious rear end that was) they didn't know that I was the one that stripped that screw. They never fixed the screw, and sadly somebody stole the machine when we moved. I would like to have one myself.
