The user mentioned that this is the WTW4816FW0 model which means it’s a 2016, in later 2016 they revised it to WTW4816FW1 meaning ti can’t be older or newer than 2016.
This model is still made today but the current revision (the WTW4816FW3) has major control board problems and wouldn’t recommend. I recommended Whirlpool for a long time but they’re newest stuff aren’t very good.
Don’t know what specific week or month it’s made in 2016 since you didn’t provide the serial number but it is a 2016 made machine.
Sounds like the transmission bearings went out, which is common on these VMWs, transmission part number for this machine is W11454741.
I own a VMW that’s a couple years older than this, that has also developed a noisy bearing, it’s the model WTW4900BW0 model, does not take the same style transmission and I have the impeller model. Plan to not fix it, if it stops working I’ll buy a new one.
Probably won’t get a new VMW since I don’t want a machine that won’t even last a year before the control board goes out. All the 2023 and 2024 basic VMWs seem to be affected by these control board issues, they most commonly constantly drain.
Not sure about the higher end ones but the high end VMWs have issues with the pump wires and I see those with bad control boards too. Those also seem cheaply made and seem to vibrate a lot. The high end VMWs look a lot like the VMWs but they are not the same.
The newer VMAXs are similar, but they use a stator and no belt, those also seem problematic, especially with the stators. The older VMAXs were okay, but the bearings failed on those kind of a lot. But pretty much as long as the bearings on the older VMAX machines were good the repairs were fairly easy.