Use hot water. I had the same problem because I followed traditional advice to wash darks in cold water. Now, instead of light/dark, I separate my clothes into smelly (gym clothes, socks, underwear) and non-smelly (everything else). Smelly clothes get hot water. Solved my problem.
White vinegar will pull alot of the smells and its also a softener. Kept having mildew smell when i went to high efficiency washer. Swapped to using distilled white vinegar and no more problems.
A possibility. Check & empty drain hose. Disconnect both ends. flush it out. Reconnect and pour in strong water/bleach mix in hose. It may run get back in the water pump & help kill odor. Seems like a mold or rot problem somewhere. It could even be a sock or something somewhere i the agitator or it's "piping."
Last thing I would do. fill washer with a bleach mix in the washer. Let it soak a day. Then add bleach. Move it to rinse setting. When it starts to pump out water shut it off and let it soak the water soak in the lower system. Good luck. They were good machines then.
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JerseyWiseguy t1_j8knhw5 wrote
Try running a bleach wash (even without clothes in it). If there is anything living in there, that will usually kill it.
Also, you can try adding some Lysol Laundry Sanitizer to a regular wash, and see if that makes a difference.
https://www.amazon.com/Lysol-Laundry-Sanitizer-Additive-Crisp/dp/B01N6BP63M