The "seal" is a clear plastic sheet that forms the inner most layer of the "window" in the microwave door. If it becomes damaged or doesn't adhere properly, steam and other cooking by-products get inside the door itself. That's what happened in my case. As a result, I had to disassemble the entire door to clean the inside of the glass and other parts. If that cleaning had not been necessary, I could have replaced the seal without disassemblying the door.
To replace the seal, I followed these steps:
1. Used my thumb nail to raise a corner of the old seal.
2. Peeled off the old seal. This leaves a perforated metal layer exposed.
3. Cleaned the metal layer to remove residual adhesive from the old seal.
4. Once the metal layer was dry, my wife and I worked together to peel off the "backing sheet" from the new seal. (One side of the seal has adhesive on it - like the sticky side of tape. After you peal the backing off, the sticky side is exposed.)
5. After we CAREFULLY aligned the seal, I held it while my wife slowly and carefully pressed it into place.
Problems to watch out for:
The seal is shipped "folded". This causes a crease to form in the plastic seal, which makes it difficult, if not impossible to install it without leaving any raised places. Note that raised areas in the center probably just look bad. But, raised areas around the edge may prevent a proper "seal" and result in steam, etc., getting inside the microwave door. I receved two separate seals and both had a crease. PartSelect reps were very nice, but were not able to correct the problem.
Parts Used: