Silastic RTV sealant is very useful, even if a third of the tube has already vulcanized...

My dishwasher started leaking badly a month and a half ago, and I didn't have the will to repair it -- until now.

All I could get myself to do initially was to rip off the face panels until I could see into the innards, discovering this bit of mess. Great, could be a dead heater element.

After quite some fiddling with contorted hands I got the heater out and lo and behold, it's not broken. But this is: The Box of Bits in the car yielded some halfway-dead Silastic gasket sealant, and after poking out the vulcanized plug I could use it to improvise a seal for the heater again (just why I put a bead on the outside I don't know; anyway, it doesn't hurt). Reassembled, tested, works. Life is Good :-)