Happy birthday to me: Kenmore dryer 110.86673100 with 2 issues

[Helene]

Yep. On my birthday the dryer quits heating.  But I hang my head to say it has been having an ongoing issue I did not address.

A while ago the dryer stopped stopping at the end of a cycle.  The timer would advance to a point, and the dryer would stop heating, but did not stop tumbling.  I think I read there is something that happens...maybe with the timer current?... near the end of the cycle. But I put off diagnosing and fixing it by just going down and stopping the dryer when I knew the cycle was up. Grasshopper should be flogged for laziness.

Then yesterday is stopped heating. And now that there are 2 problems I am having trouble diagnosing.  Is there something that would cause both of these  failures? Or do I need to diagnose the issues separately?

Grateful for any help (again).

Helene

[Hiroshi]

 First, be sure your dryer exhaust duct is spotless from where it exits the dryer to where it exits your home. If you run the machine on Auto-Dry cycles and don't notice long dry times, eventually, poor airflow will cause your heating element to sag and prematurely fail. So, checking your hi-limits and inspecting the heating element is a good idea at this point- and it is where you will find your heating issue.  A clean exhaust is of paramount importance, as is being sure this 240v appliance is unplugged before you interact with it, but by the looks of the heating element, this model will have the affected parts all accessible from the back panel...