Yep another one here with the same not washing very well on top rack problem. Again an old thread but its where I came to first and was the best help so I am adding my findings here to hopefully help others.
Its a sgs4012gb/14 and 16 and a half years old !!!!
The top would not come off with a sharp whack - I had to depress the tow lugs at the back first
Here is pictures of what I found
View media item 96868View media item 96867As you can see the top left of the fill matrix is gunged up as is the top of the pressure chamber
I completely removed both of them from the machine and cleaned the matrix by repeatedly rinceing with water and shaking vigorously I still could not get the red float area clean and so I used this
View media item 96870After a couple of gos with that I got it clean, I did not even know there was a float in there it was that bad
View media item 96872Next the pressure thing remove the top cover cap - it just slips up and off unplug the push fit fill tube. Once I had it in my hands I could see how it is put together and the top section can be prized away from the rest, carefully bending the body away until i could un clip it , I did the same with the round disk part. I could then gain access to it to completely clean it, I also gave the micro switches contacts a sand down.when it was off I could also get to the float mechanism to give that a good clean. Here is the result after cleaning.
View media item 96871Next up was the tube from the pressure thing to the sump, experience and sods law has taught me that once you mess with stuff like that it always starts dripping so i prefered to not remove the sump end and leave it be, I cleaned the gunged up tube by passing through a small bottle cleaning brush end,tied to 2 bits of string so I could pull it one way then the other
View media item 96869I blocked up the sump exit and circulation outlets so as not to get tube gunk down there and as well as using the brush I had a 200mm sryinge that I blasted through the tube.
Put all back together and tested and sure enough the tube to pressure thing connection started to weep, I could see water getting past the o ring. So I thought it a good idea to add a jublie clip to very- very slightly squeeze the outer pipe to the o ring --- this made it worse as the part of the clip that is double thickness distorted the outer tube.
I had a good look at the o ring and it was perished, so I brought a 36 size set of o rings for £8 and sods law again it did not contain the exact size needed. I had the correct diameter but not the thickness (too thin ) my next size up was too thick, what I did in the end was use the thick one but a little small so the stretching made it thinner and that was a very good tight fit, I noticed that there was another recess available and so I added another o ring there here's a picture, forget the 25mm that's wrong.
View media item 96874
So far so good, I also attempted to test the temperature, all be it from the outside and got 55 degrees and so I would of thought that inside would be hotter, im not sure how acurate my temp guage is either but it is very uncomfortable to leave your hand on the top, even with my numb thick skin hands.
View media item 96873So there you go --- I wonder if I will get another 16 years out of it (I don't think so )
