miele w2203 and faulty pcb(s)

[opps]

Hi all

Looks like the pcb on my miele w2203 has failed again (after being replaced 2.5 years ago). The washing machine was about about 2 years old at the time.

Previously the machine jerked straight into full spin whenever you turned it on.

Now when you try to run a program such as the quick wash, it displays the time, then water enters the drum followed by the water entering the detergent draw. The drum turns a couple of times and the rinse light flashes and that is all that happens. The time display just shows -- - -- .

All of the basic components seem to be working, ie., it can suck water in, spin, empty water, hence i think it is the pcb

I have spken to Miele who have told me that the call out will be £98 plus parts or I can pay £199 which will include callout and parts.

I did ask how much the pcb would cost- they cannot tell you!!!

The lady said that it is at the discretion of the engineer who might decide not to charge for a pcb if he thinks it failed too quickly!!!

The last time I had to phone them the fellow said that they are £200+ because everything is on one pcb.

Does anyone know of 3rd party pcb suppliers?

Not sure if I should dump the machine (which is otherwise in very good condition) and buy cheap machines every a hand full of years, the total cost of ownership would be much less.

 

[cjapeterborough]

you certainly seem to have been unlucky...it is very hard or probably impossible to track down major spares third party for miele...its an exclusive
club more or less...

Before you call them out I would for sure check the brushes on the motor.
Failing brushes can give all kinds of strange cycle problems in other machines before finally giving up.

 

[opps]

Thanks for the advice- the THD did say that the flashing rinse button was sometimes related to spin problems

Am I looking fo wear or dust?l

 

[cjapeterborough]

You need to remove the brushes and check for wear.
You may have to remove the motor to do this.
New brushes are probably 5-6cm long anything less than a 1cm ish

There is also an excellent video on this site (somewhere?) re changing brushes on a Bosch by Penguin 45.

searching on youtube....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOR9kb-wqiI

 

[zipper]

You don't need to remove the motor to change brushes but....the entire front of the machine has to be taken off to even get at it, and I can tell you its a DAUNTING task. You assume correctly that a blinking rinse light indicates a motor or possibly a pcb issue. Miele electronics are extremely robust so checking the brushes would be a very good place to start. If you want to give it a go yourself:
Pull the plug & shut off the water supply to the machine.
To get the front of the machine off;
Remove the 2 plastic inserts in the front/side area of the lid & loosen the T20 torx screws under them. That releases pressure on 2 plastic clamps & the lid can be removed by lifting the front slightly & pushing it back.
Remove the kick plate at the front. Lever off the program selector on the console & use a thin knife around the upper part of the plastic display panel to remove that from its seating. Remove 2 T20 screws to release the pcb module. Take out the soap tray & the stainless steel screw/screws in the recess there. Lift the pcb out & remove the screws (& or) clips to remove the plastic console frame. Open the door & remove the door bellow spring & the 10mm bolt at 6 o'clock then peel the door below from the door lip & remove 2 screws from the door switch. You may also have to take off a drain hose in the drain filter recess (have something ready to collect the water that will run out). Remove the 2 outer torx screws at each side or the front (bottom) & locating screws at the top behind the plastic console frame. The door should be able to be lifted away completely.
The motor is now accessible. Take off the connector plugs & remove the 2 torx screws from the plastic cover at the front of the motor & remove it. Behind the cover you will see the plastic brush assembly, take out 4 torx screws & pull out the whole brush/tacho assy. Fitting new brushes is reverse engineering but before you fit the brush assy back push the brushes gently into their holders so they stick (only way to do this). When the brush assy is screwed in place use a stiff piece of wire to press the brushes back out of their holders & down onto the commutator under spring pressure. You will hear an audible "click" when done correctly.
I would consider you a very brave man to attempt this blind...but it is possible. Just take plenty of pictures underway & don't rush things.
If you want to save a lot of time/cursing perhaps you ought to call Miele because it is a time consuming & fiddly job 1st time around.

 

[opps]

A big thanks to both cjapeterborough and zipper.

Thanks to cjapeterborough for suggesting that it could be the brushes and thanks to zipper for explaining how to get the control panel off- that was the bit that had really stumped me.

I took the brush unit off and discovered that one brush had a couple of mm to spare whilst the other had absolutely no wear at all.

Popped down to Capital Repairs in Rayners Lane and they had one brush in stock.

I replaced the brush, put everything back, I still have two screws left over, hey ho- will take it apart again later to find out where they live...

Have just tested the unit with a quick wash and it is happy. The motor noise, a clicking noise, is louder than before but I guess that is because of the new brush wearing in.

Whilst the washing machine is sitting in the middle of the room I will take off the waste hose and give it a beating to free up any crust in the pipe.

I will post photos over the next couple of days to help others that need to change their brushes.

Only tools used were needle nosed pliers to remove the door seal), spanner (only one nut) and a torx screw driver (for the 40 screws).

When putting the front back on make sure that you feed the orange door release through the filter slot. I forgot to and then closed the door. With the door closed you cannot remove the front again. Fortunately I had just enough space to get my hand in to pull the door release so that I could take the front back off and feed the said release through, prior to putting the front back on.

I removed both side panels and the front but the right and front would have been sufficient.

The build and assembly quality are very impressive but some of the screws are hidden- with zipper's advice it was fairly easy to do the job.

As stated I will post a step by step with photos, off to pub for a well earned pint, after I phone Miele to cancel the engineer.

 

[zipper]

Good job
You could run the machine on a couple of spin programs to bed in the brushes quicker. In fact you can actually run a slow speed spin program without the front on at all. But you have to activate the door switch with a screwdriver so the machine thinks the door is closed (keep arms/fingers well away from moving parts). I usually do it to check everything is sound before putting back on the front.
Some Miele machines have "stand-off" brushes. There is an small integral plastic probe sitting on a spring inside the brush itself. When the brush wears down too far it exposes the plastic & the spring pushes it out against the commutator breaking the circuit. Very good idea to prevent commutator damage because of poor brush contact & arcing.

 

[opps]

The w2203 doesn't have stand off brushes but I guess that the spring is calibrated so that the brush doesn't wear down so much that the spring rubs against the connector.

BTW why would one brush not have any wear?

Oh and do you know what the disk type thing at the very bottom of the machine is, almost looks like an air freshener.

Once again- thanks

 

[zipper]

The disc at the bottom is the flood protection device. The brush wear problem is quite interesting. In a DC motor negative brushes tend to wear quicker than positive. However your motor is an AC universal type so I would be tempted to guess it has more to do with uneven brush spring pressure than anything else, but that's just my 10 cents.

 

[opps]

Cheers Zipper.

The machine is back in its hole now so I will ignore the brushes given that it seems happy