Indesit IDL 40 dishwasher problem

[T5 TDI]

I'm in the same boat with my old dishwasher as I was with with my old combination oven which I fixed recently thanks to the help I received here. It must be 8 or 9 years old but like the oven it's been working perfectly and I hate chucking stuff away that I could fix.

The fault is that it stops within a few minutes and displays lights 1 and 3 flashing. I had the same fault about six months ago so after researching I blew out the pipe from the pressure valve and took the valve out and made it work by blowing into it. It sounded fine and the pipe sounded clear so I gave up and put it back together. I was surprised to find that I had somehow cured it and it has been fine for the last six months.

Now the identical fault is back so I have checked that the pipe is clear again and I am thinking I should just replace the valve, but I can't actually find anything wrong with it. The diaphragm inside seems fine and it has continuity across the to outside connections which go open circuit when I blow into the pipe.

So after all this waffling my questions are- Is it worth just replacing the valve anyway if they are known to be unreliable? And where can I get one at a good price? I tried googling the numbers which looked hopeful but it all comes up in Italian!

Anyway here is the part and thanks for any help anyone can offer.

 

[yardie]

if the pressure sensor is testing good are you sure its not the mainboard interpretting the data incorrectly? might just be coincidence it worked again after blowing into it. Wiring continuity checks ok does it? connections all clean and making good to the pins?
solder joints on the mainboard end???

correct me if I am wrong but isnt there a hose that connects to this which has water rise up the pipe causing the pressure? is it a nice tight fit?

also is there def enough water filling in the tub, a faulty or failing water inlet solenoid could be the real cause here! low water pressure when the dishwasher happens to be filling perhaps, was the washing machine on at the same time. have you checked the water inlet pipe ways for cleanliness, leaks etc.. thats between the water inlet solenoid and the tub.

what you could do is mark the water level on the hose when it is working, next time it fails check the water level against your good 'water level mark' for comparison.

 

[T5 TDI]

Thanks for your reply yardie. My dishwasher is old and I got fed up with replacing the cracking handles and other bits so it was on death row unless I could fix it cheaply. I bought the cheapest pressure sensor I could find https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Creda-Ho...728123&hash=item1c79f5ee82:g:HrIAAOSw2xRYdABd and it's working so far but I don't quite trust it. I didn't try and find the wiring diagram for the dishwasher (unlike my recent combi oven post) so I'm not even sure how it works although I'm sure this particular sensor uses air pressure not water pressure. Anyway, from now on, it's 'No More Mr Nice Guy' so if it goes wrong once more it dies!

 

[yardie]

yes correct, it operates on air pressure but it is the water level that pushes the air up the tube to create the air pressure.
no water = no air pressure in the tube connected to the sensor.
low water level = lower air pressure
high water level = higher air pressure

 

[T5 TDI]

Ah, I get it. Well it's still working at the moment but it is on notice. One more failure and it gets turned in a car bonnet or whatever!

 

[T5 TDI]

Ordered the new one. It's still messing around and I have a full house at Christmas.

One thing I should have twigged from yardie's original post is that it's more likely to be a mainboard problem rather than any individual sensor because the dishwasher is reluctant to reset using the the start/rest button (unlike most other problems I have had in the past with this dishwasher over the years). It won't even reset by turning off at the mains unless you leave it for hours. I think if the pressure sensor had been the fault it would have been happy to easily reset and run again until the fault re-occurred.

Thanks yardie

 

[yardie]

before scrapping it, if thats your intention, it would be interesting to see a photo of both sides of the control panel board. might be something obvious. it might be a bit late for this machine now as you have already committed to a new machine but could help others if a fault can easily be identified.