Hello long ago questioner. I expect you will never see this, but I came across this question seeking help for the exact same thing in 2026. Having found a solution I shall post it in case anyone else might look. It actually could be a quick but undocumented fix.
This washing machine by Zanussi was a brand name of electrolux and the same design must apply to several models. It uses an EWM2000evo motherboard used in hundreds of models, though be careful because its designed to do everything and on different models different sections are software disabled, so two boards aren't necessarily interchangeable unless they have the correct software.
This machine has both a mechanical pressure switch and an electronic one. The mechanical one uses increasing pressure from the drum as it fills with water to push against a spring strip and eventually flip that switch. There are three switches inside one housing set to flip at different pressures, ie at different fill levels. The electronic one uses a resonant oscillator circuit whose frequency changes as a magnetite slug is moved up and down within a coil, pushed by the pressure from the drum. The control board microcprocessor is one designed to interface devices, and i think one pin receives in the analog frequency signal and then interprets it as a pressure and hence water level.
Fault code E3x is to do with pressure issues. E34 is described as an inconsistency between analog pressure sensor and mechanical sensor switch 2 (referred to sometimes as 'anti boiling 2'). The service manual gives suggestions what causes this, but essentially could be any failure between the drum itself and the microprocessor. Its likely the microprocessor is working, else you couldn't even get an error code report.
So first check rubber hoses and tubes for blockages with random fluff or detergent. Does happen. Check electric cables that all are secure. The manual suggest an electrical fault with the heating element having an earth leak could cause the problem. This seems to do with how the power path goes through various steps including the mechanical switches, and the processor gets signals back as each step is initiated to confirm its working. Didn't completely figure it out, but possibly this is about a slight electrical leak from mains could be enough to trigger the inputs to the processor and give it wrong information. High impedance insulation breakdown could still be enough to trigger high impedance inputs to the electronics.
So first I checked the mechanical pressure sensor, which blowing into it produced three clicks in succession as the pressure increased. Test meter showed the contacts flipping as you might expect. The three switches have push on mains voltage contacts on the back, all arranged in a row on one side in a sensible order. 3 +3 +2 contacts.. Seemed to work. Then looked at the analog sensor, but difficult to test that without information about the electronics and an electronic test rig, but probably could be done with a 5 v supply and an oscilloscope. The mini circuit board inside the housing isn't very informative.
So anyway, got replacements for both. I believe the mechanical one was fine, but got a cheap second hand replacement anyway to try. Unfortunately there seem to be two kinds of analog sensor used by different related washing machines, and this machine uses the least common and hence most expensive one.
Fitted them, tried again, same problem.
Next took off all the wiring from the motherboard to extract it from machine for examination. Take a picture how its wired. All the plugs seem to polarised so they will not fit in the wrong places, But there are lots of them anyway so you want a crib sheet.
The board itself was covered in soot. I think this was actually dust from the worn down carbon brushes on the motor, rather than an exploded component, but carbon dust sounds a bad thing to spread all over an electronic circuit. So I rather hoped cleaning it might work, and indeed it looked perfectly fine after I did. Didnt work.
Put it back together and again tried out the test menu settings. These allow you to try out each subsytem of the machine one by one, and also report errors. All seems to work, though sometimes it would give a different error, from memory E33 which is also an inconsistent pressure switch one. Wouldn't start letting in water for a proper wash cycle, of course.
So bit baffled, read the service manuals online, though they are generic to cover all variant designs. Various stuff had referred to the procedure for exiting the service menu, which is to turn it to off, back to on (anywhere) and then back to off. I was wondering, so what does this strange off then on one time setting do, because it does start doing something? (display shows ELE?) So I let it. It filled the machine to wash level, perhaps did a little whizz round, and then drained out. Stopped.
And then next try it worked.
My guess is this setting performed a software recalibration of the analog pressure sensor with the mechanical one, thereby making them agree and not produce an inconsistency error. This particular machine has occasionally refused to start, but had always done so on a second try if left for a few hours or day or whatever. It doesnt volunteer the error number unless you check the menu, but my guess is it was always a slight inconsistency between sensors. So ultimately I dont know exactly what was wrong. The accumulating carbon could possibly have affected analog signals getting to the processor. The analog sensor could have had a developing fault, maybe getting stuck inside, or just packed up completely in the end. I dont know if the original one was functional because I had anyway installed the new one and didn't feel minded to tempt fate by swapping back the old one. Its possible that all that was needed was to run a recalibration cycle on the machine exactly as it was, which would have adjusted for sticky sensor or carbon dust interference and got it going again without dismantling. Though long term I don't think that dust was very healthy.
NB. This particular brand uses a split case design instead of a removeable back panel. To get inside you remove the top by unscrewing the two screws at the back. Then remove screws now exposed securing the back casing half to internal metalwork, around the edges of the back, one either side low down beside the seam covered with a plastic cap, and unclip/screw a plastic panel top back which passes the water pipe through the back. The back half casing slides back on little rails/guides near the bottom. After removing the back half casing then the rest of the machine is still firmly in place and will run, but much more accessible (not that I am recommending running it like this, but it all seemed to work running from the test menu. They do say not to work on it with any load inside, and never leave it unattended while running in test mode)
