Siemens SIWAMAT 5030 plastic lifters

Our 3 year old son took a toy hammer to our Siemens drum and cracks one of the plastic lifters. In time, crack turns into a hole with jagged edges and WM starts periodically chewing up garments. Wife says this can’t go on.

I get the part, a plastic lifter (£8), from BSHAppliances, along with relevant schematics. I set about the machine. It doesn’t just clip in though, as I had hoped – it appears to be fixed by a combination of plastic lugs and an insert that forms part of the drive coupling from shaft to drum. I can’t remove all of the old lifter. The insert is held by a big tight 13mm bolt through the back of the drum, and a retaining screw through the circumference of the drum. Can’t get a spanner or ratchet on either, access is only possible through a restricted aperture (1″ dia) at the base of the external drum. I give up and call the local repair man. Thought he would either have a tool that does the job, or I’ve missed a really obvious way gaining better access to bolt and screw. I am prepared to be embarrased, and pay the fee, to save the machine.

Repair man turns up, I explain, show him the diagram, he has a go, not a job he has seen before. No special tools to solve the problem. He gives up and we discuss. Solution is may be to strip down the drum etc. not something he is really interested in doing, which I undetstand, and not something I really think is a good idea. I resign myself to buying a new machine…

But before I do – has anyone else encountered a similar problem with replacing plastic lifters in Siemens washing machines. It seems crazy to me that a £400+ machine is doomed by a broken plastic lifter.

Mind you, how do you engineer for the possibility of a three YO with a toy hammer, and how many weeks of pocket money will I have to dock him (when he is old enough for pocket money that is!)?