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As an unregistered browser of this forum (until today!), I got enough ideas on this fault to enable me to fix the problem, so I though it was only right that I should pay back my debt to the forum by describing how I restored domestic harmony and got my fridge working again!
The fridge display started showing a square in the upper part of the display. The fridge itself was constantly on, getting down to -4 if given the chance.
I read earlier posts and decided that the evaporator sensor was worth a try. This cost just over £17, delivered. One post said it isn’t exactly a DIY job, which is exactly right – it’s very tricky, but by no means impossible, with care and patience. Here’s how I did it:
Switch off! Plan space for work in front of, above and behind the fridge.
Be guided by the door hinge change procedure described in the manual, to help you remove first the freezer door, then the fridge door, and unscrew its upper hinge pin.
Replace the freezer door which is reasonably happy to stay put on its magnetic seals, but I put on a couple of strips of masking tape for good measure to hold it in place.
Stick strips of cling film across the fridge door aperture to keep too much heat from getting in while you work.
You now have to release the front display panel from the plastic fridge top. Use a flat blade screwdriver downwards through three small slots to release hidden tabs, then upwards through slots at left and right on the underside of the display panel, to release two more tabs. This releases the display panel.
At the back of the plastic fridge top, remove 4 screws. Raise the top at the back to clear its downward tabs from the metalwork, then slide it towards the front of the fridge, to clear the metal hinge supports which poke through it (normally hidden by the display panel). If you now lift the plastic fridge top above the hinge supports, it can move back enough to let you reach under it, to work at the sensor wire, and release it from its securing tabs later. Don’t stress the wires to the circuit board on the display panel – just keep thinking of how expensive it must be!
At the back of the fridge, you have to free the cooler grid from the 4 metal tabs holding it on to the fridge back, because the sensor wire goes into the fridge back behind this grid. You need to prepare well for this step, and have a support ready below the grid, to hold it at exactly the height it came off at. A piece of rough timber on top of a gardening stool was exactly right for me. This is a risky stage and care is needed, since the compressor pipes look delicate and don’t allow much movement of the grid. It would also be a bad idea to allow the grid to fall outward at the top, so make a plan for this too.
The evaporator sensor is the black wire emerging from a hole on the back, at the level of the top of the veg drawer. There’s another wire in there too – leave it in place. You need to remove the plug of soft mastic from the hole, and draw the sensor wire downwards and out. There’s a surprising length of it up there, and it’s 2.9 metres long in total.
Unclip this black wire from the underside of the plastic top, and follow it to its connection on the circuit board on the back of the display panel. It plugs in close to 2 other plugs, towards your right as you look at the fridge front. The plug has a release tab.
Unthread the old sensor though the plastic fridge top, and fit the replacement, following the same exact route. Then reassemble everything else!
I’d advise anyone who thinks they’ve got this problem, first to read all the posts on the subject, then make up their own mind whether it’s worth a gamble on the evaporator sensor.
My thanks to all other posters on this subject, I couldn’t have got there without you!
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