Bosch WFK2200GB

[philipday]

Hello

Our normaly reliable washing machine has stopped working. I suspect it tripped the house fuses as it failed.

Model is WFK2200GB / RFD 7612 00480

Error 4 is shown.

This error is not described in the booklet, so I ma hoping that some one will know what the error means and which parts would be required to fix the machine.

Many thanks

[gegsy]

Re: Bosch WFK2200GB

Hi error 4 is connected with motor rotation, or probably lack of it 😉
If its blown the trip you may have motor damage. If you turn the drum by hand, do you hear a definate clicking sound??

Greg

[philipday]

Re: Bosch WFK2200GB

Thanks for your reply.

I jumped in and did a bit of my own R&D, and found that

Error 4 is indeed drum motor related.
The carbon brushes are fairly worn – 8mm remain

So I went ahead with ordering some new brushes and replacing them. The motor is running again now, but I did not notice any clicking noise. I will go and check for this later when I get home.

The only slightly disturbing thing is a smell which comes from the motor and reminds me of the days I spent playing with Scalextric cars. I am hoping that the smell is one of 2 things. The new carbon brushes bedding in. Or old carbon dust getting burned off. I decided to clean the motor by blowing hard in throgh the various vent holes. (Very scientific I know).

I did the brushes at about 11pm last night, so the machine was not used straight away. But, by the time I get home the machine will have been used and I will have a better idea if things are working.

[Martin]

Re: Bosch WFK2200GB

philipday wrote:The new carbon brushes bedding in. Or old carbon dust getting burned off. I decided to clean the motor by blowing hard in throgh the various vent holes. (Very scientific I know).

You have to hope first off all that you have put the brushes in the correct way round (i.e. the angled taper of the brush only fits one way- that’s assuming it’s a Siemens motor in this case and not an FHP motor of course?). And it would always be a safe option to run-in the brushes with an empty machine on a couple of slow spin (minimum spin) cycles. Without a full strip-down and clean of the motor you will experience some form of early signs of arcing. You have to hope it settles down very quickly during the running-in period to avoid permanent damage to the armature? 😕

[philipday]

Re: Bosch WFK2200GB

Thanks for the advice Martin. I did know that the brushes had a correct way round, and I am certain that I put them in correctly. Thinking about it you have to be pretty thick not to notice the 45degree angle on the business end of the brushes. 😀

I have turned the drum and there is no obvious clicking sound from the motor/comm but … the machine is pushed back into its housing and the back panel is screwed on again, so it is possible that I may have missed a small sound.

If the motor is damaged in some way – (after all something made the circuit breaker on the power side trip) what normally happens to washing machines. New motor, existing motor re-conditioned, machine scrapped ❓

On the basis that the machine is running OK for now, following the £10 investment in brushes, i think I will leave it be. It will either run happily for a while giving more good service, or it will fail again soon and the real problem will manifest itself again.

[Author]

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