Whirlpool AKP262IX intermittent won’t start

[khouse]

I was given a ‘broken’ Whirlpool AKP262IX. I replaced the main element and all was well. Except a very occasional intermittent problem which happened maybe once a week for six months but recently has become so frequent that it’s hard to use the oven at all.
When you select fan oven function (and press OK to start) nothing happens. It doesn’t beep. The small ‘heating’ arrow does not appear, the light doesn’t come on, the fan doesn’t start. It will eventually resolve by doing any (random) combination of: reselecting the function (grill/fan), adjusting the thermostat, opening the door, or pressing the OK button. But it can take dozens or hundreds of attempts now, and when it starts it often stops again, in a split second or even minutes.
I’m comfortable doing basic tests and replacing parts but can’t figure out which part is at fault given that there are a variety of things that resolve it. Is it the selector switch? Or the control board? They seem the most likely. Or is it a thermostat? I’m not even aware there is a sensor on the door and yet that still sometimes resolves it.
Any suggestions on how to confirm the cause?

thank you

Kevin

[electrofix]

its probably a fault of the display or control unit

if you try to set it and it does not start if you keep pressing the button will it eventually go. All i am thinking is it may be a dirty contact in the button

Dave

[khouse]

electrofix wrote:its probably a fault of the display or control unit

if you try to set it and it does not start if you keep pressing the button will it eventually go. All i am thinking is it may be a dirty contact in the button

Dave

Hi Dave. Thanks for the reply.
No, repeatedly pressing the OK button doesn’t do anything by itself. I just tried using it again and it’s worse than ever, but the basic point seems to be that it does not recognise that it is in a mode to heat. when it does (from fiddling with the selector, or opening the door or moving the thermostat) then it beeps and the heating light comes on. And then the OK button can start it.
Today I can mostly get it to recognise the mode (flick the selector back and forth) and let me start it, but it stops after a few seconds, so it is clearly deteriorating. Other times I can’t get it to recognise the mode at all so I can’t start it.
I suppose the obvious thing is to test continuity on the selector switch to see if that reveals anything although I’ll have to figure out which contacts it is supposed to connect given I have no maintenance manual.

[electrofix]

even the manual does not give you that sort of info

check the cables to the display board and the cable that links the 2 boards. remove the plugs and replace them to clean the connections

you can take out the display board and test the switches with a multi meter

Dave

[khouse]

So I finally got around to opening up the control area at the front and taking a look. No obviously poor connections or charred areas. But simply reseating all of the connectors to the selector switch seems to have done the trick. It’s been working flawlessly for a couple of days.
Kicking myself for thinking it was something more complex than a loose connection that probably just vibrated from the other actions and so never getting around to just trying something so simple.
But glad I didn’t follow my girlfriend’s request to just buy a new one 🙂

Thanks Dave for the responses.

[Author]

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