[mc1]

Re: indesit idl40 lights 2 and 4.

Sorry missed your last post madangler1 as it was on page 2. Yes household electrics are more complex than cars – give me a car any day ;oD

[mc1]

Re: indesit idl40 lights 2 and 4.

I thought it was a fluke – but seems to have fixed the problem at least for the moment! Have done maybe 10 washes now and all is as nothing had ever gone wrong.

I did check the resistance last week before my 1st post – think it was 1.6k Ohms. Also checked for voltage on the heat circuit side which was fine. Switched from a 5V approx feed with machine on but no cycle. This goes over to 240V once water finished filling, and before solenoid cuts in (or 2 & 4 lights came on when fault was present). The other soap dispenser solenoid wire going to circuit board (grey) is as you say the switching wire – is also 5V approx until the moment it should operate and this drops to 1V momentarily as far as I can see.

Maybe a component on the PCB is failing but the solenoid sticking has some effect on it. No buzzing is present though, it just makes a very quiet click – again only when the 2 & 4 light fault appears. I work on cars usually – so am used to 12V wiring, this has been a bit of a learning curve. Maybe the solenoid has a faulty winding that the manual pressing of the lever shakes it back into a reasonable contact…but only time will tell 😉

[mc1]

Re: indesit idl40 lights 2 and 4.

This may be a fluke, but if I press the soap dispenser flap button a few times (which in turn pushes the solenoid plunger in), the dishwasher goes through a full cycle! So far has done 3 times without fail. If the plunger isn’t operated by hand it comes up with the lights 2 & 4 and empties after about 30 secs after filling and starting the wash cycle.

As the solenoid is on the same feed circuit as the heater, perhaps the pcb circuit check is programmed to wait for a current spike as the soenoid operates, otherwise flags a fault?? I may be wrong but if not it may help some owners of this model…will update again once have tried a few more times.

[mc1]

Re: indesit idl40 lights 2 and 4.

Thanks for the great reply madangler1! I did check the pressure switch by applying a small amount of air pressure when doing the testing underneath…so the PCB it is…it’s had the fault for about 3 years but only once in a while, now it’s the other way round!

[mc1]

Re: indesit idl40 lights 2 and 4.

Not sure if you managed to get a new solenoid Loki, but any chance you can tell me if the dishwasher ran ok without it working?

Just that I have the same problem i.e. lights 2 & 4 on, and the dispenser flap only operates if the machine gets past the fault which happens after filling is complete and the wash cycle starts. If the fault occurs, the machine empties & cycle stops, and the flap solenoid doesn’t operate. If it does work, the flap solenoid operates, so I’ve pinpointed the fault to this exact time.

I have checked all the heater wiring and notice the feed wire for the dispenser solenoid comes from the same feed as the heater element circuit. The feed on this wire is present after the cycle starts and water has finished filling which is all fine. Of course the PCB will have a check to make on the circuit, so I’m trying to fathom whether the PCB isn’t correctly switching the solenoid to open the flap, or whether the solenoid isn’t operating and thus flagging up the heater circuit fault!

PS resistance of solenoid is 1.6k Ohms

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