Miele W1918 motor acts confused

[mielevaniele]

Our faithful 20-yr old W1918 acts like the motor is receiving confusing directions: Go, Wait, Go, Wait. It never goes long enough to complete a revolution in either Wash/Rinse or Spin. Just a fraction of a second; it's like it is told to turn but then is told not to. I replaced the brushes (though the old ones looked good) and it did spin for a few minutes with no load, but when asked to wash clothes, it balked like a reluctant mule.

Any suggestions before I start swapping expensive electronic boards? Tachogen?
Speaking of which, I have a used 1986 purchased 5 years ago but never tested; will the 1986 boards work on the 1918?

Many thanks!

 

[tomturbomatic]

the 1986 has completely different motor speed control so my first guess would be "no."

 

[richnz]

I am slow to reply to this

But I would check that the brush holder is correctly plugged into the motor and the tiny pin which goes behind the screw at the 6 o’clock position hasn’t fallen out.

The brush holder has 4 spades which have to go into 4 plugs

Richard

 

[arbilab]

Not familiar with Miele but highly familiar with closed-loop/'intelligent' motor control.

 

Tach and associated harness is suspect.  Scenario: If motor is commanded to move but tach doesn't see it move, controller assumes a jam and bails out before trying again. 

 

 

 

[mielevaniele]

solved

SOLVED. Hi Guys, thanks for the good suggestions. It was the upper electronics controller. I used the procedure in the SM to disconnect the large ribbon cable between upper and lower and measure certain pin voltages when connected to just one or the other. That indicated the upper was bad. Called Miele and parted with $520 plus tax and $46 UPS ground (profit center!) and installed it this evening. Total = about $600. Wife happy = priceless! Best wishes; spin happy!

 

[gizmo]

I'm impressed you were able to diagnose this fault, and glad you have it up and running. However I am surprised at that parts price. Miele really does seem to gouge its US customers. The board probably cost under $10 to manufacture. How could they possibly justify such a markup?

 

[brisnat81]

I recently needed a control board for my Miele vented dryer that was manufactured in 2001. The reverse tumble relay had failed so it only tumbled in one direction. Miele wanted $350 for the part, I ended up paying $70 including shipping and ordered a second hand one from Germany. Now it works like new again.

I am impressed at investing that much on a 15-20yo machine. Your wife must really love it.

 

[launderess]

" am impressed at investing that much on a 15-20yo machine....."

One hears that every single time reach out to Miele repair/tech support for my W1070. Afterwards usually comes some other not so nice words about why one keeps hauling them out to service this "old" machine. *LOL*

Sadly parts for the W700, W1070/W1065 and even the W1900 series are drying up at Miele, and they are adamant once things are NLA that is kaput, nothing more will be sent from Germany.

Maddening thing is on many of these older Miele washers a good number of parts are actually 120v such as the pump. This means cannot order same part from Europe that would fit the cousin machine because they run on 220v.