I know a lot of people are having problems with getting the f51 error codes on their Cabrio and Oasis machines. I know this by looking at the traffic coming to this site, and a whole heapin lot of it is a result of Google searches referencing the f51 error code.
Here is a link to a tech sheet outlining the various error codes on these machines. Give this to the "technician" (I use that term loosely) when he tells you he doesn't know what the code means.
So what does it mean? Pfft. Beats the hell outa me. "Dammit, Jim, I'm a doctor, not an overscheduled, undereducated appliance monkey." But knowing A&E Factory Service (service company for Sears and Whirlpool), they don't know either.
Good luck!
*END*
Cabrio/Oasis f51 error codes
Posted by Brad Labels: f51, HE top load washer, Kenmore, Maytag, Oasis / Cabrio / Bravos, repair, Whirlpool
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Anonymous
July 3, 2007 5:02 PM
At our house, we, too, were plagued by the infamous "F-51" error code. Not wanting to pay for a service call that probably wouldn't even resolve the issue (as I'd read in other blogs), we were having to run back to the machine several times to hit "Stop / Start" to finally get through many a load. Believe it or not, we went through this for several months, until the procedure ceased to work anymore.
At this point I had to get brave and open up the machine. It took only the removal of 3 screws to gain access to the control panel, where I unplugged, reseated, and wiggled every connection several times. Then I tilted the machine forward onto its face to get access to the open bottom. It took only the removal of one allen-head screw to remove the motor cover, then four bolts to remove the part of the motor that has all the coils. This gave access to two electrical connectors, one of which was the motor position sensor. I repeated the unplugging / replugging / wiggling procedure on both connections, then put things back together. And guess what? We haven't had a single re-occurrence of F51, or any other "F", ever since!
My guess is that it was re-seating the motor position sensor connection that did the trick. If you decide to give it a try, just remember to make sure you unplug your machine first, and avoid touching any circuit boards (don't want to zap any components with static electricity, y'know)!
G Baxter
October 8, 2007 12:48 AM
Thank you for the excellent post. Between the Service Tech User Guide and the above post, I was able to quickly and easily diagnose the problem. The following is a long post (sorry!)
I'd like to offer a more detailed pieces of information to the above post that others may find helpful. Feel free to add your own comments as needed. The below is intended to be more step by step whereas the above is the concepts.
If you are comfortable with mechanical and electrical things, this is pretty simple to fix. If you are not, it best left to someone who is. Bear in mind that anything done could violate your warranty (though in my experience with Sears, it is pretty useless anyway!)
My procedure was similar to the above:
1. UNPLUG WASHER FROM WALL, AND THEN Tilt washer up so that back rests on the wall. You need enough clearance to get under it and for it not to fall back on you. (Can you say Squish??) YOU MUST UNPLUG WASHER TO AVOID ELECTROCUTION....
2. Using the proper size Allen wrench, slowly unscrew the screw which holds the plastic housing. It is surprisingly heavy because it contains larges permanent magnets. The housing is actually the armature of the motor. The Allen headed screw can not fall out of the armature. Keep unscrewing until it is clear that it is released. Once that is done, some small pressure back and forth on the white plastic part will help remove it from the spline shaft.
3. Get your self some paper towels as the next step may have some grease!
4. Remove the four bolts securing the coil windings (stator of the motor). There will be a top plate, Note its orientation. If you are unsure how it may go back in, use a pencil and mark it in one location on both the plastic and the steel.
In my case, after removing the four bolts, the stator was still held in place, despite its weight simply by the grease between the plates. A small amount of wiggling and the stator comes free. It has A LOT of copper wire and Iron in it, so be prepared for it weight. Do not let it hit the ground. Slowly help it come away. There is also a gray plastic protector on top of the stator, which will try to fall away on its own. Again, use a pencil to mark where it was located if you feel at all unsure about where it will go when you reassemble
5. There are a set of black plastic wire ties which press fit into the base of the basin. These easily come off by tugging gently on them and will allow you to set the Stator (the big coils) onto the ground safely.
6. At this point, you can now get to all Motor Position Sensor (MPS), which is the ultimate cause of the F51 error. Once here, you can do a few things: A. Replace it (likely not needed) B. Take it apart and clean the contacts C. Simply reseat the connector a bunch of times.
7. To remove the MPS for inspection, first remove the three wired connector with the non-brown colored wires. This just pulls away.
8. Removing the MPS requires a small amount of caution because you can damage the insulation on the stator windings if not careful. To remove the MPS, find the small plastic tabs which are on the outside of the stator and using your fingernail on each side, gently pry them away from the stator while gently lifting the MPS straight up away from the stator.
9. Once the MPS is removed from the stator, it is now possible to remove the MPS from the wire harness. You will find it pretty easy to remove the non brown colored wires from the MPS, and then you will be able to pull the all brown MPS wire harness off the MPS.
10. You can simply reseat the MPS harness a number of times. This will "clean" the surface of the contacts via mechanical abrasion. This MAY fix your problem.
If you are gifted with small things, and are not afraid of damaging a pretty delicate component, you can very easily "fix" the MPS from ever bothering you again... Or at least for a very long time. THE FOLLOWING SHOULD ONLY BE PREFORMED IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING... YOU CAN EASILY PERMANENTLY DAMAGE YOUR MPS WHERE IT HAS TO BE REPLACED... AND YOUR WIFE OR HUSBAND WILL LIKELY BE VERY PISSED OFF AT YOU since it seems to take 23 days to get a new part!
TO FIX THE MPS:
10A. VERY carefully remove the plastic connector guide by gently lifting its catch pins while also pulling up on it.
10B. If you have a small enough pencil eraser, you can try to get in with the eraser to run over the contacts on the printed circuit board (green thing with silver contacts) DO THIS UPSIDE DOWN SO THAT ERASE SHAVINGS DO NOT GO DOWN INTO THE PLASTIC SLOTS.
Alternatively, using the two holes in the printed circuit board (PCB), and two small jewelers screwdrivers, you can gently and evenly pry out the PCB. This *MUST* be done evenly or you will snap the thin PCB and then buy your self a night on the couch and a new Motor Position Sensor. Carefully remove the rest of the PCB, noting its direction inside the white plastic housing. THEN take a pencil eraser to the silver contacts. If you look, you will likely see that they have become slightly pitted. This is root cause of the MPS F51 error. It is a design defect by Whirlpool in the connector technology which is used. What you are seeing is mechanical abrasion caused by the motion of the connector against the wiring harness. (Gee, washing machines vibrate, what a concept. You'd think Whirlpool would know that by now. Guess not!) The pencil eraser helps to remove built up oxidization which can substantially increase the contact resistance and lead to an apparent failure.
10C. After cleaning the contacts, gently reinsert the PCB back into the plastic housing. Be sure not to damage the hall effect sensors when you are sliding the assembly back together. (These are the small black pieces at the end of each finger of the PCB). Handle the whole thing gently.... :) Be sure to press the PCB back into the housing firmly (GENTLY!) and be sure it is fully seated.
10D. Replace the plastic guide for the harness. It clicks into place and really only has one direction to go.
10E. ADDITIONAL USEFUL STEP... Using an X-acto knife (or other VERY thin object), I also very gently and carefully bent the pins on the wire harness with the brown wires inward toward the center of the harness. This will cause them to make a more permanent contact with the MPS once you reinstall it. It will also hold the connector more firmly against the contacts during vibration. (HOWEVER -- it may also lead to a faster rate of pitting on the MPS over time.)
11. Reverse steps 9 to 1 :)
When replacing the MPS on the stator, note that the stator has and arrow, which locates the MPS, and it also has a label for the colored wires in the correct order. Follow those to ensure you get the stator back together properly with the MPS.
You will find it a bit challenging to get the Stator assembly (metal coils) back into place while also holding the gray plastic "top" cover. I found it easiest to hold the gray cover mostly in place, then slowly lift the stator assembly back into place. Then holding it with one hand, place a bolt through one of the holes and start to tighten it down. Make sure ALL bolts are in before you tighten any of them down.
Getting the armature (circular white plastic housing with magnets) back on is also a bit challenging. Push it firmly on the spline shaft, then start turning the Allen wrench. You will find that once it engages, you can let go of the armature and let it "screw" back into place. Note that the Armature will get closer and closer to the gray plastic housing, and then suddenly the Allen screw will get "tight". Hold onto the plastic of the armature to resist the turning of the Allen screw, and tighten the Allen Screw a reasonable amount.
Put washer back as it was, and plug it in. You can use the Service Technicians guide linked above to run a set of diagnostics.
GOOD LUCK!
My Backgound:
I am an Electrical Engineer with a background in mechanical engineering and debugging complex problems as well as failure analysis. This problem is one which is cause by a design defect. The manufacture screwed up here, in my professional opinion.
This is a knowable issue if your a decent engineer: Things shake. WHen they shake, every place that interfaces needs to be carefully designed to address multimode vibration. In this case, Whirlpool designed a very thin soldermask over bare copper PCB interface. This is not so much a problem, but the connector they chose guarentees pitting on the PCB over time as high frequency harmonic vibrations occur. If you were to look at most other connectors, you'd find they were made using lug and spade style connections, which are known to be very reliable. For some (cheap) reason, Whirlpool chose not to do this. The F51 codes will happen to EVERY washer overtime. Some may be sooner than others due to manufacturing tolerances. One poor soul I read about had theirs for a few days before it started, whereas ours was about a year after we had it.
Another contributing factor: Make sure your unit is level! That may seem silly, but it will cause worse harmonics to occur and the damage to the PCB to be done sooner.
If you are curious to see the harmonics in action, choose the manual tests and then lock the lid, turn on the MPS test and then do the motor tests at 23 RPM, 500 RPM and 1000 RPM. AS the carriage spins up, you will be able to physically see the vibration in the unit. Note too that it smooths out once the motor reaches 500 RPMs or 1000 RPMs. That is because the mechanics are designed for those speeds. But as you are going in between those speeds, weird harmonics occur which cause physical shaking of internal elements (like the MPS for example)
Hopefully this will help others to understand what the root cause of this problem was, and how to fix it. Sorry for the long windedness but hopefully it was helpful.
All of my Best to you!
Anonymous
October 13, 2007 1:20 PM
Thank you very much for your post, we've been having intermittent F51 errors on our washer for 13 months now since the original purchase. as of 10 days ago the intermittent problem has turned into a permanent situation. unable to clear the error we called Sears to send a technician (purchased extended warranty a month ago, since I suspected at one point this problem will have to be addressed). The technician was of course scheduled 10 days into the future (today) and he arrived bright and early to take a look at the washer. I was immidiately alarmed that he was not carrying any tools or parts and accepted the fact that the washer will not be fixed today. He confirmed the problem (guess they didnt believe me over the phone) and ordered the MPS sensor which is not scheduled to arrive for almost 2 weeks. Once again I accepted my faith, as I am a tech as well and know that parts are sometimes a problem. Once he left however I found your post, the pitting on the contact made perfect sense, I have seen it a million times. followed your procedure and cleaned the contacts and the washer is once again fully operational.
The procedure took about 30 minutes, but I laid the washer on its front using a soft blanket to protect the finish. The alarming fact in this case is however the lack of knowledge in part of the appliance technician, as this problem is quite wide spread.
Anyways, I am done ranting, thank you once again.
Anonymous
October 19, 2007 4:08 PM
I was told by the Sears technician that this is a well-known problem caused by them clear coating a product and the overspray hitting the part that is now throwing out the F51 code. Why Sears continued to sell this washer without replacing these parts is a complete mystery to me.
Thank you for your advice on how to fix it, I will do this today!
Anonymous
October 20, 2007 1:49 PM
I have the LF error but when I do the auto diag it shows F51. I did what you guys did without success. I even did it twice.
In the auto diag C0,C1 etc. my Cabrio in the C1 after the water comes in, it jerks every 5 second and no more water comes in like the diag is stating.
Any suggestions?
Anonymous
January 13, 2008 7:48 PM
We had our Cabrio washer/dryer for just over a year when the F51 error code appeared. We read the manual did what it said and then 1 month later it came up again. Struggling with the thought of paying a service call for a washer that cost $1000, I hopped on-line and did a search - to my amazement I found I was not the only Cabrio owner whose encountered this problem. I continued to receive the error about every other wash and told my handy husband about the comments in regards to fixing the problem - finally 3 weeks ago he did it and no F51 since. :-) I contacted Whirlpool told them the issue, told them I knew they were aware of it, and also told them of this website and the many others...I got a generic reply back that said my comments went to the wrong area and I must re-send them to customer service (which is where I'd gone in the first place). I sent a not so nice (but polite) e-mail back kindly asking them to do the courteous thing and forward my comments on and also mentioned a class action lawsuit in regards to this situation...haven't heard a peep back from them.
I'm sure there will be some type of lawsuit against them for this also my only hope is that the washer and F51 holds out until that time. :-) Thanks for the assistance fellow bloggers, you saved us lots of money! :-)
Walt
February 13, 2008 9:47 PM
To say I'm frustrated is an understatement. My Cabrio washer displayed the VERY common F51 code before it performed some disturbing actions. The tub overfilled and the F51 reset procedure would return to random times and cycles. Absolutely all settings resulted in F51 with erratic cycles. We had to shop-vac the water from the tub. Don't think for a minute that the drain hose was a problem. We unplugged the machine to avoid a possible action in the middle of the night.
The above only mildly irratated me. I figured the control board could possibly cause these problems. I called the local Factory Approved Service Provider and scheduled a service call. They explained the procedure was to check the RPS for the F51 fault. I know it's more but at least their sincere action was a start. I explained the additional poltergeist-type stuff and they concurred it is going to be a challenge. He said to let him replace the RPS and go from there. Things are fine at this point. He's working with me for a fix. What happened next is totally inexcusable and what caused me to blow a gasket.
We tilted the machine to remove the rotor and motor stator to access the RPS. The ST then asked me when we had last serviced the machine. I told him that we had only owned the washer for six months and I was unaware that any service was required. He then explained his question. THE BOLT ON THE ROTOR WAS TOTALLY STRIPPED! He has to drill out the bolt to remove it and can't do so until he receives a replacement. After that two week wait, I can then wait another two weeks for the next echelon of troubleshooting is performed and then another two weeks to wait on parts from the final decision on the fault. I am realistically looking at six weeks of down time for my machine because of piss-poor quality control. If this washer can leave the factory with such a visible and blatant fault, what else is Whirlpool willing to let go?
I have now spent considerable time on the internet and have become aware of the widespread F51 fault. I called customer support to see if there was any way to expedite parts requests for such a blatant defect. I was politely told that the best thing I could expect to receive is the operators' cooperation in submitting a complaint. That's not very reassuring while I'm at the laundromat with a $1000 machine at home. I would like to see a copy of what this rep typed in and know what good it does.
The store that sold it to me said that they had never touched the machine and the Whirlpool rep stated that my serial number had no history of any service. I was left to wonder if I had received a refurbished product or whether it left the factory with the stripped bolt (and whatever else remains to be found).
Anonymous
April 8, 2008 8:25 PM
I am having F51 issues too. Warranty on Oasis expired late November '07 and week before called Sears to complain that plastic tub ring was coming apart. Tech came and verified and then ran a scan that showed an F51 error had occurred in the past. He mentioned overspray on the circuit board and said that Sears was just automatically replacing circuit boards now. I wasnt having any problems at the time, but it was "in my best interest", he said. Two weeks later the parts came in and Sears installed them. Almost exactly two months later mid-Feburary), the F51 errors started showing in earnest. I could not even make it through a cycle without the machine stopping three times and showing F51. I called Sears again. A different tech showed up and said that the first guy "should not have replaced the circuit board". But after scanning both the machine and his repair resources, he ordered another circuit board and a timer control. The parts haven't arrived yet. I think I may try the 30 minute RPS process outline on this site and see what happens. I also plan to contact the BBB and tell them about this. Probably won't do any good, but may make me feel a bit better.
Anonymous
April 12, 2008 10:28 PM
since sears cabrio oasis was installed wrong early december, have wished I could get my old maytag back. it wrinkles and balls up sheets and clothes and now the computer needs to be replaced. they make appts., send wrong parts, and then make excuses for not showing up. WHY IS THIS WASHER NOT BEING RECALLED BY SEARS?
FRUSTRATED IN CALIFORNIA
Anonymous
April 28, 2008 11:55 PM
I've had this error for almost a month now. I bought my Cabrio in Dec 07 from Best Buy with a service contract. I never do buy these contracts but for some reason, I followed my gut instinct and bought it on this one. Although my service claim still falls under the original one year warranty, I am so happy I bought the extended however, I am still waiting for another part to come in before a tech can do my repair. It's frustrating, and I am reading that others are having problems and Whirlpool hasn't taken any sort of responsibility for it. I hope someone is starting a class action because I would love to be part of it. We all spent a good $1,000 expecting great things from this product only to be disappointed.
Ada
May 11, 2008 5:15 PM
Anonymous
May 15, 2008 8:50 PM
My Cabrio just burned up it's third processor board. It's almost a comforting thought being just one away from lemon law. All three boards were a different revision so obviously nothing works. The third, and supposedly newest board, won't allow my machine to even power on. 3 repairs in 4 months is not a sign of a quality product.
Frank
July 11, 2008 8:48 PM
qThe instructions to "fix" the F51 code work great and it is not difficult.
However, I would advise people to check to ensure the washer is level first. If it is not, try leveling it and see if that resolves the F51 code issue. A torpedo level with a magnet works great for this. Be sure to check front, side, and top to ensure the machine is perfectly level. Also be sure to use the locking nuts on the feet to keep vibration from causing the feet to rotate. These machines seem to be very sensitive to being absolutely level.
If leveling the machine does not eliminate the F-51 code do not be afraid to follow the instructions posted. It is really simple if you just take your time and don't force anything.