Kenmore dishwasher leaking diverter motor

This post has nothing to do with plants, but it is something that I wanted to write down as a reminder to myself since I may need to do this repair again.  It may also help a couple people who is frustrated by a product.

We bought this top-of-the-line Kenmore Elite dishwasher, Model # 665.12793K311, 3 years ago.  This is a model produced by Whirlpool.  Around that time, our son was 2 years old, and we were having tough time to get enough sleep for him.  The dishwasher is located above his bedroom, so we couldn't run our old, noisy dishwasher at night.  This Kenmore Elite is one of the most quiet models, and indeed it is amazingly quiet.  I barely hear noise even when I'm in the kitchen.  We debated whether the hefty price tag (it was around $1400 on sale) was worth spending, but it was one of the top rated models by Consumer Report, and we decided to go for it.  We were very happy that we could run the dishwasher any time without worrying about waking up our son. But the long-term durability/reliability is not something what Consumer Report evaluates fully.

Problems after problems:
The satisfaction didn't last for long.  After a year or so, the top shelf height adjustment mechanism broke.  The plastic tab which is holding a spring broke.  By looking at the design, I can see that it isn't designed to last for long.  Many people have reported the same problem.  I used a small screw to replace the plastic tab, and I could make it functional again.  This design flaw is annoying for such as expensive dishwasher, but it is relatively minor to what was going to break later.

After 2 years (fall 2015), it stopped working, and I tried to get help from this appliance repair forum.  The problem occurred intermittently at first, so it was difficult to trouble-shoot.  First it was stopping in the middle of the wash cycle (after 10 minutes or so), and the display said "push start to resume". When I push the button, it starts, but it quits after 5 seconds of spraying water. It was occasionally completing the cycles, but it was rare.  Then it started to have another, slightly different symptom. After it filled up with water, it started to wash, but within 5 seconds, the water pump stoped and the LEDs and all display turns off as if the power is cut of.  Then immediately, I heard a click, and it started to wash again for another 5 seconds or so.  It keep repeating this reset procedure many many times (instead of keeping ask me "push to resume" every time), or sometime after a couple rounds, it asks "push to resume". This happens in Normal cycle, 1 hour cycle, or quick rinse cycle.

I ran the service diagnostics cycle by quickly pushing "smart wash" - "Pots and Pans" - "normal wash" sequentially for 3 rounds. It would go first 6 tasks (intervals) or so, and displayed customer errors 1-4. But it doesn't complete the rest of the diagnostics cycle after that and shut it down. I disassembled the diverter etc, and cleaned to see if something is stuck.  When I re-started the diagnostic cycles, there was a slightly different symptom.

The diagnostic cycles weren't completing and the problem is somewhat intermittent, so I assumed the control circuit was becoming bad.  But replacement of the control circuit (pretty expensive) didn't fix the problem, and after a month or so of trouble shooting and replacing parts, I finally got it working again after I replaced water inlet valve and spray arm sensor (I think the former was the real problem).  I had to spend $200-300 for the parts.

Repairing the leaking diverter motor:
After 1 year of the major repair, it developed another problem in fall/winter 2016.  This time, the diverter motor started to leak.  From googling around, this is another common problem with this model.  The lower spray arm of this dishwasher is not passively moving like most of the dishwasher; a motor controls the movement of the spray arm (see the next photo).  I'm guessing the leaking problem is coming from this more complicated mechanisms.  In this post, I'm going to illustrate how to repair this problem.

Parts: The leaking diverter motor could be caused by the failure of one of the two seals.  One seal is attached to the sump, which is basically the gray plastic part under the lower spray arm in the photo above.  If this seal failed, Sears will try to sell you the entire sump (part number: W10457989) for $71.  Here is the link to parts diagrams (select Pump, Washarm, and Motor Parts page).  Their shipping cost to Alaska is also unreasonably high.  Sears isn't a friendly company.  So I decided to find a replacement seal by itself.  It was a bit tough to get the correct size seal, but I managed to find a replacement from MSP Seals.  You have to email them, and ask for OSM 6X16X5 TC FKM.  It is $6 each, but you have to order four seals at minimum, and the shipping cost is reasonable with USPS.  With the size of the seal, the first number (6mm) is the inside diameter (ID), then the second number (16mm) is the outside diameter (OD), and the last number (5mm) is the height of the seal.  The height of the original seal was actually 6mm, but this a little shorter replacement works without a problem.  'TC' in the part number indicates that this seal is a double contact seal, so there are two rings contacting the shaft.  The original seal also had the TC profile.

The other possible leaking is caused by a seal inside of the diverter motor.  I replaced the sump seal with the one from MSP Seals, but the actual problem was the seal in the diverter motor in my case.  The seal was ok, but it slipped off from the correct position and caused the leak.  Others have reported the same slipping problem (link to a forum thread).  But if you need to replace this seal, here is the measurement: ID=3mm, OD=12.21mm, height is 5.88mm.  I haven't ordered this part, but it probably needs 3x12x6.  The height is probably not too critical, and 5mm would probably work.  If this seal fails, Sears will not sell you the seal, and they will force you to buy the entire motor unit (Dishwasher Diverter Motor, part #:W10380170) for $127.  Insane....

Dissassembly:
First, I removed the top shelf. After sliding it out, you can push in the plastic tabs (just above my thumb in the photo below) located at the both sides of the shelf, and bring up the front par of the top shelf.

Below I'm showing the tab on the other side, after I removed the shelf.

This is how the supporting arm looks like after removing the top shelf.  For each arm, there are two pockets where the sticking-out parts (one can be seen just above my finger, right of the tab on the photo above) go in.

Now, we need to remove the lower spray arm.  You can see the central gear under the middle part of spray arm.  You need to twist this central gear counter clockwise a little bit, and it should come off. I think that you just want to twist the gear without twisting the spray arm.

This is how it looks like after you remove the spray arm.

Now, we need to remove the diverter cover, which is the round part to which the spray arm was attached.  Before removing the diverter cover, you need to remove the two pipes attached to it.

First, you can remove the lower back sprayer pipe.  The lower back sprayer is the gray part with four red round sprayers attached. You can grab the pipe near the diverter cover, and pull it up gently.  It should easily come off.

This is how the pipe is connected to the diverter cover.  It is simply pushed in. Then the lower back sprayer can be uncliped from the pipe connected to the upper spray arm by simply pulling it forward.

After the lower back sprayer is removed, this is how it looks like.  The white part is the place where lower back sprayer pipe was attached.  The white part is the diverter, which redirects the water to the lower, upper or back sprayer.

Now we need to remove the upper sprayer pipe, which is a little bit harder to remove.

I twisted the pipe near the back of the dishwasher toward right.  Then apply a bit of force to bring the tip of the pipe up.  There are two tabs holding the pipe as you can see in the photo below, but they come off by this twisting motion.

 Now the diverter cover comes off by twisting the cover counter clock wise about 20 degree, and pulling it upward.  There is a locking tab, so you have to bring the tab up while twisting.

You can also remove the diverter (the white part with one hole).  You don't have to worry about the location of the hole because it will go back into only one direction due to a key.

After you remove the diverter, you want to put the dishwasher side-way so you can access the bottom of the dishwasher.  The combined unit for the diverter motor and lower spray arm motro is the middle white part.  There are 3 sets of wire connectors, which you want to remove.  Then there are 3 Torx screws you need to remove. You need the star-shaped Torx screwdriver, and I don't know the exact Torx size, but it is fairly small Torx.  After removal of the screw, you can pull out the motor unit.  There is one push tab which you may need to disengage, but this platic tab comes off easily.

This diverter/lower spray arm motor has the part number of Hankscraft W10380170 Rev G.

After removal of the motor, you can see the hole where the shaft goes in.

Now going inside of the dishwasher, you can see a seal (the brown part).  This could be one of the two potential cause of the leakage.   Photo below is actually taken after replacement of the seal, so it is brown, but the original one is black.  This seal comes off fairly easily by either poking (pushing) from the bottom (or twisting from the top) with a screw driver or something similar.

This is how it looks like when you remove the seal.

This is the removed motor unit.  The black seal above the motor unit is the original sump seal.  To access the inner seal, which is different from the sump seal, we need to disassemble this motor.  This motor doesn't use screws, so you need to unsnap plastic tabs by plying them with flat-head screw drivers.  You have to be patient, and gentle to make sure you don't break the plastic tabs.  In this side you can see two tabs connecting the top and bottom parts.

This is the other side, and you can see there are 3 tabs on this side, and there are two tabs on the left side.  When you look at the white shaft going up from the motor unit in the photo below, the bottom part near the motor unit is fat, and the top park is skinny.  You can see the black shadow inside of the fat part of the shaft, near the skinny part.  This is the seal which we need to access.  I took the photos above and below after I relocated the seal to the correct position, so the seal is in the correct position.  But if there is a big space between the seal and the skinny part of the shaft, you have the same problem of the slipped seal.

Note that this motor unit has two motors; one regulating the diverter, and the other driving the lower spray arm.  Basically, the metal part and the white plastic part of the shaft moves independently.  The inner metal shaft is driving the spray arm.  And the outer white plastic shaft is connected to the diverter.  The outer sump seal is the seal between the sump and the white plastic, outer shaft.  Then the seal inside of the shaft is the seal between the inner metal and outer plastic shafts.  

In the photo below, I removed the gear cover just below the shaft.  There are three locking tabs on the cover which you need to use a fairly small flathead screwdriver.

The spring, black spacer part, and metal washer slides off.  In the photo below, I ordered these parts in the way you need to assemble.

The photo below is showing how the gears are connected.  These gears are driving the metal shaft and the lower spray arm.

I removed the motor cover, which is next to the gear cover, at the bottom part of the unit.  This motor is driving the lower spray arm.

I removed the connector cover on the top side of the motor unit, but it turned out that I didn't have to remove this cover.

Now we can pull out the inner metal shaft.  Actually right after you remove the gear cover, you can pull out this shaft.

This is just showing the structure of the metal shaft, which drives the lower spray arm.  The bottom cone-shaped plastic consists of two parts.

 To access the seal, which is out target, we need further disassembly.  Basically you have to split-open the motor unit.  With the bottom half in the photo below, you can see 3 plastic tabs on the top side, 2 on the bottom side, 2 on the right side and 1 on the left side. you have to unsnap these 8 plastic tabs.

Now looking at the top half of the case, you can see the black seal inside of the shaft.

To get the shaft out, you need to remove this lever and spring, which just slide out.  This lever is connected to a micro switch on the top right, and this switch feeds back the signal about the diverter position.

This is how it looks lke after the removal of the lever.

Then the outer shaft just slides out. I pushed the seal down by sticking the metal inner shaft from the top (narrow end) of the outer plastic shaft.  Since the seal was already slipped down, it came off easily.  I inspected the seal, and it looked ok.  I covered the seal with a little bit of grease.  I'm not sure what is a good grease for this purpose, but I used silicone dielectric grease (probably I bought it from NAPA), which I happened to find in my garage.  Then I used the flat side of pencil and pushed into the outer shaft.

I have a feeling that this is another flawed design.  It seems that the seal is just pressure fitted, and I didn't see a mechanism to hold the seal in place.  So I don't have a high confidence in this ill designed dish washer.  Since I want to know quickly if the leak happens again, I put a shallow plastic container (some food container I dug up from recycle bin) to catch the leak.  Then I taped a remote sensor of a water leak alarm to the bottom of the leak catch container.  I happened to have this water leak alarm (amazon link).  It requires a 9V battery,  so I put the alarm in the place where I can access and change the battery easily.

This dishwasher is great when it is working.  After working with this dishwasher quite a bit, there appear to be a couple of design flaws. Since it isn't designed well, I don't expect that it will last for a long time.  I'm very very disappointed, and I will probably avoid most Sears appliances in the near future.  Since Sears appliances are designed and produced by other companies, we can't generalize that all of Sears appliances are craps.  However, I'm not happy with their attitude; Sears customer/technical service weren't willing to help.  Well, they would say that it was out of warranty, so they didn't have to anything.  All of the problems which I and many others are suffering from are due to their flawed design.  And people would be pissed off if $1400 dishwasher breaks down in 2-3 years.  Finally, their part department appear to be trying to make money by selling the parts you don't need to replace.  Consumer Reports frequently rates Sears products high, but they should do better research.