LG Front Load Washer LE Error code

[TechnicianBrian]

Model # WM2487HRM, this washer would being a cycle, but shortly after filling with water would display an 'LE' error message and stop the machine. The customer was a little concerned about the whole thing because another technician had already been out twice to replace parts, and both times he left to order more. I visiting this machine while riding with another tech one day who had a followup call to install more parts. The good new is, we didn't need the parts, and the machine is up and running.

The 'LE' error message indicates the control board has detected that the motor is either not turning, or has locked up for some reason. Monitoring the motor is the job of the hall effect sensor board which constantly determines the direction and speed of the motor and feeds that information back to the control board. If there is a problem between what the motor should be doing and what the hall effect sensor says the motor is doing, the 'LE' will be displayed and the cycle will be stopped.

Motor lock can be caused by several things from a loose connector, to a bad motor, or even the hall effect sensor failing or dislodging from it's mount. Any one or more of these components could have caused this error, but it is possible to separate the working from the non-working, just by following a process. The reason this particular unit has been on the injured list for so long is the first tech never followed a trouble shooting process to ensure the parts being replaced had actually failed.

If we take a look at the motor circuit of this washer, you should notice we can do our checks right from the control board by verifying voltage outputs to the motor and sensor boards, and then after removing power to the machine, do resistance checks to those same components. By doing these checks you are first eliminating the control board as the problem because if the output voltage is present, it must be working. And second you eliminate the component and wire harness because if you read the correct resistance, then they must be working. Which ever one isn't reading correctly must be the problem. Sounds simple enough, but unfortunately, the first tech never did either check and just ordered parts.

On my visit, the process was simple. We verified voltage from the control board, and finding it was good, we next went on to do the resistance checks. Starting with the motor, we checked resistance between each of the windings until the condition of each one was verified and here is where we found the problem. A reading of between 5 and 15 ohms should be read between any two wires, but on two of them, we were reading almost infinite resistance which would indicate an open motor winding. Figuring we now have a problem with the motor, the next stop was to check the motor at the connector. Here we did the same check, but this time the appropriate resistance readings were found which would now indicate the motor is good. This left the harness as the failure. A quick resistance check on each wire showed one of them (the blue one actually) was open.

Knowing we now had a back harness (and not wanting to tell the customer we needed another part) I started pulling the harness apart to get a look at each wire, and that's when I found it. The top photo shows the small cut in the wire that over time, became a larger gap until it finally just stopped working. I was able to repair this wire with a little solder and heat shrink tubing, which worked well for the customer. Had the first technician followed a good trouble shooting process, this problem could have been solved much earlier.

The moral of this story. Understand what you are checking, be consistent in your process, and always verify a failure two ways if possible. Knowing which part has failed always beats hoping you know which part has failed.




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[JWWebster]

Brian what type of voltage does this machine's motor use? Is it low voltage ac or variable dc?

[TechnicianBrian]

Hey JW,

This washer uses a three phase DC motor.  The voltage to each phase will be a consistant amplitude, but the frequency applied between the the three phases will change to achieve different rpm settings and direction.

Brian

[JWWebster]

That makes sense. The 3 phase will keep the motor cool and strengthen it substantially and the variable power input will control the cycles for delicate, prema-press, and heavy duty. Pretty cool. If those boards are good quality then it might be worth the investment, but I don't see it with made in 3rd world country parts.

[maypo52]

Brian,

Since I have a wm2496 which I assume would be fairly similar, it would be interesting to know what caused that wire to open. In your picture it looks as though it burned through. Was there a place where it rubbed on something and then cut the insulation then shorted out? Or did it draw to much current and overheat? How easy or hard was it to get to the harness to do your checks? Do you think this is a common problem or an isolated incident? I would be a little concerned if was caused by a rub through because of the amount of vibration the machine has during the spin cycle.

Mark

[TechnicianBrian]

Hey Mark,

The wire harness has nothing close to it so it wasn't due to rubbing anything.  I am guessing damaged during production or installation and it finally became the weak link in the harness. The harness is easy to get to once the rear panel is removed and it is actually a short section of wire that connects to the main harness at the bottom of the washer and then runs up to the motor itself.  I am not aware of the harness being a common problem, but the LE error has been causing problems for LG for awhile.  The problem has been more with a wire in one of the motor windings going bad than an individual wire harness.

Brian

[oliver]

I realise that this is an old topic, but I have the same problem on an LG WM0532HW

The washer was getting no power, so I replaced the main PWB - now it gets power but the drum doesn't spin either via a regular wash cycle or during diagnostics.

During the regular spin, it tries for a couple of minutes and then gives an LE error.  If I try during diagnostics it makes a sound like it's trying to spin but something, somewhere isn't connected.  I also tried changing the stator assembly to no avail

In the OP, TechnicianBrian says:

If we take a look at the motor circuit of this washer, you should notice we can do our checks right from the control board by verifying voltage outputs to the motor and sensor boards, and then after removing power to the machine, do resistance checks to those same components

Can someone explain that to a layman?  I have a multimeter but I'm not sure exactly what the voltage should be or how to verify. 

Anything else I could check?  I've already invested the money in a new gasket, new circuit board and stator so I'd like to get some more use out of this - but I doubt I want to spend another $100+ on the whole motor only to find it's a wire somewhere

Help!  Thanks :-)

Model WM0532HW

[TechnicianBrian]

It sounds like there is a problem with the hall effect sensor board as it sounds like you have replaced the rest of the components.  Get to the main board, look for the hall sensor connector which should be a white connector with white, blue, red, and gray wires.  Use a multimeter to measure between the white and gray with power on.  You should read 10-15vdc, if not the board is bad.  Then measure between the blue and gray wires while slowly rotating the motor.  You should see a pulsing 10vdc and the same thing if you measure betwen red and gray.  If you don't measure anything, then the wiring needs to be checked for an open circuit.  If you measure less than 10vdc, or the voltage does not pulse as you rotate the motor, the sensor board is bad.  You can also verify the wiring to the motor by measuring between any two wires on the red motor connector with blue, red, and yellow wires.  You should read between 5 and 15 ohms between any two wires.  If you measure an open circuit on any of them, then time to check the wiring harness for a broken wire, or a loose connection on either end.

[oliver]

thank you sir!  I will try that and let you know how I get on.

[oliver]

just to make sure I'm not high, is this what I do for the first check?

i) remove the blue/white/red/gray connector from the main PWB
ii) turn power to the washer on
iii) with my multimeter set to 20 DC voltage, stick the prongs in the squares where the white and gray cable should be
iv) expect to see 10 --> 15vdc in the reading

I do suspect the board is bad as I know for sure that partstore sent me a used item.  The previous purchaser left the RMA in the static bag it came in.

For the second test, do the same thing but measure between blue and gray while turning the drum.  Hope to see a pulsing 10VDC... Repeat with red and gray

I think I'll get this done first before continuing with the rest.

[TechnicianBrian]

Yes you are correct, except do not remove the connector from the main board.  Insert your meter probes into the end that the wires come out of.  You are testing for voltage to the board, and the return voltage so it needs to be plugged in.

[oliver]

Yes you are correct, except do not remove the connector from the main board.  Insert your meter probes into the end that the wires come out of.  You are testing for voltage to the board, and the return voltage so it needs to be plugged in.

after spending the weekend looking for my multimeter, I ran thru the first few tests.

I got between 10 and 11 vdc between the white and gray cables with the power on... so that seems OK.

When I switched the probes to blue and gray, the reading would start at 10vdc and, as the drum (manually) turned, would go down to around 5 and back up to 10 as it slowed down.  I hope this is what you mean by pulsing.

For red and gray, it was slightly different.  The reading started at 0vdc but went to 5 as the drum turned.  Then I moved the PWB slightly (you have to kind of flip the thing forward to get the multimeter probes into the wires) and the reading went up to 10vdc and acted like the blue and gray connectors (10vdc and then down to 5 as the drum turns, then back up to 10)

I did a continuity test on the 4 wires and they all seemed OK... it just seemed odd that I moved the cable slightly and the reading went from 0 to 10vdc.  I'm pretty sure I had the probes stuck well in to the connectors.  I tried moving the PWB again, but I couldn't get it back to 0.

Do you think this indicates a problem with the sensor assembly?  Thats one part I haven't replaced.

One other thing:  Initially, I tried to put the first probe in place by pushing on the washer's display for a little leverage.  When I did this, the beeper would make two quick beeps like it was detecting something.  Does this mean anything to anyone?

I really appreciate the friendly help and advice.

[oliver]

You can also verify the wiring to the motor by measuring between any two wires on the red motor connector with blue, red, and yellow wires.  You should read between 5 and 15 ohms between any two wires

I did the above test and it returned appropriate readings


I went back and did the first tests again, and I'm not happy with the red/grey vdc test.

Just so it's clear, here's what I did:

i) turned power off
ii) disconnected the red/blue/gray/white connector
iii) inserted the probes into the red/gray slots and ensured they were touching the metal
iv) re-connected the connector to the main PWB
v) switched on power

Sometimes when I do this, the multimeter reads between 0 and 1 vdc.   Then, when I spin the drum, it goes up to 5 and then back down as the spin stops.

If I repeat the steps i and v, it immediately goes up to 10vdc and then down to 5 when I spin the drum.  It's not consistent though.  I'm not 100% sure, but I think that if I leave power off for a couple of minutes, it starts at 0vdc but if turn power off and on fairly quickly, all looks good.

Am I correct in thinking that this red/blue/gray/white connector ultimately goes to the stator sensor?

That part has already been replaced, but I do see something else at partstore.com - the "sensor assembly" which unfortunately has no picture

Any idea what this is and whether it's worth replacing?  Any way to prove it? 

[oliver]

I found a picture of that second item.

I see a yellow wire though so I'm not sure it's related

[TechnicianBrian]

The fact you are getting various voltage readings out of the same plug is confusing as electricity doesn't usually just come and go. Based on your first findings, I would have said that you need to replace the sensor board, but then you said in your second to last post that it was already changed.  This is different information than your first post which stated you changed the control board and stator so now I am not sure what has been changed in this circuit.  Given the results of your measurements, the sensor board is not reading correctly and if you are seeing it on your meter and assuming the measurements are taken correctly, the control board will see the same anomaly and show an error.  One last check to make on the board would be to measure resistance between blue and white, then between red and white at the control board connector while it is unplugged and the machine is off.  You should measure 10K Ohm's.  If you don't the sensor board is bad.  Also, I am not sure what that second part you located goes to.  It may be something specific to your model and that is why I do not find it in the manual I am referencing.   

[oliver]

yeah - I see the confusion now.  Thanks for sticking with this :-)

My washer is a WM0532HW which is a BestBuy-exclusive rebranded version of the WM2032HW.

I found a ton on people on the internet with the WM2032HW washer and the LE error code.

Most of them said replacing the "sensor assembly" (pn: 6501KW2002A) fixed the problem. 

If you go to AppliancePartsPros.com they show two sensor assembles. 

1) PN: 6501FA2462C
2) PN: 6501KW2002A

The majority of people had success with the second one and thats the one I replaced.

If you do the same search with washer WM0532HW you only get one sensor assembly listed... and thats the first of the above two listed above.

So, I've changed the following two items:

1) the main PWB (6871ER1023Q)
2) sensor assembly (6501KW2002A)

I'm wondering whether I should change 6501FA2462C as well.  This looks like a set of cables running into a black box.  I'm thinking though that this is to do with sensing whether the washer is level.  Could that possibly be a cause of LE?  Or make the machine not spin on diagnostics?

[TechnicianBrian]

The LE error is pretty specific to a motor lock condition as monitored by the sensor board, and given the only parts associated with that failure would be the motor itself, the sensor board, the main board, and the harness, I would stick with those items.  It is possible for such things as a worn bearing or something stuck between the basket and drum to give the error, but those things generally will only flag the error after some use and not right away.  Since you are getting the error very quickly in use, one of those four components is the likely problem.  If you have replaced the sensor and the control board, I would look very closely at the wiring harness because the variations you were getting in your measurements over the weekend suggests something is not connected properly giving intermittent readings.  Check the harness including under the taped sections and look for anything that seems out of place.  As the photo shows in my original post, it only takes a very small bit of damage to cause problems.

[oliver]

The LE error is pretty specific to a motor lock condition as monitored by the sensor board, and given the only parts associated with that failure would be the motor itself, the sensor board, the main board, and the harness, I would stick with those items. 

Thanks... I'll see if I can remove all the wiring and visually inspect it

[oliver]

One last check to make on the board would be to measure resistance between blue and white, then between red and white at the control board connector while it is unplugged and the machine is off.  You should measure 10K Ohm's.  If you don't the sensor board is bad. 

Can you clarify this for me?  Are you still referring to the 4-wire connector with red/blue/white/gray wires?

I set my multimeter to 20k Ohms and stuck the probes in (with the machine off).  The reading was 4.95 for blue/white and 5.00 for red/white.

You said it should be 10K Ohms.  Am I just misunderstanding how to read the multimeter or is this another avenue to explore?

[TechnicianBrian]

The specification is 10K ohms measured between each wire which is the hall effect sensor itself.  Are you reading 5K ohms or 5 ohms between each wire?  Either way, they sound like low ratings since even 5K would be a 50% variance in what the engineers are expecting.