Bosch Dishwasher SHE66C06UC upper arm not spinning

The upper arm of my Bosch DW is not spinning. I called Bosch and they gave me tips on cleaning/flushing. I flushed it - still does not spin. I thought the water level was low and added water into the unit. After adding 64 oz I was able to get water to come out of the holes in the upper arm but, it will not spin. The lower arm spins.

I have tried different options on the panel but, no change to DW operation. Any idea what is causing the problem with water level and arm spinning? Could it be a pump that is not forcing enough water?

Thank you

 

If you have water coming out of the upper arm and it is still not spinning does it spin freely by hand? The water squirting out the holes is the only thing that makes it rotate. Also check again to make sure the arm has no debris inside. Remove it and tilt it back and forth. Do you hear anything rattling inside? Take it to the sink and shoot water into the center. Does water come out of all the holes? I have seen debris (popcorn kernals) get into the upper arm somehow. When the machine is off the holes all look clear but when running the moving water forces the chunks into the holes blocking them. Then when the water turns off the debris falls out of the holes.

 

Pump output to upper and lower is the same so if lower is working then upper is jammed or full of debris.

Remove the racks, there is typ a plastic tube that starts at the bottom where the pump discharge is and goes along the bottom, up the back and then over to upper arm. It all snaps, screws together and very easy to remove and clean.

 

If your dishwasher has an adjustable rack there should be several holes in the vertical tube that Marq1 described. Those holes should line up with the connector to the upper arm in each rack position. If the rack is tilted because both sides are not at the same height the connection may not be complete and sufficient water will not flow to turn the arm.

Also (obviously) the arm will not spin if it strikes an obstacle in either upper or lower rack. I usually give the upper arm a spin by hand before starting the dishwasher to make sure nothing blocks it. Something as small as the hook on the end of a ladle (about 5/8 inch) lying flat in the upper rack and protruding down has caught on the upper arm.

 

Thanks for the info.

I removed both arms, flushed with water. I flushed everything except the "L" shaped plastic water line that runs along the back wall. A tiny piece of gray plastic and a light green 1/8" diameter piece of plastic were found. I put everything back together. Did not improve. Removed/cleaned arms a 2nd time. No improvement.

I ran the DW on all of the different wash options - did not make a difference.

I then removed the top rack and placed a bowl below the side wall water outlet. The DW ran for about 120 minutes and 1/2 of the bowl was full of water.

I will remove the "L" plastic pipe this weekend. I think it's 2 screws and a back wall bracket to free it.

A new problem appeared - on every wash program whether it is 20 or 120 minutes, the timer counts down to "1" and stays there, the DW will never shut off unless I activate the cancel and drain function.

I then started searching for a repair manual - did not find the exact one but found some info online about diagnostic codes and how to find them. I don't know if I pressed the correct sequence of buttons but I came up with: P0, C2 and E1.

Recap: no water from upper arm, DW does not shut off, diagnostic codes still to be decoded.

Does the above shed more light on a fixable problem?

Thanks