Warning: thought I could fix a Bosch dishwasher drain pump with a $18 part from Amazon

I gambled $18 on a generic drain pump impeller for a Bosch SHX68T5, hoping it would fix the sudsing issue. After 2 hours of teardown and swapping the part, the machine still wouldn't drain. Turns out the real problem was a tiny crack in the sump housing that cost $120 for the OEM replacement. Anyone else waste time chasing cheap fixes instead of just ordering the right part first?

2 comments

2 Comments

jamiesingh7d ago

I had a similar runaround with a Bosch 800 series last year where I replaced the drain pump filter housing three times because of that same cheap part trap. The real kicker was finding out the issue was actually a bad wire harness connection underneath the machine that only showed up when the dishwasher vibrated during the drain cycle. I ended up spending $40 on a multimeter and tracing the signal from the control board to the pump before I figured it out. That $18 impeller might still be fine on your unit but the crack is what's causing your sudsing by letting air mix in from the sump leak. Sometimes the hidden problems are the ones that cost you the most time and frustration.

ruby_lane7d ago

Totally feel your pain on this one (and the wallet pain too, honestly). That wire harness issue is exactly the kind of gremlin that makes you want to throw the whole machine out the window, especially when you've already swapped parts that seemed like the obvious fix. I've been there with a different brand where a loose connection only caused problems when the cycle hit the spin speed, took me three weeks and a borrowed multimeter to catch it. So frustrating how these hidden problems just sneak up on you and eat up all your time for free, basically. Hope that impeller fix finally sorted it out for you, sounds like you earned that win.