Extruder Motors - Do They Fail Often?

[Ras_Thavas]

For those that have been doing this a while, are the extruder motors something that need replacing every so often?

My Monoprice Maker Select Plus has stopped extruding filament. The unit is only a couple of months old, but I have used it a lot. It will load filament, and start a print, but after a short while it will just stop pushing filament out. I have changed the drive gear. I took off the extruder nozzle and don't see where there is anything wrong with it but have ordered a replacement anyway. I am trying to print with filament that has produced prints before, and at temperatures that have produced successful prints before.

This same thing happened to a previous unit, but within the 30 day warranty and I sent it back and they replaced it. I'm outside the warranty period on this one so trying to figure out what the problem might be on my own. Besides the extruder motor, any suggestions as to what the problem might be?

Thanks.

[BoozeKashi]

I've got two machines with over 2000 hours on them (each) and never had an extruder motor fail.

But if I'm not mistaken, the Monoprice machines are rebranded Wanhao printers(?) If so, it could just be a case of price vs. quality and they used lower cost motors.

[jeffmorris]

The cables connecting the stepper motors to the controller board may be bad.

[BoozeKashi]

Great point Jeff. Definitely worth a quick continuity check with a meter before replacing motors. Giving connectors a good inspection while you're at it too. Could just be a bad crimp or pin job.

[Ras_Thavas]

I'll check the cables.

[curious aardvark]

is the extruder motor actually stopping or is the temperature dropping too low to melt the plastic ?

But yep it's way more likely to be a wire or connection than a stepper motor. Those things will outlast cockroaches :-)

[Ras_Thavas]

So it appears to be the nozzle. I checked the cable and it was fine. I replaced the PTFE tube and that did not help. Then I got some new nozzles so I replaced that and now it appears to be working fine. Funny thing though, the old nozzle really did not look like it was bad, but I guess it was.

[curious aardvark]

you need to bear in mind that the nozzles have stupidly small hole sin the end and they can get 'clogged' by something so small you'd need a microscope to see it.

And as I have recently discovered - 99.99% of the time when you think it's the stepper motor that's faulty - it's almost always something else :-)