Error E52 on a Zanussi washing machine is defined as, “no signal from the tachometric generator”. It sounds complicated, in fact I’ve never even heard of “tachometric generator” in over 30 years in the trade but they are referring to what we always call the tacho coil. This is a small coil on the motor at the side of a small magnet on the end of the armature. As the motor turns, so does the magnet, and as one of its poles keeps passing the tacho coil it generates (presumably) small currents or pulses which can be sensed by the control module.
This method is the perfect way to sense the speed of the motor and to control it. Error E52 means the control module or PCB is getting no signal from this coil, but as far as it’s concerned there’s nothing else wrong. That is, it knows it’s sending power to the motor, and it knows there’s no other related fault detected – therefore it’s puzzled as to why it’s getting no signal from the tacho coil because the motor should be turning.
The logical assumption is that the motor is physically jammed, which is why most technical manuals report that as a likely explanation. A jammed motor certainly is a valid explanation, but there is more than one possible explanation –
- Jammed motor or drum
- The magnet on the end of the armature has broken
- The tacho coil has physically fallen off the motor
- You can try checking the connections to this coil on the motor and back to the pcb, and the resistance of the coil (which is usually very high – but not open circuit) although in theory faults here might not trigger this error
For more details on the tacho coil and this type of error see my other article for the same fault on a Hover washing machine which manifests as Error 7
Your were right it was the little magnet at back of the motor, thanks for the post
Thanks Kenneth. Always nice to hear about a success.