False Add Toner - MPC6003 / MPC5503 / MPC4503

[Ricoh-ono]

False "Add Toner" - Black. I found the auger in the Toner Hopper out of place and sticking up. The auger is made out of a "rubbery" plastic and is pretty flexible. I'm not sure how it got out of place. I'm posting pics below. (Certain OEM message boards won't allow pics, so on them).
Hope no one ever has this problem, but if you do, maybe this will help.

20150423_115400.jpg20150423_115551.jpg

[Klydon]

Wild shot as to why would be the toner got packed so hard in the hopper, the auger actually "screwed backwards" out of position. I think there are some other models that are doing this as well (301, 2003).

I assume you cleaned out the hopper and put it back together. Did this fix the issue?

[zed255]

I had an MPC4503 calling for cyan toners and I found the piezo sensor in the sub-hopper was actually dented. I have heard a few reports of the same elsewhere in our area. The mixer has a blade that wipes the sensor face, but with the dent the sensor always 'sees' a quantity of toner and won't add toner to the sub-hopper. This causes the developer to starve despite the nearly full bottle in the machine. Customer replaces the toner, it recovers and goes until the sub-hopper is empty again.

[Ricoh-ono]

Wild shot as to why would be the toner got packed so hard in the hopper, the auger actually "screwed backwards" out of position. I think there are some other models that are doing this as well (301, 2003).

I assume you cleaned out the hopper and put it back together. Did this fix the issue?

Yes. This fixed the issue.