C300i noise issue (check out video)

[Gift]

Hi there,

I got this machine with pretty loud noises. Issue only happen early in the morning when the machine get's turned on (probably an office mainswitch). They never occured during service visits - we went there a few times and swapped fuser, fuser drive and ITB. This video has been taken by the customer:

https://youtube.com/shorts/opAamD-3Vwo

Today the customer called again and claimed the machine did the noise again and smelled very funny / kinda "burned or chemical" so I went there with a tech and again, nothing was reproduceable. I checked everything and my theory is that the noise might be caused by the black roller above the fuser - it's driven by some grey rubber rollers sitting at the door side. The black roller was a little hard to move so I cleaned it's bushings and the grey roller seems to have lost grip because they lookes somehow "polished" - perhaps they can slip over the black roller when the unit is cold and cause the noise. Once the area is hot the rubber material might gain some grip so you can't reproduce the issue anymore.

What are your thoughts, do you know this noise?

thanks for any input

[Albonline]

Try to be there on a Monday to start it with the customer. they may even let the building get cold during non business hours.

[kingarthur]

Why is the customer turning the machine off..they're designed to be left on permanently, as Albonline says, if the building is getting cold, the device could be making the noise as it warms up, once it's reached the correct operating temp, the noise could stop. ..first of all, I'd remove the FNS, and see if it's still making a noise. Once it is removed, then see if the noise, if still there, coincides with the exit rollers turning, if it is, press down lightly on the exit rollers, to see if the noise stops. It may be the exit assy needs lubricating - there's a bulletin about this. Is the toner low, it could be automatically adding toner when it's turned on. There's a bulletin about the waste toner drive assy needing lubricating on the 3 shafts.

[tsbservice]

+1000% on removing finisher. That will be my first job. Then if it do noise again I will check machine early in the morning.
Noise isn't like WTB nor exit rollers though.

[Woxner]

Had that about a month ago. Open finisher and you might see rubber grit from rollers rubbing plastic frame. I used spacers to add distance. Haven't heard back since. This was for inner finisher

[copyman]

Only time I've heard that noise was when my shop is cold and turn on a machine before getting room & copier warm. Was thinking finisher but why only in morning, would think finisher would make noise all the time?

[mascan42]

OP is in Sweden. That kind of cold might do things that us warm-blooded mammals wouldn't think of.

[Gift]

Good morning @all, thanks for all your suggestions, much appreciated.

I'm actually live a little more more south than sweden.. don't tell anybody, different story.... Outside temp varies between -5-10degree currently. Customer office is located downtown in a larger city - due to high heating costs the room temp might drop more during night hours than it was common years ago. Still I don't think this noise should be considered as a "limitation".

I actually planned to visit the machine in a morning appointment but the customer didn't report it during the last weeks until yesterday. I went there later in the day after my sales guy passed me a story like the noise was now permanent plus I thought it might be important to investigate the additional "burnt smell" issue (tbh I was hoping to find somthing like label, OHP foil or injekt paper in the fuser).

But let's get back to the issue - according to the service history the exit unit has been cleaned/lubricated but noone targeted the finisher so far.

copyman, Woxner and tsbservice:

So all of you made this experience with the internal finishers?

Woxner:

I'm not quite shure where you did your "spacer mod".
Sounds worth to give it a try in case they call again.

Did you add a little distance between the finisher and the exit unit or did you put the spacer somewhere inside the finisher to add some distance between a plastic part/guide and roller?

I have a returner with that configuration and took a few pics.

Exit Area

exit.jpg
bump

Finisher entrance area:

fini.jpg

[copyman]

That noise I had a few times had nothing to do with the finisher. It was definitely and only because it was cold.

If copier is located in a cold office or warehouse we turn off sleep mode and tell customer NOT to turn copier off!

[kingarthur]

+1000% on removing finisher. That will be my first job. Then if it do noise again I will check machine early in the morning.
Noise isn't like WTB nor exit rollers though.

Yes, you're right about the noise not being either of those - but being deaf, I sometimes have trouble with noisy machines....working out exactly where the noise is coming from , or sometimes even hearing the noise. when i go to a "noisy" device, quite often i can honestly say to the customer "It sounds ok to me" , if I can hear the noise, then I know it's bad....

[Gift]

kingarthur

I think in this case you can't claim your're unable to hear or it sounds normal
But yeah, some people are too sensitive and complain about the most little electrical noise (like from a coil).

I called the customer to check how things are.
Noise issue did not came back (still too early to know for shure) but they think it still smells odd in the morning.

I asked them about the room temp and there's no major temp drop over night and the office is warm
when they start in the morning. It's a huge medical/doctors office in a good location.

Woxner I'm still curious to know more about your finisher-related findings