Kyocera Taskalfa 250ci - horizontal smudging/dark band

[missbat]

Hi All,

I recently acquired a Kyocera Taskalfa 250ci that had been in storage for a long time. Having been reading these forums for the last week, I think this was not my smartest move!

I've managed to find a copy of the service manual and using that and these forums, I've fixed a few small print quality issues (vertical stripes of colour that were a few cm high).

Unfortunately, I can't seem to fix this issue of smudging/a dark line.

When I run U089 on white, I get a weird black smudgy square on the page. Running gradients, I get a darker band. On text prints, this shows up as smudging. The smudge is about 2.5cm from the edge of the page. (Pictures are attached)

IMG_20210915_170443.jpg
Smudgy square on white (A4 size)

IMG_20210915_170007.jpg
Smudgy text (A4 size)

IMG_20210915_170454.jpg
Dark band on gradient (A3 size)

Unfortunately I'm out of cyan, so it'll be next week before I can confirm whether this issue is only present with black!

I have tried running the LSU scan, checking the fuser (and gently cleaning where there was some muck), cleaning all the charger rollers, and the developer rollers.

Could anyone suggest anything else I can try? I have tried searching the forums, but haven't had much luck finding a fix.

I appreciate any help you can provide!

I should note that the printer has done less than 20k.

[Drivee]

Issues on white (2 lines and dots) are coming from OPC, I think is black ones if I see that alright. For start I would change K OPC. Or before everything, try to switch K for M and check results. I am almost sure that you need to replace DEV and OPC on K.
Wait also for more answers from people which know that printer better than me..

[blackcat4866]

The thing that I find intriguing is the fact that the dark band is in the feed direction, and it's not a straight line. I suspect that you'll find something foreign in there. It might be a scrap of paper on top of the primary transfer belt (not uncommon). It might be something tangled in the drum unit ... but whatever it is, I don't think that it's an integral part of the machine, and it's moving around. =^..^=

[missbat]

You were both right!! Thank you so much!!!

The small lines were a mark on the drum. And the blurring/dark band was caused by a small bit of debris trapped on the bottom side of the transfer belt.

Thank you for your quick replies and I hope this post can help others in the future.