Chosen Solution
This is a fairly new washer. We’ve had it less than 6 months. Last night I thought I ran a cycle, but it never started. Here’s what now happens: I set the cycle, press start, and close the door.The red light comes on solid, but the washer does not beep. Beeping is the sign that I’ve closed door without pressing start. By turning on the red light but not beeping the washer is acknowledging that I’ve pressed start and closed the door.After a couple of seconds, the red light starts flashing.The cycle never starts. The washer remains in that state indefinitely. I examined the door latch, and it appears to be working correctly. When I trigger the lever, the latch descends. When I press hard on the latch, the latch retracts. When I close the door, the latch clearly engages, but there is a little bit of play. I don’t know if it that play is normal or not. If I hold the door shut by keeping pressure on the door when I close it, the washer behaves normally. At any point if I release the pressure on the door, the cycle will stop, and the red light will begin blinking. If I place a magnet to the left of the left screw that secures the door latch to the door, the washer believes that the door is closed and behaves normally. I used a bit of ferrous metal to test the magnetic area that sits above that screw when the door is closed, and it is indeed still magnetic, though not as strongly magnetic as the magnet I used to test with. I appear to have isolated the problem to the door latch/sensor. Before I go buying parts and replacing things, can anyone give me some confidence about whether I should be replacing the: door latchdoor sensorthe magnetic bit the sensor is supposed to be sensingsomething else, like maybe the door hinges? Thanks!
After doing some poking around online, I was pretty confident the issue was the door latch. I removed the door latch from the washer, and I couldn’t see anything abnormal about it. What was odd, though, was the automatic door opener. There’s a large-ish grey component that the door latch nests in that’s not in the diagram on Sears Parts Direct or in this video on how to replace the door latch on this model. It’s the thing that causes the door to pop open when the cycle completes (and the “pop the door open” option is enabled). The way it works is by extending a plunger that pushes the latch open. That plunger was partially extended, making it very hard to separate the door latch from the opener. Fiddling with the door opener, I was not able to get the plunger to retract. I eventually got the opener apart and was then able to retract the plunger. With the plunger retracted, I put the washer back together, and it works. We’ll see for how long it will continue to work, but so far so good. For the record, the play that I was noticing in the washer door was indeed abnormal.
I shut the door hard pushing in the top corners. Something moved and now it works again. I never figured out what was stuck or preventing a tight latch though.
I held down the start button till the display read 01, but the light wouldn’t stop blinking. I inspected the seal and found food in the corner of the door. After cleaning the gasket and removing the debris it started normally.
WELL….Finally have it working. For how long I do not know. I came across this forum after doing research on BOSCH website on that dreaded red flashing light, but nothing came up. The light reminds me of the back in the day when that was the signal the xbox no longer worked. It was terrifying then as it is today because of the money paid out. We paid about 1700 for this thing because it has auto air. Duuummmbbbb. Im watching it as I type…. worried the red flashing light will go back on. Ive been fiddling around with it while my h sleeps as he refuses to deal with it he gets so mad. So two hours later I figured this out with the help of the forum. Its the %#*@ door. Yep..So I noticed if I pressed on it then it would run. I tried to sneak away after 10 min as my calves were starting to burn, but nooo. It went back on. So I decided to clean both sides of the inside of the door. AND cleaned the seals though I never saw anything there… Then I wiped the top of the door latch even though I didn’t t see anything. THEN I noticed that the door has give. Like I can grab it and move it a bit Side to side…I opened it and closed it a couple times…hard…just for kicks. After that I did a reset. Then I redid my settings. Then closed the door and it seemed to click better this time. And voila. I can go to bed. Its about 11:30 pm so grateful. My brother said stubbornness runs in the family but sometimes its worth it. I am still calling Bosch tomorrow because I have an extended 5 year warranty and they will probably take 4 years getting here…
I had this issue where the door latched, felt secure, but whenever I would try to start a cycle the InfoLight stayed solid for a few seconds and then started flashing and it would never start. If I would hold the door in it would run, but as soon as I would release the pressure it stopped again. I fiddled with everything, but eventually found that a cup handle was extending out the back a bit. I moved that cup handle and it started working. Really confusing that it still wouldn’t work despite the good latch. In any case, just make sure there’s nothing obstructing.
From reading this thread, it seemed likely the problem was with the door when my red light kept flashing and the dishwasher wouldn’t start. It sounded like it was latching okay, so I started to investigate the seals around the door, etc. I noticed that maybe the top rack wasn’t completely flush. The problem turned out to be a mug handle sticking out the back of the top rack keeping it from sitting exactly as it should! Thank goodness I didn’t call in a technician - ha!
Hold the start button down until it reads 0:01, leave it until the red light at the bottom turns off, then power back on, choose a cycle, press start and make sure it beeps, then within 3 seconds and close. That solved it for me.
I just had the same issue. For me this occurred after very cold weather. It seemed the auto air trigger mechanism in the latch area got stuck in the wrong position. I pushed it backwards and it made a loud click. I then also pushed the door firmly closed on both corners and it clicked loudly again and is now working.
