Canon MP530 "leaking" ink - repair or replace?

[Mike S.]

My sister has a 1.5 year old Canon MP530 all-in-one which had moderately
heavy use. She asked me to troubleshoot a problem that Canon tech support
could not figure out.

The printer is normally powered off. After being powered on, the first 2-3
printed sheets have a dark lengthwise black smear on the BACK (non-printed)
surface which bleeds through the paper, and slowly fades as more pages
are printed.

Looking at a page coming out of the printer, I noticed black ink on one of
the rubber exit rollers that corresponded to the smear. The only way that
ink could get there was from the printhead, so I removed the ink tanks and
examined the printhead.

There is black ink oozing from in between the layers of the print head
housing, which is dripping onto the feed roller. I surmise that this
only happens when the printer is powered up because of the higher pressure
used when the initialization sequence runs.

So it looks like the print head is the problem. The printer is out of
warranty. What's the cost of a new printhead these days - or is it more
economical to just replace? She has a large stock of PGI-5 and CLI-8 ink
cartridges that sh'd like not to throw away.

 

[measekite]

Is she and had she always used Canon ink?

Mike S. wrote:

My sister has a 1.5 year old Canon MP530 all-in-one which had moderately heavy use. She asked me to troubleshoot a problem that Canon tech support could not figure out. The printer is normally powered off. After being powered on, the first 2-3 printed sheets have a dark lengthwise black smear on the BACK (non-printed) surface which bleeds through the paper, and slowly fades as more pages are printed. Looking at a page coming out of the printer, I noticed black ink on one of the rubber exit rollers that corresponded to the smear. The only way that ink could get there was from the printhead, so I removed the ink tanks and examined the printhead. There is black ink oozing from in between the layers of the print head housing, which is dripping onto the feed roller. I surmise that this only happens when the printer is powered up because of the higher pressure used when the initialization sequence runs. So it looks like the print head is the problem. The printer is out of warranty. What's the cost of a new printhead these days - or is it more economical to just replace? She has a large stock of PGI-5 and CLI-8 ink cartridges that sh'd like not to throw away.

 

[Mike S.]

I also vote for a bad ink tank.

Thanks to you and Tony for the suggestion. On my next visit over there
I'll clean everything out once again and try a new ink tank.

BTW we have cleaned the roller multiple times. Every time the printer is
switched on and does its initialization sequence, the roller gets fouled
all over again.

 

[Mike S.]

Cleaning the roller may fix this, if not then one of the cartridges may have a
poor seal. It is more likely that there is a cartridge seal problem (the part
of the cartridge where the ink is drawn into the printhead) than a problem with
the prinhthead itself. If there are several spare cartridges available I
recommend cleaning the roller, removing the printhead and carefully cleaning
any ink from the area where the nozzles are without touching the nozzles
themselves, clean any ink from inside the printhead housing and then putting
new cartridges in place. You should be able to clean the rollers with a soft
dry cloth slightly dampened with water. Good luck.

Thanks for the suggestion. She does have spare cartridges so I guess it
couldn't hurt to try a new one.

I should note though, that the inside of the printhead housing (where the
cartridges sit) is 100% clean without any stray ink. The oozing black ink
is all on the bottom, at the edge where the phenolic circuit board is
bonded to the black plastic housing.

We've cleaned the roller multiple times. Every time the printer initializes
it gets fouled again.

 

[Michael J Davis]

Thanks for the suggestion. She does have spare cartridges so I guess it
couldn't hurt to try a new one.

I should note though, that the inside of the printhead housing (where the
cartridges sit) is 100% clean without any stray ink. The oozing black ink
is all on the bottom, at the edge where the phenolic circuit board is
bonded to the black plastic housing.

We've cleaned the roller multiple times. Every time the printer initializes
it gets fouled again.

I'm not familiar with that model, but my S9000 has a large blotter
underneath that absorbs surplus ink (overspray and that generated by
head cleaning). When this gets full it can be a bit messy and the
overflow spread about.

There is a warning when the m/c detects that this is full, but it may
not have triggered in yet.

Just a thought.

Mike

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Michael J Davis
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[Mike S.]

I'm not familiar with that model, but my S9000 has a large blotter
underneath that absorbs surplus ink (overspray and that generated by
head cleaning). When this gets full it can be a bit messy and the
overflow spread about.

There is a warning when the m/c detects that this is full, but it may
not have triggered in yet.

Just a thought.

Yep, thanks. Blotted all the waste areas with paper towel so that none is
wet or overflowing. Actually, that was my very first step, but I omitted
it from the original post as it was getting long anyway.

 

[Mike S.]

A long shot. Are those cartridges Canon or brand X?

Genuine Canon.