Deciphering error F16 (E16) on a Bosch washing machine: causes of malfunction, solutions

We closed the hatch door, pressed “Start”, and instead of tak­ing water, the dis­play showed error F16. What to do? What does error F16 (E16) mean in a Bosch wash­ing machine? How to fix the prob­lem your­self? You will find answers to all these ques­tions in this arti­cle.

Error decoding

Error code F16 on the dis­play of the Bosh wash­ing machine informs that the hatch of the wash­ing machine is not closed or that some­thing is pre­vent­ing it from clos­ing. Error F16 can be caused by a mal­func­tion or mal­func­tion in the con­trol sys­tem of the wash­ing machine, for exam­ple, a break­down of the lock­ing device, hatch lock mod­ule or con­trol mod­ule. In most cas­es, such an error indi­cates pre­cise­ly the pres­ence of mal­func­tions in one of the sys­tems of the wash­ing machine. To iden­ti­fy pri­ma­ry faults, you can make a pri­ma­ry diag­no­sis, which does not require pro­fes­sion­al knowl­edge.

A sim­i­lar prob­lem on wash­ing machines with­out a dis­play will be indi­cat­ed by a flash­ing light bulb — an indi­ca­tor of rev­o­lu­tions at 1000 or 800.

What caused the malfunction

• First of all, you need to check whether the hatch door is real­ly closed. Regroup the laun­dry, check if there is any­thing obstruct­ing the clos­ing of the door and then try to push the load­ing door tighter until you hear a click­ing sound when clos­ing;
• check the lock hole — per­haps there is a block­age or for­eign objects in it. Garbage can be removed with an ordi­nary tooth­pick, dirt is cleaned with a cot­ton swab dipped in alco­hol or vod­ka;
• check the side hinges hold­ing the load­ing hatch — due to phys­i­cal impact, they may be dam­aged or skewed;

• the prob­lem may be caused by the dis­place­ment of the lock­ing tongue — pay atten­tion to whether it gets into the lock when the door is closed;

• the cause of the prob­lem may be a fail­ure in the con­trol mod­ule — in this case, you will need to unplug the wash­ing machine from the mains for 20–30 min­utes. Then con­nect the machine to the mains and try to start the wash­ing pro­gram again. If the cause was a one-time fail­ure in the con­trol mod­ule, the error indi­ca­tor will no longer be dis­played after a reboot.

If the above rec­om­men­da­tions did not solve the prob­lem, you need to check the wash­ing machine for mechan­i­cal prob­lems.

Malfunctions in the hatch door mechanisms

• The side hinges are sag­ging or skewed, the latch does not fit into the hole for the tongue due to the incor­rect posi­tion of the door. Over time, or due to the impact of a large weight on the door, this prob­lem may occur. In this case, you can inde­pen­dent­ly tight­en the bolts hold­ing the side hinges so that the door snaps into place. In case of mechan­i­cal dam­age, a com­plete replace­ment of the hinges will be required;
• the plas­tic door guide has become unus­able, it is not fixed in the lock hole — in this case, it is nec­es­sary to dis­as­sem­ble the car door, most like­ly, the part will need to be replaced;
• in case of incor­rect oper­a­tion of the fix­ing tongue, it is nec­es­sary to dis­as­sem­ble the hatch door and check the posi­tion of the rod intend­ed for fix­ing the tongue. You can put the stem back in its orig­i­nal place; in case of dam­age, it will need to be replaced.

Electronics problems

If the load­ing door of the wash­ing machine is tight­ly closed, and error F16 still appears on the dis­play and the wash­ing pro­gram does not start, then there are prob­lems with the elec­tron­ics.

• Sun­roof block­ing device defec­tive. UBL con­sists of plates that expand under the influ­ence of elec­tric­i­ty and there­by con­tribute to the block­ing of the door. The plates may be worn out, in which case it is nec­es­sary to replace them or the lock­ing device as a whole.
• Worn or dam­aged wiringcon­nect­ing the con­trol mod­ule and the hatch block­ing mod­ule, as a result, the block­ing device is de-ener­gized. First of all, you need to check the wiring for breaks, clean it. To do this, you will need to par­tial­ly dis­as­sem­ble the machine, in the absence of the nec­es­sary skills, it is bet­ter to entrust this to spe­cial­ists. If dam­age to the integri­ty of the wiring is found, it will need to be replaced.
• Faulty con­trol mod­ule — to deter­mine this, you will need to make a com­plete diag­no­sis of the board using a mul­ti­me­ter. The elec­tron­ic mod­ule is the most sen­si­tive part of the wash­ing machine and must be han­dled with care. You may need to flash the mod­ule, sol­der the con­tacts, or com­plete­ly replace the board.

If you do not have the appro­pri­ate knowl­edge and qual­i­fi­ca­tions, it is bet­ter to entrust the diag­no­sis and repair of mal­func­tions to spe­cial­ists in order to avoid unnec­es­sary mon­ey and time costs.

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