For the last year or so the ice maker on my Kitchenaid side by side has intermittenly dispensed ice. It makes ice just fine, but when you put a cup under it and push the button the flap opens, but the auger does not turn to push out the ice. It worked intermittenly for a while, but now the auger has stopped working all together. Before I could get it to work if I opened the freezer door and lifted up the ice container (door mounted) and set it back down into the door. Then it got worse so I would dump all the ice in the bucket and wash it out (thaw it out), let it dry then replace it and it would work again.

Then when it stopped working all together (auger only) I opened the door and took the ice bucket out, pushed in the both door sensors (both the one that senses that the ice bucket is there and the door light button and then pushed the ice button. The drive gear worked so I replaced the bucket and tried it with ice. The auger both crushed ice and dispensed ice cubes, but then stopped working again after a couple uses. It does not appear to be jammed at all so I don't know if it is some sort of sensor that is faulty or what. It appears you cannot unscrew anything to open the door housing to look at the gears so I cannot tell if the gears are worn or if a sensor is bad.

Please help me diagnose the problem so I can either replace the needed part or fix it without replacing anything. I am very mechanically inclined so it would not be a problem for me to fix the unit myself.

Thank You,

Weather25

Sounds like it is losing power to the motor- pull out your wiring diagram and see what sensors are in line with it- door switch, the button you push for ice, etc. There are usually only these two switches. When the auger stops working, do you still hear the motor for the auger?

Tape down the door switch/light switch, and try it- like when you manually held the switch shut and the motor came on. Might be the door switch... what does the wiring diagram say?

wiring diagram should be either behind the front grille or behind the black cardboard panel on the back. looks like you have a couple of circuit boards that control your dispenser. the owner's manual says something about a flipper switch that the ice bin activates. if all your door sensors and things are working (i think there are three- door/light switch, ice bin switch, and button that you push), there culd be a problem with a control board, or maybe a loose connection. you can unplug the motor and see if it has power going to it when it should. if so, the motor is no good, but they rarely fail, in my experience. look at the parts breakdown on this website, and you can find all the components.

I figured out how to get the ice dispenser cover off (which ended up being pretty easy) and I checked all the connections. I took the dispenser motor out and everything seemed to be O.K. I put everything together and tried it. It dispensed ice but when I changed it to crushed ice it worked for about 5 seconds and then quit. I put a wrench on the shaft of the motor to see if it would move and it seemed to be hung up then broke loose. I tried it again and it appears as though as long as I only dispense ice cubes it continues to work, but as soon as you change to crushed ice the motor gets overwhelmed and quits working. I think it is probably a problem with the motor since I am apparently getting power to the motor from the circuit board. The other probably could be the circuit board kicking out to soon under load. I am not sure how you would check that. I reviewed the wiring diagram and they even had a diagnosis system I was able to run through on the LED screen, but the only thing it does not check is the dispenser motor. I am not sure where to go from here.