Tearing apart my Miele S5210 vacuum cleaner

December 29th, 2009

This is my vacuum cleaner.

mieles5210 Miele S5210.

It’s a Miele S5210. It’s a very, very good vacuum cleaner. Well, it was until the point that it broke! Actually I was somewhat responsible for that. For a little while now I have been restoring a car (OK, almost 6 years but I am nearly done – www.asciimaton.co.nz/pics). After weeks of filling and sanding of filler I finally sent it off to the panel beaters to be painted. This left me with a garage full of sanding dust. I swept up what I could the used the vacuum to clean up the rest. Unfortunately your average house vacuum isn’t really designed to handle lots of very, very fine filler dust. I ended up clogging it up and the motor stopped running smoothly and instead started stuttering. I needed to take the vacuum cleaner apart to clean it and remove all the dust so it would run properly again. What follows is the procedure I used to take the vacuum cleaner apart. I imagine the process is probably similar to other Miele vacuum cleaner models.

I was inspired to do this page after I found the following page online for a different Miele model (a Miele s300): http://www.sannerud.com/house/miele.html

You don’t need many tools to take the vacuum cleaner apart. Just a Torx T20 driver and a small flat screwdriver to push on the plastic clips that holds the parts together. All the screws used to hold it together are the same. The Torx bit shown here is actually a tamper proof Torx bit with a hole in the middle but it works fine on the screws. Click on any of the pictures for a larger view.

torx20 Torx screw and T20 Torx driver bit.

First unplug the vacuum cleaner and remove the bag and all the filters. The small silver honeycomb filter just clips in place. Remove this so you can then remove the lid.

removinglid The clips holding the lid on.

The lid just slides onto the hinges and two small square clips hold it in place as shown above. Depress the small squares and then slide the lid off the hinges.

honeycombfilter Large honeycomb filter.

The large honeycomb filter is also just clipped in place. Carefully push back the two clips shown circled above and the filter should come out.

rearplastic Rear plastic piece.

The plastic piece at the rear between the two buttons is also just held in place by clips. Brute force will remove this. Just yank it upwards and it will pop loose.

speedselector1 Removing the speed selector.

With the rear cover removed you should see two screws holding the speed selector part in place. Remove these.

speedselector2 Clips holding speed selector in place.

With the two screws removed the speed selector can be removed by pushing in the small clips that hold the front of it in place and lifting it off. This piece just contains the knob that controls the speed. The knob has a stalk that sticks down underneath it that fits into a selector switch on the electronics board.

topcover Top cover screws.

The top cover is held in place with four screws shown, two at the front and two down deep holes in front of each button. Undo these then the top cover should lift off.

electronicsboard1 Top cover removed.

electronicsboard2 Electronics board plug.

With the top cover removed you can see the electronics board. It’s pretty simple really and doesn’t have much on it. The board should be free to pull off now. The only thing holding it in place is the connector shown above. Simply unplug this connector and the board will lift off.

motorcover Inner cover.

With the electronics board removed you should be able to see the screws holding the inner cover in place. There are three at the back and one in the centre as shown above. Remove all these screws.

coverclips Clips holding inner cover.

As well as the four screws there is a clip either side of the cover on the sides of the vacuum. You can simply pop these apart by hand then the inner cover should lift off. There is a small rubber hose that goes between the cover and the cord retractor mechanism which you also need to disconnect from the cover (it will probably just fall off anyway).

coverremovedInner cover removed.

With the inner cover removed you can now remove the motor (which has a foam pad over it) and the cord retracting mechanism. The only trick here is to unplug the connector that joins the two together.

motorplug Motor connector.

The motor and cord retractor will simply lift out. I gave everything a good cleaning to get all the dust out. I used my air compressor to blow it all clean. With all the dust removed from the motor I sprayed it’s brushes with electrical contact cleaner. I didn’t go as far as dismantling the motor itself (March 2010 – OK, I did eventually See below!).

brushes Contact cleaner for the brushes.

The brushes are either side of the motor and I simply sprayed cleaner into the hole at back of them.

After letting the contact cleaner dry I put the motor, cord retractor and electronics boards temporarily back in place the tested the vacuum. You need to be VERY careful doing this as nothing is properly attached and there are exposed mains connections that will bit you it you touch them (don’t ask how I know). Also the vacuum motor is extremely loud when not encased in plastic!

Once everything was cleaned and working again reassembling the vacuum cleaner is basically the revers of taking it apart. Make sure you reattach the small rubber hose and also make sure the cord and plug are free and don’t get caught when screwing all the pieces of the case back together.

After my cleaning and spraying the motor with contact cleaner the vacuum is working nicely again. I know now I should really get a nice shop vac for cleaning the garage and leave the Miele for purely domestic duties!

I can really recommend these vacuums. They are good value for money and very powerful. And now, having seen how they look inside, I can say they are very nice quality too.

Update March 2010.

I have had a few people comment that this page was useful so I decided to post the second part of my vacuum cleaning story in case people find this further detail helpful.

My cleaned up vacuum worked well for a little while but then the motor started stuttering again until eventually it stopped running altogether. Another tear down was in order. This time right down to the motor itself. Again the nice design of the Miele made this an easy job to tackle.

First you need to remove the motor from the vacuum as described above. Then carefully tap off the metal shield on the end of the motor exposing the blower fan. Next remove the nut holding the blower fan in place. Now it was a few months ago that I did this but from memory the nut is a reverse threaded one, i.e. turn it clockwise to undo it. This allows you to pull off the aluminium blower and the flat spacer washer.

IMG_7605_1 Nut and blower removed.

Next you can lift out the two carbon motor brushes. These are simply held in with spade connectors so you can just pull them straight out. In the picture below you can see the female spade socket on the face of the stator housing.

IMG_7608_1 One brush already removed. The other still in place.

The brushes are nice and long so should last a very long time.You can see the long male spade connector on the bottom of the brass housing. You can also see how despite my previous cleaning this brush is still covered in sanding dust. If I didn’t mention it above I should say don’t sand filler off a car (http://asciimation.co.nz/pics/page18.html) then use this vacuum to collect the dust!

IMG_7606_1 Nice brush. Boom! Boom!

With the brushes removed (and cleaned up with electrical cleaner) you can remove the stator. There is a metal spring clip that holds it in place. If you press this down the stator should then slide out.

IMG_7610_1 Spring clip holding stator down.

The electronic controller is attached to the stator and will come put with it. You can see the top of a TO220 type device sticking out of the top of the plastic housing. We get to that in a minute. The inside of the stator and housing were both covered in the sanding dust so I cleaned these up as well.

IMG_7611_1 Stator removed. Note the electronics are still attached.

Next you can carefully pull out the rotor. This has bearings on each end and the lower bearing is a press fit into the housing. You need to carefully pull this out. The rotor will come out in one piece. Be careful not to lose the little flat spring washer though.

IMG_7612_1 Rotor removed.

The observant of you will probably have noticed one of the problems with the motor. The commutator on the end of the rotor, that ring of copper strips the brushes rub against, are filthy and scored. To fix this I carefully mounted the rotor in my mini-lathe. You only need to grip it very lightly in the three jaw chuck. I made sure it was running true and turned it on. I then used some fine wet and dry sandpaper folded into a long strip to carefully sand down the commutator.

IMG_7614_1 Rotor mounted in lathe.

I didn’t try to get the commutator perfectly smooth as I didn’t want to sand too much away. It still has a few small scores around it but it doesn’t need to be perfect. The deep scoring is actually where the edges of the brushes are in contact with the commutator so the brush is in contact with smooth copper on most of it’s face.

IMG_7615_1_1 Commutator after sanding.

Next I cleaned up the aluminium blower which was quite clogged with dust. A bit of electrical cleaner and a poke around the fins with a long cable tie did the trick.

IMG_7617_1

After doing all this and cleaning everything to remove all the dust I reassembled the motor. Since I had given it a good clean with electrical cleaner I left the motor on top of my dark coloured garage roof to make sure it was fully dry before trying to run it again. I wanted to make sure all the cleaner had evaporated out of the motor and windings.

Unfortunately after putting it back in the vacuum cleaner and reassembling everything (with a little Loctite around the rotor bearing where it pressed into the housing) the motor was still dead! I had to take it apart again. This time I removed the motor, opened that up and removed the motor electronics. Again thanks to nice design this module just unclips since it is held in place with spade connectors.

IMG_7625_1 Motor electronics.

The electronics on the motor are incredible simple. Basically it’s just a TRIAC and what I think is a thermal cutout device.

IMG_7626_1 TRIAC and thermal cutout thingy?

About now the problem was pretty obvious. This TRIAC was burned out! A close inspection and a little prodding showed that TRIAC was burned out. Two of the legs were not even connected to the body anymore.

IMG_7628_1 Well there’s your problem!

I am not sure why this happened. I am guessing a combination of a badly connecting and arcing commutator and a motor clogged with sanding dust ended up cooking things. The TRIAC itself is a T2550h 600T which is a 25 amp TRIAC. These are available in NZ but not from the easy places like Jaycar or Dick Head Smith (who don’t really do electronics anymore despite their name). You can probably get them from the bigger suppliers like Farnell or RS but they would cost a bomb and you might not be able to buy just one. So I looked on eBay and found someone in the UK sells them for just a couple of quid. I ordered one of them.

This is the data sheet for this particular part: http://www.datasheetcatalog.org/datasheet/stmicroelectronics/6697.pdf

Once that arrived a week or so later it was a simple matter to unsolder the dead part and solder in the new TRIAC. I reassbmbled everything again (after this many time apart you get good at this bit) and finally everything was working again!

All that was actually done several months ago and the vacuum cleaner is still working happily now. I know these things aren’t supposed to be customer serviceable but it is nice to see that they are engineered in a way that means a customer with the right skills can successfully get in there and fix things.

62 Responses to “Tearing apart my Miele S5210 vacuum cleaner”

  1. Michelle Says:

    Hey Simon,

    This dude is trying to get into contact with you.

  2. steve barker Says:

    Hi
    I found your site too late (it’s already in bits.I also went a step or 2 farther mine had done slightly more than complain a little and I believe the speed controller is toast. I did strip the motor to clean it I also took readings across the coils which gave readings of 4-10 ohms on the rotor the 2 out side spade connectors and 67ohms on the stator I’ve yet to prove the motor ok but it fits with what i would expect.I now wait for the spare to arrive £60 so an expensive lesson

  3. Eoin Says:

    Spot on. Had been looking for a while and only found your site today. Followed it to the letter and turns out that the underside of the on/off button had been damaged and wasn’t making contact with the switch underneath. Thanks to you, we are leaving the button switched on and will use the plug to switch it on and off – until we get the new part. Thanks for your endeavour in putting the detail up on the net.

  4. Niels Peter Says:

    Thanx for the efford. It helped me pull my machine apart and I found out, that my cord retractor has been broken and I don’t seem to be able to fix it – but your site helped me pull the stuff apart.

    /NIP

  5. Henry Says:

    The reason for the legs having broken off the triac body is likely to be the years of exposure to vibration whenever the vacuum cleaner’s motor was running. To solve this, glue the body of the triac down so it can’t vibrate. Use Ados F2 or neutral cure silicone sealant.

  6. Nick Korbakis Says:

    Miele vacuums suck
    Actually they don’t suck at all
    Volta lastest me 14 years
    Miele lastest me 14 months
    Now Miele doesn’t want to honour the warranty
    After sales service stinks
    You can’t complain about it because there is no after sales service
    Trust me DO NOT buy Miele
    Miele technician is claiming that the vacuum was used without a bag ( even I showed them the genuine bags purchased from Godfreys ) there is excessive dust in the motor and has failed?
    My question is that vacuum does not seal correctly because we only use it in the house
    now they shrug their shoulders
    “sorry can’t do anything more”

  7. Nick Korbakis Says:

    PS the notes and instructions in your website are very thourough. Better than a genuine instruction/workshop manual.
    Great work

  8. Simon Says:

    If you are in New Zealand I would say you can ask them to sort it out under the consumer guarantees act.

    http://www.consumer.org.nz/reports/consumer-guarantees-act/putting-it-right

    14 months for a vacuum cleaner doesn’t sound fit for purpose to me!

  9. bernie Says:

    This was a great help. I had the same problem, bag burst then after time vacuum became so noisy I thought the bearings had gone, eventually it died. I pulled it apart, inspected the TRIAC, and sure enough the solder on one leg had melted and there was a dry joint. I tested the TRIAC, which tested OK, so re-soldered it, cleaned up the dust, cleaned out the inside of the fan blades that were clogged with compacted dust (dust was like hardboard), and walla!! it goes and sounds just like new!!!! To test TRIAC follow instructions at the end of this article http://www.ab.com/support/abdrives/documentation/fb/1012.pdf

    PS, id recommend the more expensive Miele dust bags. It was a cheap bag that burst. The Miele bags are way stronger and they hold at least twice the dust before loosing suction power.

  10. Chris Says:

    Excellent write up…I was able to take my Callisto apart to do some preventative maintenance. And didn’t break anything in the process. I wasn’t expecting to see such complexly molded parts after taking apart my old (spare) Eureka the weekend before but I guess that’s what separates a cheaply made vac from a well made one.

  11. Diane Says:

    Great help when one of the lid hinges slipped off. Your step-by-step pics and instructions saved the day. It’s always simple when you know how.

  12. Sebastian Says:

    Just wanted to clean out all that brick dust out of my S5210 after demolishing a chimney. (New house in French countryside). Your site was EXACTLY what I was looking for. Excellent work.

  13. Simon Says:

    Glad to help!

  14. Frank Says:

    Hi,

    Thanks for the write up and pics. I’m up to the part on the motor where I turned the nut clockwise, removed the blower… now how do I separate the two white plastic housing parts? The part right under the blower, is it being held together by force or something else? How did you separate them?

    Thanks.

  15. Frank Says:

    I guess it’s held together by force :)
    I took the motor apart and found that the part that’s causing the noise, the reason I am doing this, is coming from the press-fit bearings at the bottom of the rotor. How do I lubricate these sealed bearing to keep it from sounding like a jet?

  16. joe dirt Says:

    great thread mate thanks a million. i pulled my miele to bits and couldnt find an obvious problem, so pulled the motor apart too and it turns out the bottom bearing on the rotor had collapsed and barely let it turn. stuffed if I can find where to get a replacement bearing, you wouldnt have come across anywhere on your travels would you?

  17. Simon Says:

    Not sure off the top of my head sorry. Best bet is take the dodgy one to a bearing place and get a replacement off them. In New Zealand you could try Saeco bearings: http://www.saeco.co.nz/

    They could measure it for you and find a replacement.

  18. Poida Says:

    Thanks for the write up. Great work!!

  19. Leo Schrader Says:

    Hi guys,

    a question from the other side of the world…….
    about the engine electronics, the other part, so not the Triac, what is that for?
    I unoftunately trashed the motor of my vacuumcleaner (miele s5210) with it’s electronics still attached to it. While trying to get the bottom bearing off, I wrecked it I’m afraid.
    I can get another motor (not the same Model) but it doesn’t have the same electronics in it’s connector.
    It seems that if i just replace the engine with a non original it will blow the electronics of the vacuumcleaner as a whole.
    Therfor I want to integrate a fine piece of homemade electronics into it and need to know the specifics of the other part showing on the pictures.

    Anybody?
    Kind regards,
    Leo
    Amsterdam

  20. leo schrader Says:

    Hi again there on the other side of the world!
    Posted yesterday, but can’t seem to find the post.
    Maybe I’, not allowed to?
    Anyway, I”LL try aagin:
    looking for the make of the “thingy”
    I trashed the old 2200W motor because I wrecked it while trying to release the bottom bearing.
    I can get a replacement 2000W motor but it doesn’t include the motor electronics. I found the triac (thanks for that!) but still need the other part.

    could anybody………?! Hope so.

    kind regards,
    Leo
    Amsterdam

  21. Simon Says:

    Hi Leo, sorry I have to manually approve comments and was a bit slow. I don’t know what the other part actually is. Some kind of thermal cutout I think. But I don’t know where you could get one from. If you’re replacing the original motor with a less powerful one then you might be fine using the old electronics? I’m not really an expert but a TRIAC rated for the more powerful motor will certainly be fine for the lower powered one I think.

  22. Tim Says:

    Thank you so much mate!! Brilliant step by step guide. I’m a total washout at DIY which makes it even more impressive!! I was able to take the hoover appart and repair a frayed power cable. The hoover is working as good as ever!! Saved me buying another hoover. Well done!!

  23. Fernando Says:

    Great page!
    Well, my broken one is a german model s536. I guess carbon brushes are gone (11 years old). I could disassemble it but don’t know how to get to those brushes, it seems the motor is a little different. Beside the fact i cannot get Miele parts here in Brazil. My wife will go to Germany soon and will bring new ones. It will take a while…Anyway, thank you for your post, it is brilliant!

  24. Fernando Says:

    By the way, have you replaced your carbon brushes?
    Thanks in advance.

  25. Dave Coulson Says:

    Thanks for a first-class tutorial on the Miele S5210. Well done, it saved me a load of time and effort.

    My vacuum cleaner suffered the same fault as yours, and I have found out what caused it in my case. Taking apart the motor, I removed the triac PCB assembly. I noticed that one leg of the fuse had fractured, and there was evidence of sparking across the fracture. Prior to the failure, the vacuum motor had suddenly started making more noise, which turns out to have been due to the intermittent connection through the thermal fuse. After a few minutes, the sparking destroyed the triac and the unit died…but the thermal fuse was still OK! (apart from having one leg sheared off). I was able to repair the sheared leg and replaced the triac, and all is now fine and tickety-boo.

    So the problem in this case was not poor filtering, but cracking of the thermal fuse, probably caused by the vibration. I wonder if the motor manufacturer ever assessed the thermal fuse for vibration susceptibility….

  26. Dave Coulson Says:

    By the way, the “thingy” is a Klixon thermal fuse, rated at 18A. It’s hard to find any equivalent fuses, because you need the high current rating, and nobody seems to make an 18A rated fuse quite as small as this one.

    Here’s a link:
    http://www.klixon.com/klixon/motor-protector-3mp-self.htm

  27. Simon Says:

    No, it wasn’t necessary on mine. I am not sure what would happen when that’s needed. I would probably try to find something similar (from a power tool repairer maybe?) and make it fit.

  28. Merv Says:

    Gteat tutorial. Thanks for putting it together. I used it to fix a jammed cord.

  29. robert Says:

    Thank you, Thank you. After dismantling the whole machine, the motor was still jammed,then I nociced that one of the screws of the motor cover worked itself loose ((????))jamming the blower. I replaced the screws and added lockwashers, cleaned the whole v-cleaner.Now we have a vacum cleaner! Thanks again, My Son in law almost threw the v-c in the garbage.
    The most usefull article in the internet.

  30. Andy P Says:

    Thanks very much was very helpfull all fixed now.
    If you are looking for that TRIAC T2550h 600T it is not made any more so this is the one that i found to replace it and can buy here from RS Australia open to the public too
    Triac,TO220AB,BTA06-600BW
    http://australia.rs-online.com/web/p/thyristor/0659898/?searchTerm=Triac%2CTO220AB%2Cbta06-600bw&relevancy-data=636F3D3126696E3D4931384E44656661756C74266C753D656E266D6D3D6D61746368616C6C7061727469616C26706F3D3926736E3D592673743D44454641554C545F534541524348267573743D54726961632C544F32323041422C62746130362D36303062772673633D592677633D4E4F4E4526

  31. mark Says:

    Great write up with fab photos, just the job. Rebuilt my s5210 after bearings got a bit rumbly! Incidently the same 608ZS bearings as my bosch grinder & roller skates!!!!
    Well made and very easily servicable vac!
    cheers :)

  32. stu Says:

    Great instructions. Had the exact model that one day stopped working. Gave the commutator a sand back to copper colour with sand paper. Now it works great.

    Thanks

  33. bill keogh Says:

    Great post and guide. Took everything apart Triac looks good( nothing broken or burnt) on/off works, brushes loads left on them, cleanerd motor, sanded down commutator etc.
    Powered up and ran ok, on/off worked suction selector worked and then it died!!!
    Cant let it beat me …..any suggestions.
    Thanks

  34. teamsano Says:

    again, thanks for the advice on this, i took the cleaner apart and found the rear bearing was collapsed, and as mentioned it’s the exact same size as a skateboard wheel bearing 608Z , which cost about £1 each. however, getting what was left of the old bearing off the rotor was hard work and in the process i clumsily damaged the winding, cleaner ran for 5 minutes then produced an impressive flume of smoke. i’ll try again later. haha.

  35. TrevTronix Says:

    For what it’s worth, removing a tight-fitting bearing can often be made easier by putting the whole armature in the freezer overnight. The shaft appears to contract slightly more than the bearing shell, making removal a whole lot easier! Great site- nice to see t’internet being used sensibly :-)
    While I’m on, anyone had problems with the motor speed varying, irrespective of the position of the speed control? Bearings, triac soldering etc. all seem OK.
    Thanks for a great resource, TT.

  36. Simon Says:

    With the motor running erratically I would check the state of the commutator. It might be scored or burnt a bit. I had to clean mine up to get the vacuum cleaner running smoothly again. It was a year an a half ago now that I took it all apart and the vacuum cleaner is still running well.

  37. Chris Says:

    Just brilliant… Thanks so much for this post and for the incredible set of instructions and photographs – Just saved me the cost of a new vacuum cleaner! The lady who cleaned for us swallowed up a plastic bag last week and kept on hoovering – it dislodged the hoover bag and the whole inside got swallowed up by the motor, it overheated and just stopped working. Because of your instructions I was able to strip the whole thing down, and once it was all clean, the TRIAD had blown around one leg and come loose on the board. A quick solder (which I hadn’t done since high school) and it was all working again, didn’t even need to replace the component. Thank you SO MUCH!

  38. Al Says:

    Old lady was very upset when hoover packed up- she loved her toy. Filters didn’t get replaced so clocked up motor with dust. Took it apart but worked intermittently – I thought that a front metal cowl was fixed!!! My friend, who had a problem with miele and followed these instructions suggested that I re-disassemble the motor. After proper cleaning works like a dream. Thank you.

  39. Juergen Says:

    Thanks from Germany. There is no description in the Internet in German language.

  40. John C Power Says:

    Any idea how to re-fit the spring loaded plastic cover which covers the attachments ?

  41. Jon Says:

    Rather ironic there is no description anywhere in German, given that it’s a German marque!

    Many thanks to teamsano for his tip about the skateboard bearing. That’s what I need and if it costs £1 – what a result!

  42. gregaiken usa Says:

    i was hoping some of the meile experts here have some insights/comments to make about the following common meile problem – vacuum turned on initially it vacuums at full power, shortly thereafter the machine either stops vacumming or reverts to weakest vacuum setting. you either turn on vacuum again, or press + to increase vacuum and the cycle continues. what might be wrong here? its a VERY COMMON issue that people search for on the major search engines.

  43. James Wyatt Says:

    Super explanation of how to dismantle this Meile vacuum. I was trying to fix the non retracting power cable. The spring had come off, but I’ve no idea jw to fix it back on. Any ideas very gratefully received!

  44. Aidan Bent Says:

    Hi great article on the Miele vacuum cleaner. I have one of these and it’s got much more noisy recently, (sounds like it’s ready for lift off)I think it is to do with the motor, is it relatively easy to dismantle?
    Many thanks

  45. Dylan Says:

    Hi Simon,

    Again as others have said great insite into getting in to the vacuum then the motor. I have a strange fault though. the motor seams to rattle/pop and gives off a strong electrical smell. I just assumed it was some form of debris. but I’ve had it apart twice now and it seems clean, I’ve switch lubed it and checked the TRIAC and resistor and they both look fine. Could it just be a bad contact with between the brushes and the rotor. I’ve cleaned up the rotor as suggested, would it be worth squaring off the brushes (loads left) to reform the curve in the carbon? Thanks.

  46. Simon Says:

    It sounds like it could be a commutator or brush type problem. I think it would be worth a try reshaping the brushes if you have tried everything else. The electrical smell would be from arcing I am guessing.

  47. Dylan Says:

    Thanks Simon, I’ll give that a bash. I have plenty knowledge in electronics, but I have never had a motor apart like this before!

  48. Colin Says:

    Where can you purchase the carbon brushes for the s5210, I have searched the majority of the Spares sites and have not had any luck

  49. Simon Says:

    I don’t know where you can get those exact brushes but what you can do is take one of the old ones to a shop that repairs power tools. They should have something similar. If you get a brush slightly too large you can file or sand them down to fit.

  50. Colin Says:

    Thanks Simon I’ll try your suggestion and let you know howmI get on

    Regards

    colin

  51. Phil Says:

    Hi Simon – fantastic write up.
    Have you or anyone else ever taken the ball bearings off the shaft? If anyone has any ideas I would be happy to hear them.
    Thanks again for the great write up.
    Regards,
    Phil

  52. Simon Says:

    Well, you could make some kind of bearing puller I guess. I have done it for others things in the past. No plans I am afraid. I always just cobble something up when needed.

  53. Scott Says:

    Hi,
    First off, great set of instructions. Way better than I had hoped for!
    So I had a guy in doing some plastering and he used my Meile to tidy up, he even took the bag out and kept using it. Vacuum still works but there’s a really high-pitched whirring noise and a slight smell of burning.
    I’ve stripped down to the motor to remove all the dust but can’t remove the flat spacer washer that goes over the threaded end of the rotor. (its in your image here: http://www.asciimation.co.nz/bb/wpg2?g2_itemId=464)
    I managed to get the rotor out of the housing but getting the brushes back in place will be a pain unless I can seperate the rotor from the plastic part of the blower.
    Any tips on getting that washer off?

    thanks,
    Scott

  54. haby Says:

    My miele vacuum cleaner got water inside while I was cleaning my car which was leaking without realizing and the water was hidden under the carpet. Have you got any idea of what could have been damage inside it? is it a Motor or…..?

    Thank you

  55. Roelandt Says:

    Hi,

    Your writeup surely helped a lot in dismantling our machine.
    I had to open it up but for other symptoms: the motor started making weird noise and a burnt smell appeared.

    I tried cleaning the commutator with light pressure on sandpaper while hooking the motor to a 12 volt car battery. It looked OK, but when hooking it back up to mains power, sparks were flying everywhere. Do you have any idea what a remedy could be?
    If I could find another motor it would cost the proverbial arm and leg….. (as in € 160 Euro’s).

    thanks,
    Roelandt

  56. Martin Says:

    Many thanks for a great set of instructions which were very easy to follow and very comprehensive even down to marking where the torx screws are. Very well done. Stripped and rebuilt my Miele in an hour and a half after someone had used it with no bag in it. Having cleaned the crud off I started the motor up before rebuilding the machine and it whined a bit like an air raid siren. Applied a few drops of oil to the rear bearing and all is silent once more. Rebuilt in a jiffy. Now sending her indoors off to get some filters and vac. bags. it will then be returned to the student rented house with instructions on not to use it without bags. I also have to say how well engineered the build was. Quite amazing at how easily it came apart with only a screwdriver and a torx driver. Full marks to Miele for design.

  57. Simon Says:

    So pleased I found your site, I needed to replace the power cord on my Miele and the description of how to strip the vac and the pictures were perfect. Thank you for publishing this excellent guide. You saved me a huge amount of time trying to figure things out and I am very VERY grateful. Thank you.

  58. Sandy Says:

    So I dropped a screw, no problem, just inverted the cleaner and shook it out.

    “!!!!???” a push-on connector on the floor too. Wait, 2 wires into the motor and a third one dangling out????? Note, the Molex push-on connector had never in its life been crimped !!!!!

    So, with 4 pins where wires go into the motor and 2 connected, the outer 2, where does the third wire go once I’ve soldered on to the uncrimped connector?

    A brilliant website. I tried to give up vacuum cleaner repairing (commercially) 5 decades ago.!!! However children turn up. Worst is my daughter headed 500 miles away taking her lathe with her so how to dress the commutator – Ho humm.

  59. Sandy Says:

    Further to the above I found out it had been in for servicing after it went “bang” and stopped. The service centre had cut the top of the triac board off after the triac had blown up and simply bypassed it. Why the wire was left dangling I’ve no idea. The armature sparks badly (shorted turn?) and the motor smells and only goes at full speed.

  60. Jon Says:

    Hello

    Many thanks for creating this blog post.

    I appreciate it.

    Cheers

    Jon

  61. Anthony Says:

    Thank you from the UK for these clear instructions.

    We too vacced up a lot of fine dust, and our S5380 machine got noisy with poor airflow.

    Your clean up procedure, and clean filters quietened it down and got it breathing again.

    Take extra care when pushing back the two clips holding the speed selector in place, else they bend them permanently.
    Thank you
    Anthony

  62. Trefor Says:

    Hi there

    Super – many thanks!!

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