Shared Knowledge
“Temperature Sensor Replacement”
“Maytag Self-Clean Electric Wall Oven”
27 December 2005
Updated 7 October 2008
In my home I have a Maytag Self-Clean Electric Wall Oven, model CWE900, which is mounted in the kitchen cabinetry. Recently, the clock module on the oven began emitting a beeping tone and the LCD display read “F4”. Of course, the User Guide with the oven does not provide any information on fault codes and thus I began an Internet search to determine what the fault code “F4” meant.
Fault Codes Check\Repair
F1 Usually a bad touch pad or clock assembly
F2 Usually a stuck relay (525F bake, 640F broil or 900
clean)
F3 Replace oven temperature sensor
F4 Replace oven temperature sensor
F5 Replace electronic range control
F6 Unplug for 2 minutes, should clear problem
F7 Replace touchpad or clock assembly
F8 Replace touchpad assembly
F9 Unlock door & check switches or clock assembly
F10 Remove power and call service technician.
In my case, with an “F4” showing, I had reason to believe the temperature sensor in the oven was either open or shorted.
To repair this Maytag oven, I did the following, which should be similar for your wall or cabinetry mounted oven:
- Turn off power breaker to the oven. As oven is 240 volts, it should have a double breaker associated with it in your breaker box. Once you have turned the breaker off, check that the oven is really off by seeing if the clock is functioning or not. Do not proceed until the oven is disconnected from power.
- Remove the door. You do this by opening the door about 15 degrees and then pulling straight up. The door is heavy so if you are small, you might need a second person to help with this. Do not lift by handle on the front of door. Instead grasp on both sides of the door.
- Now look along the oven wall or cabinetry face trim for screws, which hold the oven in place. In my case, there are 2 drywall type screws on either side of the oven door, screwed into the cabinetry. As the oven actually sits on a 2X4 inch base inside the cabinet bay, the screws through the oven face trim into the cabinetry really have no weight on them and are for securing the oven from moving forwards only. Remove all screws you find.
- Now use the door levers and pull the entire oven unit towards you. Although it is heavy, it is not that heavy and should pull easily. If it does not want to pull easily, check that you have not missed any screws holding the oven to the cabinetry or wall.
- Pull the oven out of the wall or cabinetry far enough to use a flashlight to check what sort of electrical connection you have. In my case, the oven actually has a cable and plug on it, which mates to a female 240-volt connector on the back wall. The point here is that you want enough cable to pull the entire unit out of the wall or cabinet to work on it. If the oven will unplug, unplug it.
- Place a rug or blanket on the floor in front of the oven and then pull the oven completely out of the wall or cabinet bay it is in and position it on the rug or blanket.
- Now, using a flashlight, look inside the oven in the upper right-handed corner and you will see a probe sticking out of the back oven wall, held in place by 2 screws. Remove the 2 screws holding the temperature sensor in place.
- Go to the back of the oven and you should find a metal cover over the area where the temperature sensor is mounted to the back wall. Remove the screws holding this cover in place. You will now see the wire coming from the temperature sensor inside the oven through the back wall of the oven to a connector, which is then connected to a wire, which makes its way on up on the right side of the oven. Unplug the temperature sensor from the oven-mounted cable. Flashlight the inside of the oven and remove the defective temperature sensor completely from the oven.
- Remove new temperature sensor from package and place inside oven and feed wire through hole in the back wall of the oven. Go to the back of the oven and search around with your finger or a flat blade screwdriver for the temperature sensor wire. Once you have the temperature sensor wire through the rear wall of the oven, connect it to the wire with the connector. Now back to inside the oven and using the 2 screws you removed when you removed the defective temperature sensor, mount the new temperature sensor to the oven’s back wall.
- Back to the rear of the oven and replace the cover, which fits over where the temperature sensor wire comes out of the oven’s back wall.
- If you are confident enough, you can restore power to the unit and holding the door switch, which is on the right side of the oven, pushed in or “door closed”, turn on bake or some other heating function. If the temperature sensor was really your problem, you should no longer see a “F4” in the clock display. Press, “Cancel”, and turn off the circuit breaker to the oven.
- Now push oven back into wall or cabinetry bay, slowly. Once you have pushed the oven all the way in, use the screws you removed from the oven trim to attach the oven to the wall or adjoining cabinets.
- Replace door. Again, hold door over door levers and gently lower the door into place.
- Restore power at the circuit breaker.
Although what is defined above might seem specific to my particular oven, I suspect you will have to do something very similar for any wall or cabinet mounted oven.
Finally, I am sure when you were reading along, you came to the paragraph about installing the new sensor or whatever part you need to replace in your oven and said to yourself, and where do I get this part? In my case, as I had to do an Internet search to determine the fault codes for my oven, after I found the codes, which by the way, were not on the Maytag Internet site, I began a search using “Maytag CWE900”, which is the model number of my oven. Using this search, nothing came up of value. I then went to the Maytag site and tried a search right on the site and initially I got no results. Understanding that the oven is now 14 years old, I was not surprised but did not give up, as it has been my experience with various web sites that sometimes the information you want is there but you have to dig around for it. And so, eventually, I did find my model number and diagrams of the oven showing all the parts. I think I could have ordered from Maytag but did not want to wait for mail or UPS delivery, so with the model number, series, and serial number of my oven, I headed off to my local appliance parts dealer, Tribles. Tribles now has a web site and you can order most or all parts from them. I think out of maybe 50 times I have to the store to get replacement parts, they have not had the part in stock or could not get the part exactly 2 times! Interestingly enough, at Tribles, my model number did not come up on their microfiche reader but when I said I had found the part on the Internet, the parts counter fellow took me to a PC connected to the Internet setting on Sears Parts site and typing in my model number, he quickly found all parts available for my oven, to include the temperature sensor I need and the part number listed on Sear’s web site is the exact part number apparently used by Maytag and all appliance repair parts stores. So, with the part number off the Sears site, he quickly found the part I needed or nearly so as I have a series 8 oven and the only sensors he could find where either for series 0 or series 2 and he confirmed what I had already read on the web that you go with the series closest to your series appliance.
Bottom line, parts are available but you must know model number and serial number of your appliance and you might have to do some digging. Sears Parts might be a good place to start.