How does one remove front panel to gain access to the drain pump of a Bosch VarioPerfect Serie | 4 model WAN24001GB/19 ?

[Interactive]

My Bosch Bosch VarioPerfect Serie | 4 model WAN24001GB/19  washing machine has started to make rumbling noises when draining and has started to leave the laundry damp, so I am assuming that the drain pipes are blocked or the drain motor is failing. 

I have removed the fluff filter and there is no sign of objects or calcification. The pump vanes can be rotated by finger pressure and they give resistance and then flip rotate 1/8 turn or some such.

I have watched a number of videos on accessing the water pump, but all of the Bosch models featured have had a kick panel, and there is no such thing on my washing machine. I have removed two screws around the fluff filter, and the screw near the detergent scoop, and that had no impact on the solid attachment of the front panel. Following further advice from the internet I have removed the top, and now I am confused by what seems to be an array of attachments of the front panel to the body, and the screws are not accessible unless I remove the control panel, which does not seem to be a trivial exercise.

I would appreciate any help, direction, advice for helping me to resolve this problem, I have limited funds and need to fix this myself.

Thanks in advance.

[Whitegoodshelp]

Hi. It might sound like a daft question but is the washing machine pumping out the water or not? The reason I ask is that your described symptoms can be caused by many things so it could be pointless looking at the pump if it is one of the other problems. If it isn't pumping water, it should leave the drum full of water. Take all the washing out and put on a rinse and spin to observe if it pumps the water out ok or not. 

[Whitegoodshelp]

As this model has no kick panel I expect the control panel and front could need to come off 

[Interactive]

Thank you Andy for your reply.

Yes, it does pump out the water, but it has started to leave the washing damp, and it makes a noisy rumbling, grinding sound in the process of removing water.

After a lengthy battle I did remove the top panel, then the control panel, which revealed some screws holding the front panel, but the front panel was still solidly attached as ever, then I put the machine on a ramp so I could look underneath it, and discovered there were some screws on the bottom, so I removed those, and finally the front panel came loose after some jiggling.

Alas I now have another problem for the final removal.

I have removed the lock from the door, and now the final phase is it to somehow undo a small pipe that feed from the detergent box through a hole in the front panel and then into the door seal of all places. The ribbed pipe goes into a small "l" shaped rubber thing which is held onto the detergent box by a spring clip, which I have undone, but attempting to remove the ribbed pipe from the l shaped rubber connector is incredibly difficult, almost as though it is glued, but what I need to know now is: can I just force the ribbed pipe out of the rubber connect so that I can then thread it through the hole in the front panel and finally release the front panel!

[Interactive]

In the image I sent of the top of the washing machine, you can see the ribbed pipe and the L-shaped rubbed connector which on one end is connected to the detergent box by a spring clip, and the other end into the ribbed pipe.

I was unable to separate the ribbed pipe from the connector, so I had to leave the front panel flapping about in a position that enabled access to the pump, on removing the two pipes to the drain pump I could see that neither had any sort of calcification or other debris. I checked the overflow pipe for blockages by pouring water down it, and it seemed to flow perfectly well.

So, I am to assume the pump is poorly and needs replacing? I haven't checked its resistance. Is this worth doing?

[Whitegoodshelp]

No point checking resistance. If the pump is very noisy and nothing stuck inside, then it probably needs replacing. However, laundry not being spun is only a pump problem if pump isn't pumping away the water. 

[Interactive]

Thanks for your reply again

The laundry is being spun.

I couldn't find any clogs or calcification, so I didn't bother to remove the hose from the drum to the pump to check for problems inside there, I stuck my fingers up there and couldn't feel anything and I crushed the large black hose and it felt empty.

So I have put it all back together, and will do one more wash and see how noisy it is and how well it is removing water again, and I suppose I will have to get a new pump.

Is it worth getting the Bosch genuine part or do the alternatives work as well?

[Interactive]

After some extensive investigating, including removing the back panel unnecessarily, I found the following procedure. All of the screwing side below was done with torx screw driver
1) Follow the procedure for a washing machine with a kick panel, which is to remove two identical screws either side of the pump in the filter box, and the lowest of three screws at the bottom of the detergent box
2) Undo door seal, remove spring
3) Remove the top panel by unscrewing two torx screws at the back
4) Undo two screws by the detergent box, which hold the control panel in place
5) Put the control panel to one side after jiggling the tabs for a bit (this was tricky)
6) With the control panel moved, undo two exposed screws holding the front panel
7) Somehow raise the whole goddamn washing machine to allow access to some hidden screws at the base, which I did with a ramp and blocks to a height of about six inches so that I could use a flexible screwdriver extension to get at the screws and then undo the screws
8 ) Jiggle the thing and deal with the door mechanism falling off, and then remove the door lock mechanism from the front panel as per the usual procedure for Bosch washing machines. 
9) But alas there was one final problem, there is a ribbed pipe feed from the detergent box to the top of the door seal which runs through a hole in the front panel, this ribbed pipe was connected to an L-shaped connector, which proved impossible to separate from the ribbed pipe, so I had to pull the front panel to one side and finally I was able to get at the drain pump.
10) There was then lots of fiddling with hoses and clips. The two hoses to the drain pump were not clogged with anything, so I assume I will have to buy a new drain pump because of the grinding noise and degraded empyting performance of the washing machine.
11) After all that, which included stabbing myself with screwdriver in an attempt to release the L-shaped connector from the ribbed hose, I needed a long lie-down.
 

Edited August 29, 2025 by Interactive

[Whitegoodshelp]

17 hours ago, Interactive said:

Is it worth getting the Bosch genuine part or do the alternatives work as well?

Unless there's a massive difference in price I would prefer the genuine spare part. It's difficult to give a definitive answer these days as some of the non-genuine parts are poor copies, but some are claimed to be from the same factory that makes the genuine parts.  I wrote this article a long time ago Should I use the genuine spare part or a cheaper one?

[Interactive]

I have ordered a new pump, but before I fit it, I would like to be sure that it is the pump and not a blockage in either
1) The outflow hose to the external drain
2) The hose from the drum to the pump

When I opened up the front panel, I removed both the hoses from the drain pump, and there is no calcification or muck around either of the openings into the pump.
I poured water into the outflow hose and the water seemed to quickly flow to the other end of the hose by the pump, so I am presuming that is not blocked.
I poked around into the large black hose from the drum that was held with a spring clip and there seemed to be nothing in there and when I crushed the hose it didn't seem to have anything in it.

So, supposedly, there are no blockages.

I rebuilt the washing machine and today I thought I would check the possible blockage of the drum hose to the fluff filter. I removed the fluff filter and poured two cupfuls of water into the drum, but nothing came out at the open fluff filter. Does this indicate that the drum hose is blocked, and that fitting a new pump would therefore be unnecessary, and the noises from the pump were simply it struggling against a blocked hose?

I know there is some sort of ball valve in the drum hose used to detect water levels, presumably two cups of water are not enough to open the valve. How much water should I put in the drum to make a valid test of a possible blockage in the drum hose?

[Whitegoodshelp]

Hi. Pumps don't normally make much of a different noise if a hose is blocked. Only if something solid is inside the pump and hitting the impeller. If a hose was totally blocked as you suspect then the pump wouldn't shift any water at all and would leave the drum full of water. 

If you are talking about the hose leading from the bottom of the drum to the pump then that is the sump hose. They normally have a ball inside that floats up when a bit if water goes in and seals the sump hose off from the drum. When the pump drains some water the ball drops out of the way and lets the water flow from the drum to the pump. 

Another place to check for partial obstructions is the plastic spiggot that the drain hose attaches to where it connects to the u-bend at the sink if that's how it is plumbed in. 

 

[Interactive]

As I said above, I don't think the hose from the pump to house drain is blocked because I poured water from the end of the hose in the drain and it went to the pump end quite easily.

I did a test wash after I built the machine and the drum was left with water in it. So again I was left not knowing if the problem was

1) The drain pump

2) A blockage of the hose from the drum to the pump, as I said above  (the sump hose)

So once I syphonned off the water in the drum, I thought I could test whether the sump hose was blocked by 

1) Opening the fluff filter so that the drain pump was exposed

2) Pouring water into the drum and seeing if it appeared at the pump

I did this with two cups of water but no water appeared at the pump. So my question is:

How much water do I have to put into the drum to perform a valid test of the sump hose being blocked? Or is this an invalid test because of the valve (ball in the sump hose)? Is there a better way, with the pump EXPOSED, to test the free flowing state of the sump hose?

If as you say, the pump doesn't change the noise it makes, unless the blades are being hit, which they were not as the blades were clear of obstruction, then perhaps as it was very noisy, the pump really is the problem. 

I just wanted to be sure the pump was the problem before installing a new one, I thought if I could do a simple test of pouring water into the drum and get flow to the pump/fluff filter, I could be sure. 

[Interactive]

Does the eco ball valve in the sump hose ONLY open when the drain pump sucks? So there is no point in filling the drum with water to test the hose for blockages?

[Whitegoodshelp]

2 hours ago, Interactive said:

As I said above, I don't think the hose from the pump to house drain is blocked because I poured water from the end of the hose in the drain and it went to the pump end quite easily.

That is the drain hose. The blockage I mentioned can happen where this drain hose connects to the u-bend under the sink. It connects to a plastic spout and it is inside that spout (spiggot) that needs checking. Water can pump right through the drain hose but not get past the spiggot if there is a blockage there.

[Whitegoodshelp]

If the pump is very noisy, it needs replacing regardless as to whether it is also not pumping properly or not. 

I would expect some water to run out onto the floor if you put two cups full of water into the drum with the pump filter removed. I would put some more in. If water doesn't appear then the sump hose must be blocked. Either the plastic ball is covered in stick gunge and sticking, or a sock or something blocking the hole in bottom of the drum.

[Whitegoodshelp]

2 hours ago, Interactive said:

Does the eco ball valve in the sump hose ONLY open when the drain pump sucks? So there is no point in filling the drum with water to test the hose for blockages?

It isn't a valve. It's just a plastic ball that acts like a valve. water just makes it float to the top of the sump hose where it pushes against a rubber seal at the top and seals off the hole in the bottom of the drum. If covered in sticky gunge it can stick on the seal.