How to Fix Roomba with Error 2 and Clicking

by Sarah
How to Fix Roomba with Error 2 and Clicking | Susty Meals | Repair Not Replace | Sarah Irving | Eco Blogger | Manchester Blogger

As you might know by now (or not and that’s OK) I’m all about making things and fixing things and reusing things.  That kind of thing!  Anyway, recently our iRobot Roomba started clicking when he was working and he kept getting ‘Error 2’. (If you have a Roomba, I bet you said it in the ‘voice’ too!  I know I did when I was typing it)

Rather than get out the big hoover leave him clicking and erroring, I decided to give it a go to make him better.  Better to repair than to replace, that’s what I always say.  To be honest, Roomba is designed fantastically well so that you can repair him and also replace all of his moving parts – what a great product!  So I figured that it wouldn’t be too much of a task anyway.

The best part about doing stuff with tiny screws in this house is the risk taking that you take with six cats faffing about while you work!

NOTE: I do have six cats and lots of litter, so this could get dirty!! (I’m going to share it in all the gory glory as I know that a lot of you other Roomba users have them because of pet hair and litter etc so you won’t judge, right?!)

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Preparation

Once I removed the cat helper from the situation I was able to set up my equipment for getting started.  Make sure that you have a clean surface to work on and a little pot to hold the screws that you remove.  There is nothing as annoying as getting to the end of a project and finding that you’re either missing a screw or you have one remaining!

Here is a list of what you will need:

  • Small Philips head screwdriver
  • Tub or tray for holding the screws
  • Pair of tweezers
  • Old toothbrush
  • Microfibre cloth
  • Microfibre towel
  • Some warm soapy water
  • Another hoover

Opening him up

When you have your kit together, you’re ready to open him up.

Place him upside down (don’t worry if he starts making funny sounds, mine did, but he was fine!)

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Unscrew the screws from the base plate and pop them into your dish (blue arrows) Then remove the brushes from the cage area and the dust collector.

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You will need to remove the spinning brushes too by gently puling the yellow bit from the blue base.

Once you have done that, remove excess hair or goop that you find underneath and give the rest a good hoover to pick up excess fluff and dust (it will be mucky!)

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Take the plate off and give it a jolly good hoover – I bet you’ll be surprised at how mucky it is in there!  I was!!

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Now that you can see all the next batch of screws, grab your screw driver again and loosen the ones with blue arrows.  You don’t have to remove them completely as they have a thread free area that will hold them in place (useful as they are a bit fiddly in places)

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The screw on the right, is in the same place as the left (I didn’t realise I missed it off!)

Gently remove the blue and green gear box and pop the rest of the Roomba to the side

Give the insides another hoover!

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On the top you will see some wires held in place by a clip (I forgot to take pics!) just unclip them with the ti of your screwdriver. Don’t worry, they are not being removed.

Then on the opposite side (where the dust collector would fit) gently remove the green from the blue casing (the bits with the arrows below gently push in and unclip from the front) Do not pull it completely off as the wires are attached at this point.

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Then remove the screws highlighted by the blue arrows below (yes, I have already taken mine out in the picture – I only thought of doing a tutporial afterwards!)

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Reel in the horror that you discover inside and apologise to Roomba for being so neglectful!

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Prepare yourself with a towel over your knee, some warm soapy water, your tweezers, toothbrush and cloth and get ready to give your cogs a really good cleaning

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Make sure you clean the fronts, backs, in the grooves and everywhere in the cogs – you’d be surprised where hair and much get to!

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Make sure you give the casing a really good clean (and the bits around it. If you’re in there you might as well do a thorough job!)

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Now give each cogs a good squirting of WD40 and rub it around to make sure that it is all covered

(yes, I am aware that it contains fish oil, but I am not going to bin a perfectly good product when there is tonnes left! If you do know a vegan/veggie friendly alternative or have one you would like me to test, then please get in touch so I have the alternative to go to once this is used up)

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Then place all of the cogs back into the unit ready to start screwing back together

Replace the panel and screw in all five little screws

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Squeeze the front bits and place the green part back inside the blue holder, making sure that your wires don’t get caught

Place back into the machine and tighten the four screws

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Replace the base plate and screw back down, then replace the yellow rotating brush and screw in place (you might need to turn it a bit to fix back onto the hex bit at the bottom of the connection)

Replace your brushes into the cage, add the dust collector and you’re good to go.

NOTE: I gave everything, even the cover a jolly good clean inside before screwing back in place – this is to save any other loose bits that I might have missed getting back in and clogging it up sooner.

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And ta-dah!  Your Roomba is good to go!  I even found that ours did a better job at the cleaning too, so that saves on getting a service pack just yet.  So after around 35 minutes, I had pulled him apart, cleaned him out and put him back together like new(ish)  That included taking pictures, removing cats from the area and working out where the fluff and goo would be, so I imagine you could do it a lot faster.

Definitely worth the time and effort and has reaffirmed (for me, anyway) just how cool Roomba is!

So that is How to Fix Roomba with Error 2 and Clicking. When I do carry out the full service pack change, I’ll show you ow to do that too!

In the meantime, keep that Roomba clean so that you can free up your time for more fun stuff!

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Have you got a Roomba?  Would you give repairing it a go after seeing how easy it was for me?  

If you don’t have one, would you be interested in a video review?

Let me know in the comments 🙂

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4 comments

Jarrod King 22nd February 2018 - 9:01 pm

Thank you so much for publishing this! You have saved my Roomba, it works perfectly now!

Reply
Sarah 23rd February 2018 - 1:22 pm

You’re welcome, Jarrod! I’m pleased that another Roomba has been saved.

Reply
Brett 13th December 2018 - 1:32 am

You should be using white lithium grease not WD40, WD40 doesn’t lubricate things long term, it will dry out within a day or two.

Reply
Sarah 14th December 2018 - 11:48 am

Hi Brett, thanks for your feedback. For my case, I was using what I had to hand and my research into RCs suggested that it was a better option than grease for the fact that it doesn’t attract dust and debris (which is the kind of substance I was removing)

“Grease does a great job of lubing joints, but it also attracts dirt and dust which then combines with the grease to create an abrasive paste that will destroy any vehicle. WD-40 leaves a thin non-stick film that prevents dirt and dust from building up and actually can help to keep your vehicle cleaner. It’s not perfect, but better than using grease.”

I can also confirm that WD40 did the job perfectly well as I haven’t had any trouble with my Roomba since I did this fix in January 2017.

Thanks and happy hoovering!

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