Potterton Lynx 2 PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE HELP!

[327marc]

Please please please help. We have been in our house for over a year now, and the Potterton Lynx 2 was fitted when we moved in. It is 13 years old and was fine for over a year, then all of a sudden things went DOWN HILL.
It all started when it stopped working and the red "RESET" light came on so i read the instructions on the potterton website which states to reset the boiler depress the "RESET" button underneath the boiler for 10 seconds, so i did. It worked for about a day then "RESET" came on again and again and so on for about 2 weeks, then the reset button does not come on now and the boiler has packed up all together.it has been playing up in a different way now for about 3 months, when the heating or hot water is switched on it powers, ignites but there is no flame light on the boiler so it is not flaming up, we first called the engineer and he said it might be the pcb board, but checked everything and it started working again, then about 2 weeks later it happened again, everything lit up to give us hot water/heating but it would not flame, so once again i had the engineer out and he said that something had fell on the board which was flickering the boiler flame on and off. So all worked for a week or so and yet again it stopped working AGAIN so Mr engineer man was called again and he got it working for about a day or so and YET AGAIN it happened again. So final time was on sunday, he came out again and got it working and within 2 minuites the reset light came on and said i needed a new boiler!
Please can someone help me with this problem as surely it can only be a part that needs replacing as the boiler would not work at all would it?
He has stated that we have a clean and perfect system and it has been serviced and all the rads work fine.PLEASE PLEASE can anyone advise me?
Thank you

 

[Agile]

That does not sound like a very competent boiler repair engineer to me. I would not assume anything he has said is correct.

Its difficult to know whats wrong with the boiler apart from the fact it was overheating and at that time the overheating should have been diagnosed and apparently now it has another fault as well.

Be aware that these boilers are getting pretty old and have a large and expensive PCB although its well made.

There are so many critical parts in a boiler and without doing diagnostic tests its impossible to guess whats wrong apart from listing all the parts.

Get a proper engineer or replace the boiler, a new one is overdue anyway and might cost about £1300 for a 24 kW combi supply and fit.

Tony

 

[327marc]

Hi Tony, thank you for your reply.
He did say that it was overheating that was causing it to cut out but i am so angry as in the past 2 months i have had them out 5 times and it will be the 6th time tomorrow. I have the cover plan with BRITISH GAS and they came today to go threw having a new boiler and quoted £3860.00 !!!!! to pay cash, so i have demanded a engineer to come out tomorrow to tell me what the problem actually is and what would need replacing if anyting, not just someone to come and say " oh it looks looks you need an new boiler " and scarper. i do understand it is very old, but i thought with it working a bit it cannot be completly broken? but then again im no boiler expert
I will pst a reply on what he comes up with tomorrow, hopefully it will not be nothing to major... fingers crossed.
thank you again for your reply, keep warm and takecare

Michelle

 

[Agile]

You did not say it was BG and that you had a cover plan!

Be aware that BG staff get a commission if you buy their boiler so there is no incentive to actually fix your boiler.

Their price is so high that I could almost do the job at half their price but that would be a little unfair as I would be staying free with my friend in Dawley.

If their engineers cannot diagnose the problems on such a straightforward boiler then you can try to ask for a lead engineer or whatever they call their more senior people.

I do have to say that with multiple faults I would tell people to expect a repair bill of up to £250 if we were guessing at the repair cost. That makes BG cover look like very good value.

Tony

 

[baxpoti]

Has the water pressure switch been checked/replaced

 

[nickso]

there is an incentive to fix it for most engineers and the commission is only £10. all you need to say is you do not want a new boiler and they will stop asking.

lets be fair to the engineers who have been out so far...that fault is very intermittant and apart from the last guy none of them will have seen the fault happening.

the last guy seems to have been a little quick to recommend a new boiler especially if like you say he saw the fault happening within 2 minutes of resetting it.

as always with BG if you call them back often enough the technical manager is going to hear about it and get involved. if hes anything as good as my old one, 3 multiple visits or 3 recent recalls will be enough.

 

[327marc]

First of all i would like to thank you all for your replys.
I have had both the BG engineer out and another rep from BG out today, and the price that was quoted yesterday for a new boiler of £3860.00 has come down a lot, he has got it down to £2186.00 which personally still think it is expensive, as i have checked on web sites on here on the same boiler they are suplying us with i can get for £756.00 inc vat !! so in other words they are trying to chare over £1400.00 for just fitting the boiler!! it would be so cheaper for me to buy the boiler myself and pay t have it fitted!
The engineer for BG was very helpfull this time, he stripped the boiler completly down and to be honest he did more in 10 minuites of being here than the rest did in 5 visits, and he did get it working, but no soon as we switched it off within the hour it stopped working again, and we moved the bottom part of the boiler underneath slightly and it comes on, so i think there must be a loose connection somewhere?? or can anyone please advise?

once again, thank you so much for your response, i really appeciate it very much
takecare and thank you
Michelle

 

[nickso]

call them back again.

 

[snes]

Not that you should worry too much if BG are doing all the hard work, but similar intermittent probs on my Lynx 2 could be traced to hairline cracks in the solder joints on the pcb. Sometimes they make, sometimes they don't.

If it was your responsibility, I would advise you to isolate the power, remove the pcb as far as you need to to get a clear view, then get out the magnifying glass.

If the pcb is in friendly mode, you can view down the side of the pcb case and observe any tell tale flashes. This time with power on of course!

Raden, Agile et al may offer better advice. If so, listen to them, not an amateur like me!

Good luck

 

[Agile]

Well, we would fit a boiler for £840 in London and you should get it done rather cheaper in your area.

However, as BG prices go, I would say that they have given you a pretty good deal.

As far as the boiler is concerned it should be pretty easy to find a fault which you can innitiate by movement. I think you said the PCB has already been changed so that might not be the cause but again it could be as well!

This last BG engineer does seem to have shown up the previous ones so try to get him back and tell him how moving the bottom brings it on and off.

Tony

 

[BillH]

I have a 13 year old Lynx2 which has given great service and looks set for plenty more. From minor repairs to mine I know that the reset light can be illuminated by the overheat thermostats (one on CH one on HW) or the CH flow switch.
The thermostats are only a few pounds and are easily fitted - the CH stat is Potterton part no 404493 & the HW stat is 404494. The CH flow switch is 910022.

Best wishes

 

[ChrisR]

Marc/Michelle, when considering quotes, find out whether a full powerflush is included. It should be, but may not. It can take a whole day just for that.

 

[tryitandsee]

I had the same intermittent problem on our potterton Lynx Electronic. The problem was the pcb full sequence board. (One of three, distribution board, modulator board and full sequence board.)

You only had to move it slightly to get the thing working again. We used to wedge a piece of plastic to keep/make the connection, worked a treat for about a year. until it fell off. It was so frustrating because you knew it was a bad connection somewhere on the pcb, but you could never see or locate it.

Finally gave in to the fact I was getting older and needed to wear glasses and bingo, saw that a pin was not touching a solder joint, gentle solder repair, no problems since.

Despite all that, I reckon this boiler has been the best so far.

Good luck.

 

[gavinda]

Be aware that BG staff get a commission if you buy their boiler so there is no incentive to actually fix your boiler.

just need to point out that you are slightly wrong with that comment, we get £10 if we book an appointment for a rep to call, wether the cons buys the boiler or not. this was brought in about 3 or 4 years ago when a couple of dickheads in kent were telling people to get rid of perfectly fine 5 year old boilers. so really its more worthwhile to get the boiler fixed than just bully someone into a new boiler.

that said the first engineers to call sound like quite a few of my colleagues, to scared of combis