About those Weird Plastic Pieces from Inside the Front Door Panel of a Bosch Dishwasher

Earlier this year we had occasion to remove the front panel from the door of our Bosch dishwasher. The occasion was that it had developed a leak. Now fortunately, one of the most common reasons that a Bosch dishwasher will develop a leak – especially if it seems to be coming from under the door – is that the inlet water valve needs to be replaced. And also fortunately, it turns out that the water inlet valve is relatively easy to replace, once you take the door panel off. (In case you’re interested, this is the inlet water valve that we used to replace the leaking one – ain’t Amazon amazing?)

Well, as soon as that door panel came off of the front of that Bosch dishwasher, two weirdly-shaped plastic pieces literally fell out of the dishwasher, onto the floor (the floor of the kitchen, not the floor of the dishwasher). “Weird,” we thought, and set them aside, sure that it would be obvious where they went once we started putting the dishwasher back together.

Boy were we wrong.

What the hell was this thing?
About those Weird Plastic Pieces from Inside the Front Panel of a Bosch Dishwasher

At first we were misled by the apparent channels in the thing, which led us to think that it was some sort of harness for wiring. But, nope.

In fact, it took us quite a while to figure out what this thing was, but once we did, and once we actually figured out where it went, it was obvious. Dumb, but obvious. Of course it’s obvious once you know, so that is why I wrote this up for you, so you will know, without going through the frustration that we did.

It’s a door spacer for your Bosch dishwasher!

Well, actually, it was obvious where they went – whether they are a door spacer, or something to protect the inside of the door from damage, or both, still wasn’t 100% clear. We are choosing to call it a door spacer.

But once you know what they are, where they go, and how they go, is obvious. So if you have found pieces that look like the above, here is how they go back in.

Inserting the door spacer protector back into your dishwasher

Notice the single prong on the plastic door spacer; once you insert the plastic piece as in the above picture, it will seat into place with a satisfying click.

This is what it will look like from above, once it is clicked in and fully seated.

View from above

And that’s all there is to it. It probably took you way more time to discover what those silly plastic pieces are than it will to shove them back in!

By the way, in case you’re wondering, this is what the inlet water valve looks like:

Bosch Dishwasher Inlet Water Valve
bosch dishwasher inlet water inlet valve

And, again, you can find them on Amazon here (although be sure to check that it’s compatible with your model, this is the one that worked for our model). It costs all of $12.50.

Searches that led to this article: https://www mangemerde com/about-those-weird-plastic-pieces-from-inside-the-front-door-panel-of-a-bosch-dishwasher/,

What is the Lighted Padlock Icon on My Dashboard and Why Won’t My Car Start?

A couple of days ago my 2017 Subaru Forester wouldn’t start. What’s more, every time I tried to start it, it flashed a dashboard light that looked just like a little padlock. That darned padlock dashboard icon flashed so fast that at first I could barely tell what it was, but it had to be something to do with why my Subaru wouldn’t start, right? Here’s a video of that flashing padlock symbol, which turns out to mean “anti-theft security system is in force” (how Robocop).

Here’s a still photo of the padlock security light – turns out it’s a padlock through..a windshield? A rear window? Somehow having a hole through which a padlock can fit in your glass doesn’t seem all that secure to me, but what do I know?

Flashing Padlock Icon on Dashboard

Anyways, here’s the thing: If your car has an anti-theft system, that little light always comes on when you start the car, and then turns right off again when the car starts. In fact, it always comes on with all the other dashboard lights that come on at the same time which is why nobody ever notices it.

Until the car doesn’t start and the dash lights are on and you are looking at them wondering why your car won’t start. THEN you notice it.

So, it turns out that flashing padlock icon has nothing to do with why your car won’t start.

Here’s what else I learned. First, my Subaru Forester (turbo, thank you very much) is barely two years old, so the fact that it wouldn’t start (wouldn’t even try to turn over – it’s dead, Jim) – was concerning, to say the least. And, oh yeah, the battery of course was relatively new as well. And the odds of the battery being the issue and it not even trying to turn over, not once, seemed unlikely.

After much searching online (probably not unlike the searching that you did that landed you here) we discovered that, of all things, it was a blown starter fuse!

In case you are here because your car won’t start and you just happen to have a Subaru, we found this page here on how to change a Subaru fuse and where they are incredibly helpful. In fact, it was all that we needed to check all of the fuses, determine which one was blown, and change it (and Subaru happily includes replacement fuses and a fuse puller in the fuse box under the hood – although the starter fuse that needed changing was in the interior fuse panel by the steering wheel).

If the search that led you here isn’t an issue with a Subaru, you can find all you need by searching on the Internet for “how to change fuse {make and model of your car}”.

Searches that led to this article: https://www mangemerde com/what-is-the-lighted-padlock-icon-on-my-dashboard-and-why-wont-my-car-start/,

Get My Articles to Your Cell Phone – Free!

Ok, check this out! You can get all of the best of my articles – from here, and The Internet Patrol (with a little Adventures in Raw Food thrown in) – free – direct to your cell phone!

The site which provides this nifty service is called Plusmo. When you click on the image of the cell phone over there to the right – the one with my picture on it – it will take you to the Plusmo site. There you will be prompted to let them send their little software app to your phone – it’s completely easy and safe, I did it myself before I set this up – and it is so cool!

Once you give them your information, you will get a text message on your phone which asks permission to install the Plusmo application. It’s basically a very tiny text-based browser, which will put the articles right on your phone – in a very easy to read, very browsable form.

It’s awesome!

You can add other article feeds to it too, of course, but..well, start with mine. 🙂

Go on, click on the phone on the right. You know you want to.