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                  1. Support
                  2. Printer troubleshooting
                  3. Extruder noises
                   

                  Contents

                  • Possible causes
                  • Slicing
                  • First Layer calibration
                  • Idler tension
                  • Drive gears alignment
                  • Dirty extruder gears
                  • Jammed PTFE tube
                  • Hotend assembly
                  • Clogged hotend

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                  Extruder noises

                  Relevant for

                  MINI family
                  MK3 family
                  MK3.5 family
                  OLD PRODUCTS
                  63 comments
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                  Filament grinding, which is accompanied by a “clicking” or "squeaking " sound coming from the extruder, usually happens when the extruder gears are unable to push the filament further towards the nozzle. Over time, the gears grind away the filament, until they can’t grab it anymore.

                  If you have questions or issues regarding vibration noises from the printer, please see Vibration when printing (MK3S+/MK2.5S).

                  The clicking sound means that the stepper motor is having to suddenly exert more force than a specific preset threshold and it's jumping back by one or more steps (skipping) to relieve the pressure. It can be a mechanical issue, electrical issue, software issue, jammed/clogged hotend, or a combination of this.

                  First, you need to remove the filament from the extruder. If the filament has been ground through and can not be unloaded from the LCD menu, follow this guide to manually remove it.

                  Possible causes

                  Slicing

                  Slice the model again using the latest version of PrusaSlicer and its filament presets. Also, see if the 3D model is not corrupted or incomplete.

                  Try to increase the hotend temperature (Filament settings -> Filament -> Temperature °C) by 5 - 15 °C. It is important to make sure the temperature is corrected for the filament being printed. You can check our Extensive Material table to confirm your settings.

                  First Layer calibration

                  Having the first layer calibration set too close can eventually cause a clogged hotend. Make sure you have it set just right, as instructed in First Layer Calibration (i3) and First Layer Calibration (MINI/MINI+).

                  Idler tension

                  Make sure that your extruder idler is properly tightened. If the extruder idler screws are overtightened, the gears will not push the filament properly. Try to loosen (or tighten) the extruder idler screw(s) (with the spring). Their tension must be accurate (neither too tight nor too loose). Please see Idler screw tension for how it should be on your printer.

                  Drive gears alignment

                  Double-check the alignment of both extruder gears. Both of them must be aligned with the opening above and with the PTFE tube below so that they can properly feed the filament into the hotend. Make sure the gear on the extruder motor shaft is tightened by its grub screw against the flat part of the motor axis.

                  Please see Checking/re-aligning the Bondtech gear (MK3.5/S, MK3S/+, MK2.5S) for more information regarding the MK2.5/S and MK3/S/+ or this article for the Original Prusa MINI/MINI+.

                  Dirty extruder gears

                  • Make sure that your extruder gears are clear of any leftover plastic. You can clear the plastic with a sharp corner of pliers or with a durable pin. 
                  • Make sure the gears are turning freely
                  • Check if the motor gear is aligned and tightened with the grub screw against the flat part of the motor axis

                  Please see Checking/re-aligning the Bondtech gear (MK3.5/S, MK3S/+, MK2.5S) for more information regarding the MK2.5/S and MK3/S/+ or this article for the Original Prusa MINI/MINI+.

                  Jammed PTFE tube

                  While checking the extruder gears, take a look at the PTFE tube as well and make sure there is no debris in it that would prevent the filament from being loaded properly. To inspect the PTFE tube, open the extruder idler door. For more information, please see Removing filament from extruder manually.

                  Hotend assembly

                  Verify, whether the nozzle is properly assembled into the heater block: 

                  • See if the heater block and the nozzle are not crooked.
                  • Is there a space of 0.5 mm (0.02 inch) between the nozzle head and the heater block as it should be?

                  Check Under-extrusion where we go through all the usual causes of extrusion-related problems.

                  Clogged hotend

                  Please follow this article to clean your hotend, as the hotend might be clogged. If you don't manage to clean the clog, you would have to take out the hotend from the extruder, disassemble it completely, clean it thoroughly and apply some extra thermal paste on the heatbreak before assembling the hotend back together.

                  If you need to change one of the components of your hotend, refer to this guide (for MK3S/MK2.5S/MMU2S. For MK3/MK2.5, there is a separate guide).
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                  Topics

                  • Troubleshooting
                    • Printer troubleshooting
                      • Blown Fuse (MK3/MK3S/MK3S+)
                      • Extrusion stopped mid-print (Heat creep)
                      • Spaghetti monster
                      • Extruder blob
                      • Clogged nozzle/hotend (MK3.5/S, MK3S+, MK2.5S)
                      • Extruder noises
                      • Filament Not Loading
                      • Misaligned PINDA Sensor (MK2/S)
                      • Print fan is not spinning
                      • Hotend fan is not spinning
                      • Heatbed not heating up properly
                      • P.I.N.D.A./SuperPINDA Sensor testing
                      • SD card not working
                      • LCD screen not working
                      • Printer does not turn on or keeps turning off
                      • Blown Fuse (MK2S/MK2.5/MK2.5S)
                      • MK3S keeps prompting filament change
                      • Vibration when printing (MK3S+/MK2.5S)
                      • Factory reset (MK2S/MK2.5S/MK3S)
                      • Firmware updating issues (MK2.5S/MK3S+/MMU2S/MMU3)
                      • Nozzle crashed into the heatbed
                      • Clogged nozzle/hotend (MINI/MINI+)
                      • External SPI flash W25X20CL/xFLASH not responding - error
                      • IR Filament Sensor Troubleshooting (MK2.5S, MK3S)
                      • Preheat error bed #12201 (MINI)
                      • M.I.N.D.A./SuperPINDA sensor testing (MINI/MINI+)
                      • Preheat error print head #12202 (MINI)
                      • Thermal runaway bed #12203 (MINI)
                      • Thermal runaway print head #12204 (MINI)
                      • Maxtemp error bed #12205 (MINI)
                      • Maxtemp error print head #12206 (MINI)
                      • Mintemp error bed #12207 (MINI)
                      • Mintemp error print head #12208 (MINI)
                      • Squaring your MINI
                      • Failing Z calibration (MK3S/MK2.5S)
                      • Ambient temperature check (MK3/MK3S)
                      • Factory reset (MINI)
                      • Blown Fuse (MINI)
                      • IR Filament Sensor Troubleshooting (MINI/MINI+)
                      • Filament failed to unload (MINI/MINI+)
                      • Temp not matching print head #12210 (MINI/MINI+)
                      • PrusaLink Troubleshooting
                      • Homing Error #12301 (MINI)
                      • USB not connected #12602 (MINI/MINI+)
                      • No file on USB #12604 (MINI/MINI+)
                      • Signature verification failed #12606 (MINI/MINI+)
                      • Hash verification failed #12607 (MINI/MINI+)
                      • Unsupported printer type #12610 (MINI/MINI+)
                      • Unsupported printer version #12611 (MINI/MINI+)
                      • Flash erase error #12605 (MINI/MINI+)
                      • Temp not matching heatbed #12209 (MINI/MINI+)
                      • No FW in internal flash #12612 (MINI/MINI+)
                      • Invalid FW size on USB #12603 (MINI/MINI+)
                      • File system error #12613 (MINI/MINI+)
                      • Unsupported BBF version #12614 (MINI/MINI+)
                      • Bed preheat error #31201 (CORE One) #35201 (CORE One L) #36201 (CORE One INDX) #26201 (MK4S) #13201 (MK4) #27201 (MK3.9S) #21201 (MK3.9) #28201 (MK3.5S) #23201 (MK3.5) 
                      • Bed thermal runaway #31203 (CORE One) #35203 (CORE One L) #36203 (CORE One INDX) #26203 (MK4S) #13203 (MK4) #27203 (MK3.9S) #21203 (MK3.9) #28203 (MK3.5S) #23203 (MK3.5) 
                      • Bed mintemp error #31207 (CORE One) #35207 (CORE One L) #36207 (CORE One INDX) #26207 (MK4S) #13207 (MK4) #27207 (MK3.9S) #21207 (MK3.9) #28207 (MK3.5S) #23207 (MK3.5)
                      • Bed maxtemp error #31205 (CORE One) #35205 (CORE One L) #36205 (CORE One INDX) #26205 (MK4S) #13205 (MK4) #27201 (MK3.9S) #21201 (MK3.9) #28201 (MK3.5S) #23201 (MK3.5)
                      • Homing error Y #26305 (MK4S) #13305 (MK4) #21305 (MK3.9) #23305 (MK3.5)
                      • Tangled filament
                      • Emergency stop #12510 (MINI)
                      • Connect Registration Failed
                      • Hotend maxtemp error #23206 (MK3.5)
                      • Connect Registration Failed #12401 (MINI)
                      • Connect Registration Failed #23401 (MK3.5)
                      • Homing Error Z #23301 (MK3.5)
                      • Nozzle Heater Overcurrent #23308 (MK3.5)
                      • Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) #31538 (CORE One) #35538 (CORE One L) #36538 (CORE One INDX) #26538 (MK4S) #13538 (MK4) #27538 (MK3.9S) #17538 (XL) #21538 (MK3.9) #28538 (MK3.5S) #23538 (MK3.5) #12538 (MINI)
                      • Homing error Y #12305 (MINI/MINI+)
                      • Homing error X #12304 (MINI/MINI+)
                      • Fil. sensor troubleshooting #31114 (CORE One) #26114 (MK4S) #13114 (MK4) #27114 (MK3.9S) #21114 (MK3.9) #28114 (MK3.5S) #23114 (MK3.5)
                      • Troubleshooting the MINI/MINI+ assembly
                      • Firmware in the internal flash corrupted! #12608 (MINI)
                      • SD cards and USB drives
                    • Print Quality Troubleshooting
                    • QR Error codes
                    • Print Error Messages

                  26 comments

                  Log in  to post a comment
                  NemoKeine
                  •
                  Another source for extruder clicking on the Mini is if you have over-tighten where the filament sensor's PTFE tube is clamped in the extruder assembly it will cause friction as well as idler tension issues
                  Reply
                  Yvonne
                  •
                  We just newly unpacked and set up the PRUSA Core One L two days ago. We were successfully able to run through our first “handbook guided” print of the key chain. After that we tried the dragon, and it stopped printing correctly at the neck just before the head, so we stopped it. We then tried printing the key chain again, and it was printing blank, so again we stopped it.

                  The next morning (yesterday) we successfully printed the next test key chain in the print query of the flash drive, and then started the dragon once again. The dragon was about 94 to 95 percent complete, and again stopped printing the rest.

                  The next day (today - Monday) we successfully and completely printed the boat in the flash drive query. And again we tried printing the dragon, but it stopped even further down the neck than the first time, and now it is not printing anything at all.

                  We are not able to locate any audio visual help at all to help us clearly see how to fix this issue, and are not able to successfully locate the 24/7 technical support.

                  We spent a great deal of money on this printer and sincerely need help getting it working properly. Please and thank you for your advice and help.
                  Reply
                  AG
                  •
                  I am sharing what happened to me and how I fixed the problem.
                  I have had the clicking sound start during a recent print of support arms I am designing for an antenna. I have to make several prints as I need 8 supports and they fully use the print bed. The clicking seemed to occur when the print head was quickly shuttling in short runs and when it would change directions while extruding. I followed all the suggestions to the letter. It still did not help. Then while inserting the filament I noticed that the filament seemed prestressed with a lot of twisting energy. This was a brand-new spool of filament of a filament brand and color I have used for many months in the past and expended at least 2 full spools. The filament would unspool and quickly get a twist going. I could not seem to spin the spool enough to relieve the inherent stress. I replaced the spool with another brand of filament, and it printed perfectly with no clicking. I am sure the maintenance and cleaning on the feeder mechanism was not a waste, but I should have started with the easy solution first. A new full spool wasted, but that is OK. My printer is fully operational.
                  Reply
                  GROG
                  •
                  Help please.
                  I'm experiencing problems with prints on my MK3S+ after the printer was dormant and relocated for a time.
                  * Prints generally are fine for the first cm or so before symptoms occur.
                  * Noises in the Y direction. I can't identify exactly where the noise comes from, but I have a short video recording it as well as a picture of the print quality.
                  * rough surfaces in the Y direction (Front side of prints)
                  * printhead continually resets as if it's run into the print. Mode is NORMAL and crash detection is ON.
                  * I've followed instructions on loosening and retightening screws. No luck.
                  * Updating firmware did not resolve the issue.
                  Reply
                  Jan Kratochvíl
                  •
                  Hello. Please contact our support team. You can also ask on our forum.
                  Reply
                  Julian
                  •
                  Hi! I had just updated my PRUSA slicer to the latest version.( never done that since I got the printer about 3 years ago) now my prints run about 3/4 of the print just fine but then my filament jammed up right after my feed wheels and gets stuck on the hole in the bidet before it goes into the Teflon sleeve for the extruder. It is almost like it tries to push the filament but it can not go further. The filament flares out and can not fit through the hole to go to the extruder. I had increased the temperatures a few degrees to see if that was the issue since I updated the software but still the same. Any hints on what I am doing wrong or settings I might need to change? How I mentioned before the only change I did was updating the software everything was working just fine before
                  Reply
                  Jan Kratochvíl
                  •

                  Hello. Please contact our support team, where you can do a live troubleshooting with them.

                  Reply