Do-It-Yourself Story

Replaced the heater element and related parts. When we accessed the element, it turned out that its water sealed had failed at one terminal. This led to corrosion and ultimately to an arc-fire at the terminal. It was burned to an open-circuit. This necessitated snipping/cleaning the wire end, and soldering on a new terminal lug. Upon installing the new heater element and associated parts, the rubber coating on the threads of the heater element was too thick. It caused the new plastic nut to split. We were able to use the old, original nut which did not split. Also, the new heater element came with rubber washers which obviated the need for new ones. Ultimately, we got the whole enchilada re-assembled and everything works fine. One last note: in our KitchenAid dishwasher, to get the error code to clear we had to run a diagnostic cycle. This is spelled out in the manual hidden behind the lower panel. You press "Normal/Heat/Normal/Heat" quickly and it turns on the diagnostic cycle.