[possessed kenmore]

I am having problems with a Kenmore electric self-cleaning range. It is model #790.95651001. It sometimes shuts itself off for no reason, and most of the time when it does, it also starts to lock the door. I have been lucky enough the dozen or so times this has happened so far to either have the door open already or be standing nearby and hear or see it start soon enough to get the door open so that I can get the food out of it. After it starts this process, the lock light flashes and it won't stop. The locking mechanism can be closed all the way or opened by pushing in on the button in the top left corner (where the door would usually touch), but this doesn't solve anything, it just makes the mechanism open & close & open & close. No error codes involved in this until now. I thought maybe if I actually cleaned the oven, it would stop doing this (it wasn't really that dirty). I cleaned it & let it cool down, then about 5 hours later, it started flashing the lock light and trying to lock and unlock itself continuously. Still no error code. Had to turn of the breaker so that it wouldn't do it all night long. The next day, my husband tried to get it to stop, pushed bake, timer, clean, etc., and finally got and error code: F3. Now it won't do anything except flash lock. The motor has even stopped trying to latch the door. The oven won't work at all, the clock & timer work, the stove top works, just no oven. HELP!! I need to bake a birthday cake & the burners just won't cut it!!!

[AmpDraw]

If memory serves me correct I believe an F3 code is an oven temp probe error. This error is most likely meaningless and I doubt the oven temp probe is the actual problem, yet if its sending bad info to the Control it would make it think the oven is hot enough to lock the door. If the Electronic Control goes bad its likely to be giving you bogus error codes.

Sounds like a bad oven control, this is where the door lock motor relay is and the only way you're going to get power to the lock motor is by the relay on the Electric Oven Control closing. These controls are expensive to just buy to make a guess on though. There is a wiring diagram for this at the Sears web site if your husband has a meter and wants to do his own testing to confirm this...

KENMORE | Model #79095651001 | ELECTRIC RANGE | WIRING DIAGRAM | SearsPartsDirect.com from Sears

[possessed kenmore]

At this point, I'd prefer the lock motor didn't work. I just want the oven to work again. It currently just flashes the lock light with no error code. The motor isn't trying to lock, and if you push bake or broil, it flashes "dr".

[AmpDraw]

If the probe, or the temperature it thinks the probe is at is high enough that it thinks the door should be locked then there is no work around just to get it going. If its not trying to lock then the switch that senses the door is locked has probably been activated when your husband was messing with it. If you look at that wiring digram you'll see there are two switches that are activated by the lock mechanism and report to the control if the door is locked or not. One switch rests always closed and opens when the lock is engage, the other switch does just the opposite.

This isn't just your basic do it yourself friendly oven to work on, its going to require a meter and some basic understanding on how to use it in order to troubleshoot and repair the problem. I don't know anything about your abilities, but for the average person, this is likely beyond their abilities to actually work on.

Personally, I think the entire oven door lock idea is over thought and nothing but problematic. Commercial ovens can heat to well over 650 deg F all day long and do not require an oven lock on them for safety. That isn't going to help fix your problem though, just venting my thoughts on the absolute stupidity behind this.

You can't just bypass the switches though because the control needs to see them and the position of the lock mechanism based on what your telling the oven to do and what it thinks the internal oven temperature is.

[possessed kenmore]

We don't have a meter, so my husband tried disconnecting the temperature probe. We turned the power back on and tried to use it. As we thought, we got an F3 code & the oven wouldn't do anything. Reconnected the temp probe and tried it again. Worked great!! The oven heated up, got to temp, cycled & held the temp w/o problems. The next day we tried to cook dinner with success. It's been 3 days now, and no flashing lock light or any other problems yet. Does this mean the temp probe was/is the problem?