My fridge quit working but the freezer appears to work just fine. Yesterday I unplugged it to let it thaw out and I vacummed the coils at the bottom. The coils were completely covered in dust. Today the freezer is still working fine and the fridge is at 63 degrees. Can this be serviced or should I scrap it for a new one. This one was new in 2001, date of manufacture is dec of 2000. It is a kenmore. Sears won't offer technical assistance if you are out of warrenty.

They work funny. The freezer is the only thing that is generally cooled... then your fridge adjustment opens a little trap door in the back that lets the freezer air into the fridge. Check for a restriction of some type keeping the freezer air from getting down.. That's for the traditional type... I don't know how any of the high end fancy stuff works. Racers don't get to have that kind of stuff generally...lol.

I dug into it a little further and thats what I found as far as air circulating from the freezer to the fridge but no reason why it stopped doing so. I need to dig deeper.

There is a fan that circulates the air. I have had to have the motor replaced in one before.

and the verdict is....
thermostat! I guess thats what you call it. It is coiled, looked like a spring on one end and went to a box with an arm that opens and closes the damper. Everything else checked out. I disconnected the linkage from the thermostat and set the damper manually ( fingers crossed, hope it works). I should know in an hour or so. A guy I work with told me how to trouble shoot it. here is a list of things that can go wrong: Defrost timer, can quit working all together or get stuck in a certian position causing it to defrost and cool at the same time; heater element to defrost freezer can break; fan that moves air from freezer to fridge can ice up, quit or the switch mechanism that tells it to run can break.

I found a wiring sclematic (sp) folded up near the lights and controls inside the fridge where the lights are mounted. I guess this is just another machine with a few basic components. Another quick test was to touch the high and low pressure lines coming and going from the compresser. One should be cool and one should be warm, if not then it might need a charge.

Thanks for the input guys.

oops . it could be the fan motor after all. it wouldn't run when it should, I turned it slightly with a long skinny screw driver and the evaporator fan took off.

I need to get my motor back so I can ignore all this important stuff at home and go racing.

spray it with marvel mystery oil and it will buy you quite a bit of time.