Roomba keeps saying clean brushes yet are clean!

Remove the Yellow connectors on the end of the brushes and clean around the pin well. If there is too much there, the roomba thinks there is something stuck and goes into clear mode (as if there is a chord stuck).

I tried all the above, to no avail. For me, the exact same symptoms were caused by a mass of hair in the brush cage gear box. To fix, I disassembled the green brush cage unit, partially, from the blue box. This exposed the cover of the gear box (on the left side, with the white nylon holes in which the square ends of the brushes plug.
I removed the cover of the gear box with a tiny philips screw driver (maybe 6 screws). Once inside, I could see that my Roomba had finally succumbed to 2 Golden Retrievers, 1 wife, and 3 daughters: the gears were entirely impacted with hair, friction-burned solid to every crevasse and cranny. Once, cleaned meticulously, the Roomba sprang back to life and now works famously.

Remove the very small yellow parts (not the larger ones) on the brushes and remove the hair wound around the spindle.

I had this problem. I cleaned every little piece of dirt/cat hair out of the brushes and yellow bearings on the end as well as the front little sweeper deally. Still, every ten minutes like clock work it would tell me to clean them again.

I finally solved it by simply removing the round yellow guide dealies from the sides of the larger of the brushes. If that doesn't make sens it's the yellow round pieces that snap onto the outside of the sides of the main brush (not the yellow bearings). They seem to be there to stop hair from winding around the edges of the brushes, but they don't work and further they cause extra friction (particularly when the tiniest bit of hair comes between them and the sidewall).

Once I removed those (and didn't clean the brush or anything again that time), the roomba ran fine for the next 35 minutes, so i'm assuming that was the problem as before it never made it more than 10 minutes and i didn't actually clean it the last time it told me to. I just removed those yellow round pieces.

Problem appears mainly in units that have been in service. Cause: broken brush lift cable. A 4 cm cable connects the CHM cage to a pulley on the motor body. Without the cable, the brush hangs in the lowest position, and is not lifted over rugs and obstructions. Since the cable is crimped in place on the motor, standard repair might require replacing the motor (or possibly the entire CHM). But one can substitute for the cable a length of braided fishing line (or similar) with knots at each end. Thread one end through the pulley, and slide the other end into a slot on the cage.

Pull of the yellow lugs on end of brushes and clean the hair ect of the pin, this will stop the clicking noise and the cleaning command comming on, i clean my roomba everyday to maximise its efficeincy and keep it working at peak performance, takes less than 5 minutes and will stop these problems occurring.

Had same problem including a rhymic thumping while vacuuming. After cleaning everything on the Roomba that I could reach with no luck, I finally found the problem/solution.

Look at the yellow collars at the end of the brush and rubber paddle. It has slots that match up with blue tabs to hold it in place. However, not all the tabs and slots are the same size.

If the collar sits too far away (i.e. small yellow slot matched with a large blue tab) it creates a small bind on the brush bearing when installed. The brushes can still turn, but the drag is just enough to put a load on the brush motor that is read by the sensor as a "full brush"

Simply match up the larger yellow slot with the larger blue tab so that the collar snaps all the way down against the brush or paddle. Reinstall the brush and paddle, and then you should be good to go.

Good Luck.

I cleaned the entire machine and it still would not stop popping. My husband took off the RUBBER BRUSH and pulled the little tab out of the end - it had made it's own little O-ring out of hair. It's a part that doesn't look like it should come off so I had never tried to take it off. He cleaned it off, put a little WD40 on it and it works like a charm again. Don't buy stuff that you don't need until you try to do this.

I cleaned the gearbox out using the instructions at http://www.youwillgetavirus.com/archives/59 (dubious url, I know)
We also have 2 cats and the gearbox was utterly fouled.


working great now

I tried all the solution mentioned but unfortunatly none proved sufficient. So next stage found and that solved the thumb, thumb problem.

I've opened the green part and there was a lot of dirt inside. After removing the dirt and thoroughly cleaning all the gears and putting it all back where it belongs the sound was gone and the Roomba works perfect again.

See picture:

I think its possible to have more than one problem: I tried everything I could think of also but finally i found;
1. irelandnut was right if you pry out the front wheel you can find hair covering a sensor
2. although I pulled the yellow caps off the spindles i just simply pulled the hair off the spindle and put it back, I should have looked closer because there was extremely tightly wound hair around the spindle that I didn't see once I cleaned those two items my roombas back on the job working great.
I guess I'll re contact irobot and tell them to forget it :)

Did you remove the brushes and take the end off...go to the offical site...it shows this...i was having the same problem...its the brush gear thats dirty...i didnt know the end came off....took it off...cleaned it and now its running better than ever!
hope this helps

Hi , there is a little metal circle ,under brushes this is the dirt censor clean this , . or else cheque the front wheel pull out and clean pin in centre .

hope this helps

You also have sensors under the front roller wheel. just pop it out with a flat head screw driver and clean those sensors.

Thanks Daven855 i took your advice and completely removed the yellow wheel circles at end of the big brush and the thumping stopped. i dont get the Remove and Clean Roombas brushes error anymore. Roomba works just fine.

It took awhile, but I finally got this fixed on our Roomba. If your Roomba keeps saying "please remove and clean the brushes". You probably need this part

http://www.totalvac.com/accessory/parts/82701.html

It worked for me.

I too had thiis happen to me. I have had my Roomba for over a year and then one day it kept saying "please remove and clean the Roomba brushes". I did the normal brush cleaning, turned it back on and after about 3 minutes it stopped and said it again. I came online and saw how to dismantle the whole thing right to the gear box. I did this. The gear box had no hair in it all all. After cleaning whatever I could find on the insides, I put it back together and once again it ran for 3 minutes now with a clicking problem then gave the same message. I finally saw where it said to remove the yellow pieces on the ends of the brushes. I pulled both of them off and they were full of hair and dust. I cleaned both of them out good, replaced them into the slots, turned it on and NO CLICKING AND NO ERRORS. PROBLEM SOLVED.

I had the same problem but today i took the whole thing apart and now it's working.
the white indentation where the square end of the brush fits into had hair stuck around the out side of it. i used a safety pin to remove it.

I followed daven885's advice and roomba is up and running again. This was the first time i had ever removed the yellow round plastic pieces to the outside of the brush when cleaning the brushes so there must be a precise way to put them back on. No matter how I was putting them back on Roomba kept thumping and saying clean the brushes. Now that i have removed them completetly and kept them off, Roomba is working perfectly.

I fixed this by turning the roomba on, and then putting my hand under it and turning the brushes a bit by hand, then they started spinning as they should , and has been spinning since. It seems this is related to the drive system, some kind of torque might be needed for it to function properly. the brushes wa very easy to turn after the ckeaning prosess when the machine was off, so there was no real mechanical fault. Hope this is helpful :-)

Do all of the above and you should be able to resolve your issues. Like most I was only cleaning the brushes not the gears sensors etc.... If you get a damp cloth and clean the grime everywhere your Roomba will be rollin' and rumblin'...

Frednokia had it right. I've had my Roomba for a couple years, and it started with the brush error 2 message and the thumping as it moved around. I always thoroughly clean my brushes, taking everything apart and putting them back together. I went into it deeper, cleaning plugs of hair and lint out of various inside areas. Sometimes it would work better for awhile. But this time, nothing I seemed to do improved it at all. I dug around and took more things apart than I ever had, finding blobs of lint, but nothing helped, until I saw the suggestion to get into the gear box. Eureka! I wish I could post a picture of how cruddy mine was. Be aware, the other cleaning is all necessary, but I would BET that eventually everyone will have to get into the gear box and clean it out. Just CAREFULLY pop the green section out of the blue using a flat screwdriver, leaving the wires on the other side alone. Unscrew the 6 or so little screws and pull off the green cover plate. Take EACH gear off, ONE at a time and clean under it also, then put it back on before you. Take the next one. No more thumping, for the first time in a year!

So I did all of the above and was still getting the error. What worked for me was finally replacing the brushes with some other brushes I had lying around but was to lazy to clean. After cleaning the other brushes and installing them, No more error. It seems that besides all the guck I removed, the brushes had also just plain wore out (even though they still looked in great shape...)

Removing the yellow end of the brushes might work but will shorten the lives of the brushes because they are not riding in the carriage properly. Taking the yellow ends off the brushes and remove all the hair etc is only the start. If the hair has been there for too long the hole in the yellow end in which the metal axle of the brush sits overheats, expands and adds friction to the brush and feeds back to the Roomba control saying, "clean me". Thats why it runs for a while, gets hot and stops. On one of the rollers on our machine the yellow area around the hole had got so hot it had turned brown.

To fix this take the yellow plastic ends off the brushes, remove the hair and make sure the yellow plastic things spin easily (not freely). It may need some light lubrication or even opening up of the hole in the yellow plastic (I used a fine needle file).

I just fixed mine - take a small screwdriver or knife blade and pop the yellow free-spinning hexagonal part off the one end (not the yellow washer pieces on both sides). There was a ton of hair and dirt that was wrapping around the small steel axle, causing a lot of extra friction in the brush rotation. Clean out the hair and push the yellow spinning hexagonal thing back on. You will find the brush is much easier to turn, and easier to insert back into the Roomba.

Turn a 530 Roomba upside down and removed 11 screws from the crash guard. Carefully slide the guard down about 1 inch, but no more because small wires are attached to the eye on top. There are about a dozen small Seeing Eye infrared lights, some are clear some are dark red. Clean the infrared lights. The infrared light shine through dark windows, but if they're dirty Roomba can't see. Clean the dark windows on the inside of the crash guard. Be careful of the wires. Clean the clear windows on the Roomba and the dark windows on the crash guard. Clean the outside of the windows on the crash guard also. Worked for me on two of my Roombas. I cleaned everything else and the red clean light kept coming on. I would recharge it and it would start up and go about a foot and shut off with the red light on. When I cleaned everything else the red light would still come on. Both are working now. GoTimothy

So everyone says remove the yellow 'circles' on ends/remove yellow 'bearings' on the other end and clean/ clean front wheel/ clean sensory under brushes and none of that fixed my problem. What fixed my same prob of getting 'error 2' message was to clean the square peg that the brushes fit into as there was a lot of hair there that I couldn't see until I started cleaning and so far (fingers crossed) I haven't gotten the error again and no 'thumping' noise-- may not work for you but it was a solution I hadn't seen on here yet

I had the same problem with apparently clean brushes, yet the error message to clean them accompanied by a rhythmic thumping sound. I cleaned the yellow bearings as directed above, as well as the front wheel, and 3 armed rotating brush. I even took the screws off and cleaned inside the motor area although there was not much there. I still had the same problem. Then, I removed the brushes from the brush cage and replaced the cage only and ran it empty without the brushes. Within a few seconds the thumping stopped. I replaced the brushes and it ran fine! Another suggestion is to run the Roomba without the dust bin to see if the brushes are rotating properly.

I also repeatedly cleaned the brushes with no luck. I finally removed the cleaning head module and opened the gearbox. There was hair in there, but it didn

If you have tried all these solutions and your roomba keeps stopping for no reason, read this as it solved my problem for good. Your roomba has a sensor in the dirt bin that tells it to stop when its full. Apparently the sensor is either oversensitive or faulty in cases as its the SOURCE of the issue. Locate for the two metal pins on the side of the dirt collector when its disconnected from the roomba. Take a piece of tape (preferrably electrical tape) and wrap it around the pin so that when its installed on the roomba the connector doesnt actually make electrical contact with the unit. This stops the sensor from working and keeps your roomba moving. One caution.. your roomba no longer tells you when the dirt compartment is full and needs to be emptied so you need to remember to check it accordingly.

I had the same problem with the repetitive command to clean the brushes, but I solved it by cleaning the lower rubber strip in the vcuum bin. I assume it is an air inlet and because of the dust collected between the two strips, that open when you empty the bin,it kept on askng for cleaning the bnrushes.
Anyway, it is funtioning great again.

Thank you daven885! My Roomba is new and started this on only my 3rd time using it. I followed your advice and removed the round yellow pieces and it's up and running again (so far, anyway).

I isolated the Motor that turns the brushes and the connection between the brush compartment to the rest of the roomba. I found that putting the connector backwards make the brushes spin endlessly whenever I pick up the roomba or flip it upside down. Otherwise, it works like normal again, with the brushes spinning whenever its cleaninig.

I found nothing clogging up the spokes and gears for the brushes.
So I took apart the blue compartment holding the motor for the brush until I was just left with the motor and the connector piece to Roomba only. I found that putting the connector piece backwards causes the brushes to run endlessly whenever I pick up the Roomba. Otherwise, when the Roomba is on the floor, the brushes works like normal again.

I had this problem, fixed it by making sure the removable bits at the end of the brushes were on properly, discovered I hadnt put them back correctly. As soon as I got them on right, the problem went.

Try to google "roomba motor DIY", hopefully you can get it.