Canon Pixma MG5150 color print quality decline

[PeterBJ]

PeterBJ, the way I am refillin them is by a syringe and a needle, through the drilled hole on the top which I drilled myself, very slowly with no air bubbles inside the syringe, untill I notice color dripping from the bottom of the carridge, then I wipe the top and cover it with adhesive tape. I dont know the name of this method.

You are using a version of the topfilling method that is very wrong in my opinion.

When topfilling a Canon cartridge, the ink outlet must first be sealed using either the original orange sealing clip attached to the ink out using rubber bands, or using a storage clip which I find is more convenient. If you leave the ink outlet unsealed the cartridge will leak during refill.

One proper sealing method for the cartridge is first to remove the the sealing plastic ball from the factory fill hole, and after refill seal the hole using a proper silicone plug. Some newer Canon printers have very little clearance over the cartridges, so the use of a "Zero Clearance" or "Low Profile" plug is necessary. These plugs are flush with the top of the cartridge when inserted properly. Others drill a hole at the top of the cartridge and seal the hole after refill using hot melt glue. Not all hot melt glues are suitable for this, Ordinary tape is not sufficient to give a reliable seal, but a special aluminium tape might be OK. This is the sealing method I use and recommend, both plug and aluminium tape. Here is an instruction video from Octoinkjet UK, and here are links to instruction pdf's

I recommend to study this thread about topfilling and note that two different methods are used in posts #1 and #4. The method from post #4 is the method I use and recommend.

Leaking cartridges can not only cause cross contamination, but they can also ruin a print head. I have lost a printhead in a Canon iP4200 due to leaking bad quality 3rd party cartridges. The leaked ink crept under the foil at the underside of the print head and created a short circuit that took out some of the yellow nozzles. Proper sealing of a topfilled cartridge is vital.

On a side note, can the cartridge's sponges be worn out from the many refills and not deliver the ink to the printhead properly?

Yes the sponges can get clogged after maybe five refills, so purging the cartridge might be necessary to restore the proper function of the cartridge.

 

[Aleksandar84]

Thanks for the extensive info on the refilling methods. So back to my present problem, if I understood roght, the cartridges themselves can not be causing this problems since i flushed an cleaned the magenta. So now its down to low quality magenta ink or clogged/overheated nozzle. The diagnostic nozzle print will conirm/eliminate the latter, right?

 

[PeterBJ]

Yes this is one of the situations where the normal nozzle check from the printer driver in normal user mode is not sufficient. The extended nozzle check from service mode is helpful in such situations.

An ink flow problem due to the cartridge will not show a constant but pale test stripe. It might look more like this:

Note how the lettering turns green as the magenta nozzles are being starved of ink.

 

[martin0reg]

Like others already said the green letters indicate magenta is missing. Looking at the nozzle check at least the light magenta bars appear too weak. So it is very probable that the "fine magenta nozzle row" (i.e. the second magenta row) is clogged, if not burnt. Due to bad ink or bad cart or bad refill or...
Cleaning the printhead in water or cleaning solution could help if the nozzles are not burnt yet.

- If this wasn't said before - important advice: no more printing, only nozzle checks! Because printing with clogged nozzles will sooner or later burn them to death.

 

[The Hat]

You would be better off using 520/521 cartridges instead of your 525/526’s, that way you could see how much ink your are putting into your cartridge, you would however have to change the chip over to these cartridges to make them work in your model printer.
http://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/canon-chip-removal-made-easy.5629/

When you drill a hole in the top of your cartridge it has to be seal up again properly, you can use plugs (See Photo) or hot wax but the hole must be 100% airtight at all times.

click to enlarge.

 

[PeterBJ]

The windowed PGI-520/CLI-521 cartridges are much more refill friendly than the opaque PGI-525/CLI-526 cartridges, so this tip by The Hat is highly recommended. But the opaque cartridges can also be refilled using the top fill method, if you use a wooden cocktail stick as a dipstick to gauge when the vent should be sealed. It is much more cumbersome though. Here are the two cartridge types. They are identical except for the windows and the chips:

You can get empty PGI-520/CLI-521 cartridges from Octoink UK here and here, or maybe find some at Ebay or Amazon.

 

[Aleksandar84]

When i force window cleaner/distilled water with a syringe under pressure through the magenta port of the printhead the flow underneath seems pretty even, if a nozzle is clogged can it be seen as an irregular stream of water or is it not that noticable with the naked eye?

 

[martin0reg]

Be careful with the pressure.
I think if the light magenta nozzle row is not clogged (ink is coming through as we see in the nozzle check, but not enough) it still can be burnt or otherwise damaged..
In any case the letters in the nozzle check have to be black/grey, not colored.

 

[Aleksandar84]

Well too late to be gentle now, been using as much force as I could through the syringe for the past 24 hours :-( I read somewhere that putting the nozzles close above hoot steam from boiling water could help unclogging, is this true? Never the less, I will try the diagnostic test first thing in the morning

 

[PeterBJ]

Please make sure that the print head is properly dried before installing and making a test print. Water or other cleaning fluid left where it does not belong can create a short circuit or leakage current that can ruin not only the print head but also the logic board. A logic board that has been damaged can ruin a new print head. The worst places to trap water or cleaning fluid are behind the circuit board and the ribbon cable. See this:

I suggest you make an extended nozzle check and upload it and wait for instructions for print head cleaning. Less risky methods for print head cleaning exist. Here is one more gentle method.