Pro-100 cyan ink transferring to light grey

[pyrrr]

To preface, I am using a my pro-100 for art prints mostly.
Using precision colors ink refills on OEM carts- printing on Epson photo matte.

I noticed my black and white photos were printing with a blue-ish hue. I assumed that I may have dripped some cyan into my LGY while rotating carts. I cleaned all of the cyan out of the tray and printed once more- nope, still printing with a blue tint. I checked again and swabbed with a qtip to see if there was cyan ink- and yes, there was. it looked brand new! I realized that somehow my cyan ink was being siphoned into my LGY.
I cleaned the printhead very lightly- I just soaked it in 4/1 windex and rubbing alcohol. After running a cleaning cycle my prints were back to normal.
That is until I had to change my low carts. Printed, and... again... blue tint... same cyan residue in the LGY. I figured I must not have cleared the clog all the way and cleaned it once again.
However, it did NOT fix anything! My LGY is still getting contaminated and sucking ink from cyan.

So, what is actually happening? is it a clog? how on earth do I fix it at this point?
Attached nozzle check.

 

[The Hat]

So, what is actually happening? is it a clog? how on earth do I fix it at this point?

No its not a clog !..
Try cleaning the purge unit, by giving it a complete shower in Windex cleaner, splash the whole area and mop up the excess liquid with paper towels, then flood both purge pads with Windex and run a cleaning cycle, they try another nozzle check for the results..

P.S. Also Purge and then refill your L Grey cart to be sure…

 

[PeterBJ]

If you refill your cartridges then overfilling can cause leaking. The leaked ink will pool on the purge pads and might be wicked up in the other nozzles. causing cross contamination. So if you are refilling make sure that your cartridges don't drip after refill.

Another cause of cross contamination is an internal leak in the printhead. This is caused by breakdown of a rubber gasket or epoxy bonds. This failure mode is often seen in older Canon printers. I think it is related to both age of the printhead and number of printed images. Here is an example of this failure. Another failure often seen in old Canon printers is electronic printhead failure. This can happen suddenly without warning. Here is an example.

If you have a set of new cartridges or a refill ink set you can check which cartridge is the culprit. Here is an example showing that cyan is contaminated with magenta. Notice the dull cyan and that the light vertical bars around the lettering have a magenta cast. I touched Q-tips to the outlets of the contaminated cyan cartridge and a "clean" cyan cartridge. Notice the difference in colour between the contaminated ink 1 and the clean ink 2, click to enlarge.



If cleaning the purge unit doesn't help then the only cure is a new printhead. Luckily the QY6-0084 printhead is still available as it is also used in the newer Pro-200 model.

As the Pro-100 is much more refill friendly than the successor Pro-200 I recommend to get a new printhead if needed. Only buy printheads from regular dealers of Canon spare parts.

 

[pyrrr]

No its not a clog !..
Try cleaning the purge unit, by giving it a complete shower in Windex cleaner, splash the whole area and mop up the excess liquid with paper towels, then flood both purge pads with Windex and run a cleaning cycle, they try another nozzle check for the results..

P.S. Also Purge and then refill your L Grey cart to be sure…

Wow thank you. I've always had trouble with my cyan carts leaking, I just figured it was because they were the farthest from the printhead and had some pressure issues. But may just be a coincidence I overfilled both of them.

If cleaning the purge pad doesn't fix it I'll get a new print head, as PeterBJ suggested.

 

[pyrrr]

No its not a clog !..
Try cleaning the purge unit, by giving it a complete shower in Windex cleaner, splash the whole area and mop up the excess liquid with paper towels, then flood both purge pads with Windex and run a cleaning cycle, they try another nozzle check for the results..

P.S. Also Purge and then refill your L Grey cart to be sure…

i just realized I don't know how to access the purge pads on the pro 100. Do they look similar to this? (an epson pro 3800)

They're inaccessible in my printer unless I disassemble it.

 

[The Hat]

They're inaccessible in my printer unless I disassemble it.

Over filling your cartridges is a fatal error to make, because you can’t get any more out of the cartridge than what’s allowed, you should anyway replace the cart at low ink and not wait till its empty.. 75% is more than adequate..

The Pic you showed is the purge pads, and they are easily accessible in the Pro 100 by just opening the top lid and waiting till the print head centres, then pull the power plug from the wall, now move the print head carriage all the way to the left..

Use a large syringe or turkey baser to wash the purge area, and when finished don’t forget to flood both pads, then replace the grey cart and power on the printer…
P.S use a flash light if necessary...