"BillP" wrote in message
...


Hi Stephen,

I've got a Baxi WM381. I'd definitely go for the thermocouple first,
universal thermocouple kit will do the job. Over the 20 odd years service
this boilers given I've needed to replace the thermocouple three times,
and
the symptom you describe is typical. The gas valve solenoid failed once
and
had to buy the complete valve assembly, about £75 + vat three years ago,
this gave a different fault to what you are describing, the pilot light
was
ok but the main burner didn't light. The WM381 has no overheat. The
internal
circuit is shown in the manual and consists only of boiler thermostat and
gas valve.

Replace the thermocouple first, it's a straight forward job and you won't
be
disturbing any gas joints.

Good luck

Bill

I've just had a look at the end of the thermocouple and it looks badly
corroded. I visited a DIY store and got a Universal Thermocouple. It does
not exactly match the existing one for length etc so I'm no sure which
adaptors to use to fix it correctly. Since it's a fail safe component - I
imagine that I can't do any harm by trying various combinations.