L board Two months ago I had my Bernina cleaned & the bobbin case replaced. Parts & labor cost $170. About a week ago, I began having problems. The foot pedal, when pressed down hard, stops the machine & then restarts. My husband thought there was a problem with the pedal itself. The repairman say he thinks it's the L board. He's not sure of the cost. He says somewhere between $150 - $300 with parts & labor. I'm upset. I am considering telling him to forget it & look for another machine. Is this a common problem with Berninas? Should it be this expensive? Should I cut my losses & get another machine? I'm afraid that after this, something else will go wrong.

This could be a problem with the small circuit board inside your foot control or maybe the micro-switch bad or the micro-switch leverlinside is slightly bent or off. Possibly just the carbon contacts inside the footcontrol or built up carbon on the contacts. First take it to a dealer and try a differant (new footcontrol). Does it work now? If so it was a footcontrol problem. Circuitboard, micro-switch or carbon contacts. If a good foot control does not work, there is a checklist of service programs (tests) for the tech to run through and should have done before. There could be a bad wire, or pinched wire inside to look for. A good tech would an ohmeter first to find wire problems. Or possibly it doesn't have the latest software version in it and it needs to be installed. A speed calibration may cure this also. To be honest I'm leaning towards your husbands intuition and its the foot control. Try a differant one, like the tech should have. Then if none of the above works an L-print would be in order but maybe somewhere else. Good luck. Its still a good machine.

Hi Tonette....I'm afraid that it is impossible for me to diagnose your current issue over the internet with any degree of confidence. However, I can educate you on typical norms for your specific situation and machine. Typical "tune-ups", also advertised as "clean, oil & adjust", range from $19.95 to $49.95. Of course, the 19.95 special is designed to get you in the door. Bernina Bobbin Cases do generally run on the 'higher' side of things, between 30 & 60 dollars. However, regardless of what Class any given Bernina is in, the electronic components all originate from the same manufacturers with similar benchmarks regardless of class. Replacement of any given electronic component, once accessed, is as simple as plug and play, with no adjustment or fine tuning required. As far as cutting your losses, in my opinion, you had already lost when you paid the 170.00