Pixima TS9521c Printing is very dull and barely prints text

[AdamRichards]

I have a 9521C I am having a massive issue with. The colors are super light and it will not print text at all. I have done the cleaning methods, I have changed paper, I have done the alignments, and nothing seems to work. I have changed out the ink multiple times to no avail. All ink is brand new. When I print the test page it all prints fine but it's dull and there is no PG BK area with the grid lines. I have had this thing for just over a year and it went from working to not over night. I have even done a full factory reset. Nothing seems to work. 

And of course IT JUST went out of warranty and I can't get anyone to help me with this. Canon needs to have a better warranty with these printers. 

I need help. 

[AdamRichards]

I was able to figure this out. Has nothing to do with the setting or cleaning functions. It's a physical gunking of the print head that HAS to be manually cleaned. 

Hopefully for anyone who has one doing this and doesn't have a warranty.... 

Using the settings Clean and Deep clean DO NOT do a good enough job. 

I was able to figure out that you CAN remove the print head fairly easily. Remove all of the ink. Right by where the ink clips in there is a black bar that will lift up. It takes a little bit of force but not too much where its like it's going to break. When you lift that it unlocks the print head. Remove it, unscrew the 2 screws on the bottom to detach the ink well from the print head BUT BE CAREFUL  It is attached to a permanent ribbon cable and you DO NOT want to remove or damage that. 

I was able to run it under the sink for a couple minutes and clean out all of the stuck on ink and gunked up areas. I used a VERY SOFT tooth brush to clean it all up. I dried it REALLY well before reassembling and reinstalling it. 

Everything is printing perfectly now. While the auto clean and deep clean may slightly clean out the head it doesn't really CLEAN it just kinda smears it around. 

My PHBK wouldn't even print on the test page before I did this and now it prints, is perfect and is printing everything great again.