Pixma Pro100s Black Ink Smearing / Smudging

[Robert Smith]

I was printing stickers on glossy vinyl sticker material, did a few sheets that seemed to be okay then about halfway through one of the sheets it started smearing the ink all over the place as below. Nozzle check pattern shows the black isn't working properly. I've tried cleaning cycles (including a deep clean) but it's still doing it.

I refilled the black cart yesterday, using inks I've used lots of times before and the cart also has been refilled multiple times before with no issues. The printhead is fairly new, changed it a couple of months ago and it's a genuine Canon one. I use the printer regularly.

Anyone got any ideas? Looks like a printhead issue but I can't seem to resolve it with cleaning.

Only issue I can think is that the ink I refilled the cart with is from Jan. 2024 so it's a bit old. Not sure if it goes "off" and can cause an issue like this? One odd thing is that the areas of print with a lot of black "feel" different to the areas with colour. Normally the whole print looks and feels "shiny" but the black is now duller and feels different to the coloured parts (and different to how it "usually" does).

 

[Robert Smith]

After several goes at cleaning again, this is what I'm getting. It's worse if anything. I'm not sure if it's ink starvation as I've had that before with clogged printheads, this looks different....lots of smudging as well as incomplete printing.

 

[Robert Smith]

I removed the cart and tried to clean it, I think I may have found the issue. Not sure what the black gunge is but pretty sure this is the cause of the problem!