<p>I also had the extruder drive slipping backwards (clicking sound) as well and narrowed it down to a Cura update that had changed my Ender 3 machine settings from Marlin to Marlin (volume metric).</p>
<p>Once changed back to Marlin, all is well now.  No over extruding.  Before reversing the change, I had to reduce the flow rate to 53 %. Now, I’m back to 100 % and very good prints.</p>
<p>Printing with eSun PETG, with the following settings:</p>
<ul>
<li>temperature: 235 °C,</li>
<li>retraction 6 mm @ 25 mm/sec,</li>
<li>initial height 2 mm,</li>
<li>all others 1.8 mm,</li>
<li>speed 30 mm/sec,</li>
<li>fan on 50 % at layer 3 - no stringing.</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-05-12T04:45:37.740Z
2021-05-12T09:34:38.223Z
2021-05-12T09:34:38.223Z
gtinsandiego
<p>I bought an Ender 3 and I had the same problem.</p>

<p>I was changing few things and finally got success when I changed the nozzle to the second one (I had two in the set).
At the end changing the nozzle was the primary step, but in my opinion more important was reduce speed printing, from 100&nbsp;% to 80&nbsp;%.</p>

<p>Since this simple modification (till now) all prints are fine now.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-15T22:37:32.783Z
2020-04-16T11:14:45.087Z
2020-04-16T11:14:45.087Z
Marek Urbański
<p>I too had this problem recently. I followed all the many hundreds of steps people suggested and nothing helped. I unistalled Cura 4.4 restarted my computer, installed Cura 4.1 problem fixed. Cura was the problem in my case.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-04T21:38:29.893Z
For many people including me, Cura 4.4 works just fine. Most probably a setting has been changed causing problems, installing an older version might have helped because in that version, the settings are okay. This only works if the older version has been installed before and had correct settings, or if it has never been installed before.
0scar
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-04T20:41:08.460Z
2020-04-04T21:34:11.857Z
2020-04-04T21:34:11.857Z
mark bates
<p>A temperature of 200&nbsp;&deg;C is fine. You probably have heat creep from a Bowden style extruder. The filament starts getting softer due to heat creeping up from the hot nozzle. Filament expands and clogs the tube causing gear clicking. Usually there is a heat sink at the  the Bowden tube connection. You need to cool that immediately. Which is, to set your fan to 100&nbsp;% speed at layer height = 0. That should do the trick!</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-13T07:30:37.940Z
Hi welcome to 3D Printing.SE! Please note that most fans that cool the coldend are **not** scheduled, so the advice to set the fan speed to 100 % at layer height 0 is not accurate; people may be inclined to think that the print part cooling fan needs to be scheduled to 100 %, which will not work and bring its own problems with it.
0scar
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-15T01:36:09.537Z
Heat creep does not have anything to do with a Bowden. You seem to be confusing the Bowden tube with the PTFE lining in the coldend leading up to the heat break. These can be physically the same tubing, but even a direct-drive system will have a PTFE liner unless it's with an all-metal hotend, in which case you have *even worse* heat creep and jamming because the liner isn't providing insulation.
R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-15T15:08:03.180Z
The Ender-3 in question can't shut off the coolend cooling fan at all, it is a safety measure. Most direct-All-Metal hotends also have a liner for the upper part of the coolend to reduce drag in this zone. The only print-setup that completely can ignore any liner seems to be - at the moment - the e3D Hermea
Trish
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-16T20:12:40.300Z
@0scar: Re: safety measure, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDXUHImA3Xc 
R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-16T21:05:49.360Z
@R..GitHubSTOPHELPINGICE I don't understand why you posted the link, the video contains a very custom temperature controller which cannot be scheduled, it does that automatically. It is a cool project though, but I doubt if many people have done this.
0scar
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-16T22:18:33.767Z
@0scar: It's a cool project but I fear people would screw it up in unsafe ways replicating it. Maybe it was OT. My thought in posting it was just that people don't seem to be treating this as the critical safety feature it probably is.
R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-17T05:45:20.457Z
@R..GitHubSTOPHELPINGICE I know understand what you mean, and I fully agree about being a critical item!
0scar
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-13T05:20:13.943Z
2020-02-13T07:31:49.473Z
2020-02-13T07:31:49.473Z
John Kim
<p>All of a sudden I seem to be having a lot of issues with under extruding on my Ender 3. The bottom layer (of height 0.1&nbsp;mm) prints perfectly fine. This is done at 15&nbsp;mm/s speed. However, The moment the print moves to layer 2 and above (at the default speed of 60&nbsp;mm/s), I start hearing a lot of clicking noise on the extruder.</p>

<p>So far I have tried the following</p>

<ul>
<li>Replace nozzle to eliminate clogs</li>
<li>Cleaned the inside of the hot end assembly</li>
<li>Calibrated extruder steps/mm</li>
<li>Reduced the layer height from 0.3&nbsp;mm to 0.2&nbsp;mm</li>
<li>Reduced feed rate to as low at 50&nbsp;%</li>
<li>Cleaned the filament feeder assembly and verified that it is able to push the filament properly (Extruding when the print is not happening works just fine with no clicking)</li>
</ul>

<p>Even with all the above, the issue is still persisting. I am not what else could be causing this. </p>

<p>I am printing with PLA at 200 C</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-06T07:15:06.720Z
Hi, welcome to 3DPrinting.SE!
0scar
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-06T13:21:12.883Z
Temperature? Material being printed?
R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-07T14:10:47.770Z
@R..GitHubSTOPHELPINGICE added in question
Ankit
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-07T21:56:19.530Z
I has a similar issue. The reason it happened in my case is because a lot of pressure was created in the extruder due to the temperature being to low. Thus the plastic wasn't getting viscous enough. Try increasing the temperature with steps of 5 degrees until the maximum limit of the manufacturer for the plastic and see what happens.
Coder_fox
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-08T12:16:58.880Z
What's the slicer you use? What's the extrusion multiplier/flow setting? to me it seems like a slicing error...
Trish
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-08T17:58:13.720Z
@Coder_foxI followed your suggestion and bumped up the temp to 210. The clicking reduced but was still there. Bumping up to 215 seems to have completely stopped it. Have started a 15 hour test print to see if the issue happens at any point. fingers crossed ! Could this be because the filament is almost a year old and was stored only in a plastic bag? As per the original filament specs, the temp should be between 190 - 200
Ankit
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-09T15:51:28.903Z
@Ankit: If the filament was contaminated by significant moisture, the phase transition of it boiling might be robbing you of lots of heat in addition to interfering with adhesion/surface quality. But Rig Tig's answer sounds like a plausible explanation too. I print PLA at 210. In theory it can extrude at just 185 or so, but the rate will be very limited. I find filament manufacturers tend to lie about the optimal temperature ranges, probably because of users with printers that can't achieve high temps or FUD about PTFE at high temps.
R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-08-31T23:52:27.923Z
I'm seeing this on ENder 3 with Cura slicer, but just noticed it's only on infill. Walls/shell/edge or supports are fine.    So speed makes sense but supports are pretty fast, and dont click, only infill (shrug)
Eddie
<ultimaker-cura><extruder><creality-ender-3><extrusion>
Ender 3 Extruder First Layer Perfect But Then Starts Clicking Afterwards
Ankit
# Ender 3 Extruder First Layer Perfect But Then Starts Clicking Afterwards

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-02-06)

All of a sudden I seem to be having a lot of issues with under extruding on my Ender 3. The bottom layer (of height 0.1 mm) prints perfectly fine. This is done at 15 mm/s speed. However, The moment the print moves to layer 2 and above (at the default speed of 60 mm/s), I start hearing a lot of clicking noise on the extruder.

So far I have tried the following

* Replace nozzle to eliminate clogs
* Cleaned the inside of the hot end assembly
* Calibrated extruder steps/mm
* Reduced the layer height from 0.3 mm to 0.2 mm
* Reduced feed rate to as low at 50 %
* Cleaned the filament feeder assembly and verified that it is able to push the filament properly (Extruding when the print is not happening works just fine with no clicking)

Even with all the above, the issue is still persisting. I am not what else could be causing this.

I am printing with PLA at 200 C

**Tags:** ultimaker-cura, extruder, creality-ender-3, extrusion

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Hi, welcome to 3DPrinting.SE!  
> **username_2**: Temperature? Material being printed?  
> **username_0**: @username_2 added in question  
> **username_3**: I has a similar issue. The reason it happened in my case is because a lot of pressure was created in the extruder due to the temperature being to low. Thus the plastic wasn't getting viscous enough. Try increasing the temperature with steps of 5 degrees until the maximum limit of the manufacturer for the plastic and see what happens.  
> **username_4**: What's the slicer you use? What's the extrusion multiplier/flow setting? to me it seems like a slicing error...  
> **username_0**: @Coder_foxI followed your suggestion and bumped up the temp to 210. The clicking reduced but was still there. Bumping up to 215 seems to have completely stopped it. Have started a 15 hour test print to see if the issue happens at any point. fingers crossed ! Could this be because the filament is almost a year old and was stored only in a plastic bag? As per the original filament specs, the temp should be between 190 - 200  
> **username_2**: @username_0: If the filament was contaminated by significant moisture, the phase transition of it boiling might be robbing you of lots of heat in addition to interfering with adhesion/surface quality. But Rig Tig's answer sounds like a plausible explanation too. I print PLA at 210. In theory it can extrude at just 185 or so, but the rate will be very limited. I find filament manufacturers tend to lie about the optimal temperature ranges, probably because of users with printers that can't achieve high temps or FUD about PTFE at high temps.  
> **username_5**: I'm seeing this on ENder 3 with Cura slicer, but just noticed it's only on infill. Walls/shell/edge or supports are fine.    So speed makes sense but supports are pretty fast, and dont click, only infill (shrug)  

---

## 4 answers

### Answer by username_6 on 2021-05-12. Score: 2

I also had the extruder drive slipping backwards (clicking sound) as well and narrowed it down to a Cura update that had changed my Ender 3 machine settings from Marlin to Marlin (volume metric).

Once changed back to Marlin, all is well now. No over extruding. Before reversing the change, I had to reduce the flow rate to 53 %. Now, I’m back to 100 % and very good prints.

Printing with eSun PETG, with the following settings:

* temperature: 235 °C,
* retraction 6 mm @ 25 mm/sec,
* initial height 2 mm,
* all others 1.8 mm,
* speed 30 mm/sec,
* fan on 50 % at layer 3 - no stringing.


---

### Answer by username_7 on 2020-04-15. Score: 1

I bought an Ender 3 and I had the same problem.

I was changing few things and finally got success when I changed the nozzle to the second one (I had two in the set).
At the end changing the nozzle was the primary step, but in my opinion more important was reduce speed printing, from 100 % to 80 %.

Since this simple modification (till now) all prints are fine now.


---

### Answer by username_8 on 2020-04-04. Score: 0

I too had this problem recently. I followed all the many hundreds of steps people suggested and nothing helped. I unistalled Cura 4.4 restarted my computer, installed Cura 4.1 problem fixed. Cura was the problem in my case.

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: For many people including me, Cura 4.4 works just fine. Most probably a setting has been changed causing problems, installing an older version might have helped because in that version, the settings are okay. This only works if the older version has been installed before and had correct settings, or if it has never been installed before.  

---

### Answer by username_9 on 2020-02-13. Score: -2

A temperature of 200 °C is fine. You probably have heat creep from a Bowden style extruder. The filament starts getting softer due to heat creeping up from the hot nozzle. Filament expands and clogs the tube causing gear clicking. Usually there is a heat sink at the the Bowden tube connection. You need to cool that immediately. Which is, to set your fan to 100 % speed at layer height = 0. That should do the trick!

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Hi welcome to 3D Printing.SE! Please note that most fans that cool the coldend are **not** scheduled, so the advice to set the fan speed to 100 % at layer height 0 is not accurate; people may be inclined to think that the print part cooling fan needs to be scheduled to 100 %, which will not work and bring its own problems with it.  
> **username_2**: Heat creep does not have anything to do with a Bowden. You seem to be confusing the Bowden tube with the PTFE lining in the coldend leading up to the heat break. These can be physically the same tubing, but even a direct-drive system will have a PTFE liner unless it's with an all-metal hotend, in which case you have *even worse* heat creep and jamming because the liner isn't providing insulation.  
> **username_4**: The Ender-3 in question can't shut off the coolend cooling fan at all, it is a safety measure. Most direct-All-Metal hotends also have a liner for the upper part of the coolend to reduce drag in this zone. The only print-setup that completely can ignore any liner seems to be - at the moment - the e3D Hermea  
> **username_2**: @username_1: Re: safety measure, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDXUHImA3Xc   
> **username_1**: @username_2 I don't understand why you posted the link, the video contains a very custom temperature controller which cannot be scheduled, it does that automatically. It is a cool project though, but I doubt if many people have done this.  
> **username_2**: @username_1: It's a cool project but I fear people would screw it up in unsafe ways replicating it. Maybe it was OT. My thought in posting it was just that people don't seem to be treating this as the critical safety feature it probably is.  
> **username_1**: @username_2 I know understand what you mean, and I fully agree about being a critical item!  

---

