I just had this problem with my W161, and found the answer elsewhere on the net, so I'll share it here.
8 flashes means unable to engage heater relay, which is why it fills up with water, then discovers it can't heat it, so empties, and the dial spinning is its method of showing an error. (Strange if you ask me, but there we go.)
The relay is on the main PCB. (Six screws to get the back panel off, then two tor-x screws to get the PCB unit free (white box on the bottom left, looking from the back, lots of cables coming out of it)).
It was suggested that "firmly tapping" the heater relay (the black boxes on the PCB, I wasn't sure which one, so did them all), might free it and fix the problem.
Firmly tapping didn't do it for me, but since it didn't work anyway, I thought I'd try harsher methods, and repeatedly rattled a small iron bar against them, inside the white enclosure, and that worked! (I ended up with small marks in the plastic casings from the vigorous beating, but now it works!)
So worth a try, if you get this error, definitely before forking out for new parts.
Also checking/cleaning all the connections to/from the PCB, and heater, wouldn't go amiss.
Owain, June 2011
