Railfan Technology > Canon EOS Rebel EFS 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 Lens question

The better half has a Canon EOS Rebel T6 camera.  Today while out attempting to shoot some activity she started getting an error code with this lens on it. Screen says Error 01, Communication between lens and camera is faulty., clean Lens Contacts. She has a zoom lens and there is no issue with that lens so I am guessing the issue is with the lens. I have tried to clean the contacts with alcohol  and by using a pencil eraser on the contacts as this was a trick I learned from some electronic guy's in the Navy, but not having any luck. Any ideas as to what might be going on and is there a better way to clean the contacts?  Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Ben

DeoxIT has worked for me thru the years.

http://www.funtechtalk.com/clean-dirty-camera-lens-contacts-better-connection/

I don't know about the 18-55, but I had a well-documented recurring error on my EF 24-105 f4L mark i.  Numerous purchasers of that lens had the same problem.  

For me, it got progressively worse, occurring more and more frequently.  Most of the time, I could simply remove the lens and put it back on and I was fine...initially for maybe 50-70 frames, then getting down to 10-20 frames before it happened again.  Of course, it was out of warranty, so Canon charged the 'standard' base rate (I guess), about $155 as I recall.  That lens made three trips to Canon for repairs.  I think it was the internal ribbon cable that failed over and over.   Fortunately, the mark ii version of that lens had been out for a year or so, so I rented one from Lensrentals.com for a week.  It was noticeably more sharp than the mark i.  I immediately purchased a Canon factory (repair location) refurb mark ii and sold the mark 1 on ebay for about $400.  I included a lengthy description of what happened and its 3 trips to Canon, so the buyer knew what they were 'in for'.

If simply taking it off and putting it back on gets things working, great.  I'd also try gently cleaning the contacts on the lens with the eraser on the back of a pencil.  If it fails too often and too many times, it's probably better to simply sell it 'as is' on ebay (yes, 'as is' lenses DO sell on ebay!) and get either a new 18-55, or, my preferred lens when I had a 30D and later 60D, the 18-135.  I had an 18-135 and it worked great!  Its only shortcoming was it needed an external flash for indoor work for proper exposure.

Canon 18-55 at B&H Photo
Canon 18-135 at B&H Photo

I bought a TON of camera gear at B&H.  I even bought my flat screen TV from them as well as Laser Ammo gear for my guns.  They and Adorama are both exceedingly reliable 'have everything' camera stores in New York City.  I've bought some things from Adorama as well, most recently, a used but valid re-serial numbered Adobe Photoshop Elements from them.