Fanatec customer service?

[Mikeylewis1]

Hi there just adding my 2p worth .i got a gt3,csr e pedal set not long ago (crimbo from wife) and the first wheel came snapped ! ,second wheel came with stitching out plus LED not working ,both times followed fanatec website and both times UPS picked up wheel and new one arrived .i heard about fanatec cust service being poor but on both times no probs ! .at this time new wheel brilliant no problems plus pedals outstanding !! ,but I think new stand soon as stand slides when I brake !!! ,will have to give wife some medicine !!! . Cheers !!!

 

[Patro]

I went on record with my views about the issue with my defective CSR Elite pedals. They only working with USB connection and not with the PS2 connection required for Xbox play. I would have bet the issue was with the steering wheel, not the pedals (as the pedals working in USB mode, just not with the PS2 cable). I've also posted my public apology on how incorrect I was, and how professionally and accurate Fanatec's tech rep Mirko was in his diagnosis. Thank you Mirko! I'm presuming the issue was with the small circuit board in the pedals where the PS2 and USB cables connect. If I had a spare board this repair would have taken less than 5 minutes if a person took their time.

Anyway, I'm back into my Xbox Forza racing again. I REALLY appreciate how professionally and fast my case was handled. Thanks again Mirko!

 

[AGP5000]

UPDATE from CSR Elite Weaker Thread:

Johannes emailed me this morning with the 2 options. A: Send me the Motorpack, or B: Send it in for repair. If it is as easy as it sounds, I will take A, and do it myself. ANY input would be greatly appreciated. I just do not want to make any major mistakes.....

EDIT: My biggest fear is the tension of the belts changing. Is this a concern when doing this, that you change the tension/ffb?

When my CSP V1's failed, I sent them in for repair simply because I did not trust myself, yet that is, to know how to disassemble & reassemble without error. After purchasing the tuning kit, and doing it myself, I saw there was not much to it, except be careful

 

[Patro]

UPDATE from CSR Elite Weaker Thread:

Johannes emailed me this morning with the 2 options. A: Send me the Motorpack, or B: Send it in for repair. If it is as easy as it sounds, I will take A, and do it myself. ANY input would be greatly appreciated. I just do not want to make any major mistakes.....

EDIT: My biggest fear is the tension of the belts changing. Is this a concern when doing this, that you change the tension/ffb?

When my CSP V1's failed, I sent them in for repair simply because I did not trust myself, yet that is, to know how to disassemble & reassemble without error. After purchasing the tuning kit, and doing it myself, I saw there was not much to it, except be careful

I have more faith in you than you do yourself. You bet you can do it yourself! That's half the fun. Take your time. Check the tension on the belt before starting and get a good "feel" for the tension. Take photos. That's certainly what I would have done, and I've never been inside mine yet....knock on wood... Worst case scenario is you have to send it in, and I'd bet you'll be racing long before then by doing this repair. Take a few pics and show me what the inside looks like...lol. Seriously:tup:

 

[eKretz]

If you have any mechanical ability, it is pretty easy. One way to ballpark the belt tension is to trace around the bolts holding the motor bracket on with a Sharpie or similar before you take everything apart. When you reassemble, put the bolt heads back inside the traced circles and you'll be very close to where you need to be. You can check deflection of the belt by putting a ruler next to the belt and push on the belt as hard as you can, see how far it moves. Check again after reassembly, but make sure you check in the same spot. (At same distance from pulley).

 

[AGP5000]

If you have any mechanical ability, it is pretty easy. One way to ballpark the belt tension is to trace around the bolts holding the motor bracket on with a Sharpie or similar before you take everything apart. When you reassemble, put the bolt heads back inside the traced circles and you'll be very close to where you need to be. You can check deflection of the belt by putting a ruler next to the belt and push on the belt as hard as you can, see how far it moves. Check again after reassembly, but make sure you check in the same spot. (At same distance from pulley).

Patro, Kretz, thanks! I greatly appreciate the insight.

My plan is to simply note all moves made on the parts, to know exactly how far I moved everything, to replace to OEM specs. I will request Johannes send me the motor pack, and I will go from there!!!

I will report how I made out when the time comes! Thank you again!

 

[HouseChampion]

Patro, Kretz, thanks! I greatly appreciate the insight.

My plan is to simply note all moves made on the parts, to know exactly how far I moved everything, to replace to OEM specs. I will request Johannes send me the motor pack, and I will go from there!!!

I will report how I made out when the time comes! Thank you again!

Just a tip for doing the replacement. Take BOTH side panels off (instead of just the right side as per the instructions) as you'll need to take the belt off the large pulley on the left side. If you don't, you'll find it quite difficult to remove the belt from the motor pulleys as you won't have much slack/room to move.

Also, the top connector needs a tiny/sharp/thin flat head screw driver for removal. It goes in some tiny gaps on the top of the white connector bit. Took me a while to figure that out

 

[RacerXX]

Also, use the innermost grooves on all three pulleys to reduce motor shaft issues. The ones closest to the motor. This cuts shaft leverage by 15% when using two rib belts. No drawbacks, slight improvement, zero cost. Pics in the mod thread.

 

[HoiHman]

UPDATE from CSR Elite Weaker Thread:

Johannes emailed me this morning with the 2 options. A: Send me the Motorpack, or B: Send it in for repair. If it is as easy as it sounds, I will take A, and do it myself. ANY input would be greatly appreciated. I just do not want to make any major mistakes.....

EDIT: My biggest fear is the tension of the belts changing. Is this a concern when doing this, that you change the tension/ffb?

When my CSP V1's failed, I sent them in for repair simply because I did not trust myself, yet that is, to know how to disassemble & reassemble without error. After purchasing the tuning kit, and doing it myself, I saw there was not much to it, except be careful

Here's a tip how you can get the exact same tension on the belts:

Measure the distance between the bolts and the housing before taking the wheel appart with a digital meter

Do this for every slot, so it's very easy to apply the same tension afterwards

I would definitly do this myself.


Back op topic about the Fanatec Customer Service

I had an issue with my CSPv2, reported it yesterday afternoon
I got a reply the same day and i was asked to try something out.
After i reported back this morning, i just got a reply that they are sending me a new PCBA

That's pretty Fast 👍

 

[HouseChampion]

I sent a reply on Tuesday to a conversation that's been happening over the last 2 weeks. It's now Saturday and I haven't receive a reply yet.

This was after receiving my new motors (that have something wrong with them). I was also having the issue of having to wait 24hrs between each support email, even if I replied immediately after I received it :/

 

[eKretz]

Well, I had that same issue with the often almost 24 hour wait, but that's because by the time I emailed them they were already gone for the day because of the time difference. I'm not sure what the time diff is between Aus and Germany though, maybe your wait is something else. If they don't answer within 2 days it is acceptable to prod them.

 

[eeronmm]

I have had my wheel for 7 months now, it broke for the first time after one month and it took me over a week to explain sending videos and still they didnt think anything is wrong with it and finally accepted that i will send it back. It turned out like i was saying the ffb motors were defected and they said its unrepairable and and sent me new. This all together took over 3 weeks and yay i was back in business.

But the joy was short, after few days the power supply unit died and another week to wait for new one.

Then i was set for a long time, till now. I can feel one or both ffb motors are defected or something isnt right. They confirmed that.
But wait this time i have premium service right so i dont have to wait another 3 weeks and miss yet another season in iRacing.
But NO, they say ups delivery will take 2 days and so i think there is no point of premium service as they say it takes 2 days but i know the fastest i have got delivered was 6 days.

I am getting tired from this and i cant recommend this trouble to my friends who are looking for a new wheel. But then again i dont know any other wheel i want so its double disappointment.

I have been defending the wheel and service but at some point i have had enough.

 

[bumer]

Then i was set for a long time, till now. I can feel one or both ffb motors are defected or something isnt right. They confirmed that.
But wait this time i have premium service right so i dont have to wait another 3 weeks and miss yet another season in iRacing.
But NO, they say ups delivery will take 2 days and so i think there is no point of premium service as they say it takes 2 days but i know the fastest i have got delivered was 6 days.

They say that repairing a product takes 2 days, not all this process takes to days.

 

[eeronmm]

They say that repairing a product takes 2 days, not all this process takes to days.

Fanatec premium service: Should a repair be necessary and the duration of a repair and return shipment is estimated not to be within the following 2 business days after we received the product, a replacement unit on loan will be shipped to you, with no time restrictions and for each and every warranty case.



Yea they can repair it in 2 days but they say if the repair and return is more than 2 days so in my case it will be easly 6 working days plus when i send it so i can look together over 2 weeks closing to 3 weeks, hence im saying they offer this great premium service but then they dont follow it.

 

[bumer]

Fanatec premium service: Should a repair be necessary and the duration of a repair and return shipment is estimated not to be within the following 2 business days after we received the product, a replacement unit on loan will be shipped to you, with no time restrictions and for each and every warranty case.

Yea they can repair it in 2 days but they say if the repair and return is more than 2 days so in my case it will be easly 6 working days plus when i send it so i can look together over 2 weeks closing to 3 weeks, hence im saying they offer this great premium service but then they dont follow it.

As they say within, I understand they must ship the product back no later than 48hours after receiving, not that the product must be back in your hands in 48 hours.

 

[eKretz]

Got to say, it could be taken either way. The wording is a bit ambiguous.

 

[HouseChampion]

So as per my post in the iRacing forums, the wires on my new motors were around the wrong way. Re-soldered and voila! All working great again.

Turns out there's others with the same "new motor" issues too though

 

[AGP5000]

Still no reply last week from Support after they offered me to either send the wheel in, or get the motors myself. I chose the latter, and just want some sort of confirmation & new motor pack on the way.

EDIT: Just got an email from support. Motors on the way in the coming days!!!!

I can tell, with every race, the motors are slowly starting to dwindle. The most major issue is the FFB shuts off in race for a few seconds at a time, then kicks back on. It is happening more, and more. I just want it fixed, sooner than later



Also, anyone here with a BETA CSW F1 rim that has NOT had its paddles replaced? Reason being, my left paddle is starting to lose it's full tension on the spring. Getting a little squishy. Not bad, and still works, just not 100%. I know they offered the new paddle springs, and since I barely used mine at the time, I passed. I still only use it occasionally, and want to be sure it lasts for the time to come!

Thank you all for your support, I have a LOT of work in front of me to do this right. I will have an extra set of hands to help when the time comes. I will be sure to take pics & post the pre & post motor switch!

 

[RacerXX]

Still no reply last week from Support after they offered me to either send the wheel in, or get the motors myself. I chose the latter, and just want some sort of confirmation & new motor pack on the way.

EDIT: Just got an email from support. Motors on the way in the coming days!!!!

I can tell, with every race, the motors are slowly starting to dwindle. The most major issue is the FFB shuts off in race for a few seconds at a time, then kicks back on. It is happening more, and more. I just want it fixed, sooner than later



Also, anyone here with a BETA CSW F1 rim that has NOT had its paddles replaced? Reason being, my left paddle is starting to lose it's full tension on the spring. Getting a little squishy. Not bad, and still works, just not 100%. I know they offered the new paddle springs, and since I barely used mine at the time, I passed. I still only use it occasionally, and want to be sure it lasts for the time to come!

Thank you all for your support, I have a LOT of work in front of me to do this right. I will have an extra set of hands to help when the time comes. I will be sure to take pics & post the pre & post motor switch!

This could be the protection program kicking in. On my Elite the motors get 100% FFB signal from room temperature until 125ºF. And 80% signal above 125ºF until 145ºF at which time FFB signal to the motor is cut completely. Signal comes back to 80% once you get below 145ºF again. But it can pass 145ºF again pretty quickly since the motor is still so hot. Once FFB signal has been cut to 80%, it will not return to 100% unless the wheel is rebooted or temperatures in that drive session drop to about 80ºF. This is from testing I performed and posted about in the Fanatec mod thread.

 

[eKretz]

Yep, I'd say you are right on that one, my last Elite did that. In the end, it got to the point where the wheel kept shutting itself off and on and trying to reboot/calibrate over and over. I think it was cutting off because of overamperage though because it would do it still even when cold.

 

[RacerXX]

Yep, I'd say you are right on that one, my last Elite did that. In the end, it got to the point where the wheel kept shutting itself off and on and trying to reboot/calibrate over and over. I think it was cutting off because of overamperage though because it would do it still even when cold.

Little side note…when I did the testing I mentioned just above here is part of what I did. I used a dummy load (water cooled power resistors) instead of the FFB motors. And a potentiometer instead of the motor temperature sensor. With this in place…to start the wheel I had to manually steer the wheel through the startup cycle where it turns full right until the stop and so forth. If I did this wrong, I'd wind up in some weird mode. I should look into that further. I can imagine that partially burned up motors might trigger other sorts of strange behavior. Since they'd have to go through the boot cycle and perhaps behave strangely during it.

It could be that a strongly cogging motor might have very poor conduction through some of the commutation elements. So the motor would work for X degrees of rotation, and then work poorly or not at all for Y more degrees. Combine that with the other motor's healthy or unhealthy behavior and you'll have a weird wheel. If I had a strongly cogging motor I'd try cleaning it by running it under water (removed from the wheel of course

) and perhaps with some solvent spraying. This might be enough to dislodge some of the contaminants if the commutator was not too burned up physically (which would require clever disassembly and some lathe work to cure).

 

[AGP5000]

Motors on the way! Just got the confirm email!

And Racer & kretz & others, thank you ALL! Again, I will have a spare set of hands here. As for the temperature info. This is puzzling as I have extra air going through the base to prevent the temp increase, & subsequent loss of FFB.....



Any insight on the F1 rim from the last page anyone? Thanks!

Anthony

 

[eKretz]

AGP, the extra airflow won't do much. You'd need to directly cool the motors. Once they get some comm damage it's near enough shorting out, so they get hot fast. Does your wheel have 2 cooling fans? My Elites didn't but my CSW does. Still fades over time with heat. Gotta go for the water cooling, IMO. Contact F-tec regarding the paddle issue, I think they will send you updated paddle housings or springs. I don't have a Beta wheel, so I'm no help there.

@RacerXX - Yeah they definitely aren't rebuild-friendly. The one I dissected in the modding thread basically had to be destroyed to open it. Had to use a cut-off wheel to slice through the bent tabs because there wasn't enough protrusion to get a bite on them for prying. It could still be reassembled though if I really wanted to. The nice thing is they at least are aware of the motor issue and have been good about replacing them. I wonder if the minimal brush contact doesn't affect the rate of comm wear/defects.

 

[RacerXX]

Motors on the way! Just got the confirm email!

And Racer & kretz & others, thank you ALL! Again, I will have a spare set of hands here. As for the temperature info. This is puzzling as I have extra air going through the base to prevent the temp increase, & subsequent loss of FFB.....



Any insight on the F1 rim from the last page anyone? Thanks!

Anthony

Cooling can be trickier than you'd think at first glance. The key with tech devices is LOCAL cooling of the various hot spots combined with case cooling. Doing only the latter simply won't be enough. "Science!" (said with a deep voice tone).

Air near surfaces stagnates and does not move. See boundary effect. So it acts like a thin layer of insulation, helping to retain heat.

Solution - deal with the boundary effect situation via localized cooling strategies…

 

[AGP5000]

Cooling can be trickier than you'd think at first glance. The key with tech devices is LOCAL cooling of the various hot spots combined with case cooling. Doing only the latter simply won't be enough. "Science!" (said with a deep voice tone).

Air near surfaces stagnates and does not move. See boundary effect. So it acts like a thin layer of insulation, helping to retain heat.

Solution - deal with the boundary effect situation via localized cooling strategies

English please?

TBH, I am NOT one that is so "technically" inclined. However, God did grant me 2 hands to work with. So, I "should" be able to manage this with a little help.

I believe in this statement : "THE BITTER TASTE OF POOR QUALITY LINGERS LONG AFTER THE SWEET TASTE OF LOW PRICE IS FORGOTTEN" I wish others did just as much......

 

[RacerXX]

English please?

TBH, I am NOT one that is so "technically" inclined. However, God did grant me 2 hands to work with. So, I "should" be able to manage this with a little help.

I believe in this statement : "THE BITTER TASTE OF POOR QUALITY LINGERS LONG AFTER THE SWEET TASTE OF LOW PRICE IS FORGOTTEN" I wish others did just as much......

Sure thing.

First of all, the motor swap out won't be too bad. Fanatec and the forums will help you there so don't worry.

On my Elite (last batch, rec'd January 2013) the sole cooling fan is an 80 mm unit on the RHS set to blow air out of the case. I'd call this a case fan since all it does is move air through the case. The LHS vents use a layer of foam to act like an air filter. However that is not absolute since there are still unfiltered holes throughout the wheel, such as the belt tensioning slots on the black frame-plate.

A simple mod would be to flip that fan over so that it directly blows onto the motor heat sinks. No rewiring is needed but you have to remove some hot-glue. The motor heat sinks would then see higher velocity and more turbulent airflow across them. Which would slightly help cooling.

 

[MissJoan]

I have a wheel and my son has a wheel as well. My ex tried to take it in our divorce! ha!

They have been ok with the issues we have had but I really wish there were not so many issues to begin with. Time will tell if these last. My ex insisted that they were rubbish and wanted to take one and "fix it" Well, I know a thing or two myself and will do any fixing that is necessary thank you very much.

 

[bladezzz]

Fanatec's customer service has improved big time IMO 👍

A year ago it took 3 months to fix a problem with my CSP's.
Yesterday the new motor arrived for my (batch#1) CSR-E, 10 days after the 1st mail sent about the problem.
Motor swap was a piece of cake and the wheel works perfectly again.

My confidence in Fanatec has grown a lot, the service matches the quality now

 

[hennessey86]

I have never personally had a problem with fanatecs customer service.

 

[Patro]

Boy...this thread went to hell in a handbasket quick I must be lucky. I too have had several issues with my CSR Elite pedals, however when I followed the pain in the butt but simple instructions, whipped out my trusty smart phone and took a video AND audio showing exactly what was going on, with a specific written explanation of the contents of the video as well as DOP and the models serial number as well within a day or two the issue has always been resolved I wonder if it is the region that's having difficulty? I'm in the middle of the USA and these kind of problems have NEVER been an issue for me. I do think they have a warehouse somewhere in California, but dunno how accurate that is. I also have to wonder just how many products they have received under warranty that had absolutely nothing wrong with them. A few thousand of those kind of issues would make me request a 🤬 video just to make sure they remembered to turn the thing on. Just a thought....💡