Logitech G923, loud plastic noises

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Greycap

The Flying Finn
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Either I'm having some terrible luck with this (well, these) thing(s) or something else is going on. In short, I'm now on my second G923 in three weeks and it's still not looking - or actually sounding - good.

The first one sounded like this.



The official Logitech support was completely useless, I offered them the video and a description about what's happening, and they didn't even look at the video. They didn't in any way acknowledge what I told them. The best they could do was "disconnect the wheel and reconnect it again" and a troubleshooting list for the G Hub software. Then I contacted @LOGI_Rich here and the response was miles better.

Eventually I took the wheel back to the retailer, filed a warranty claim, and surely enough it was broken as I got a new one with no more questions asked. Well... it sounds like this. Further descriptions in the videos on the YouTube site.





My old G25 which I bought in 2007 and which got me through GT4-HD-5P-5-6-Sport has been tortured nearly daily over a span of 13 years, it's done some 400.000 km and that's a conservative guess, and it doesn't sound like that. It rattles a bit as it's certainly not in pristine condition anymore but it doesn't sound like someone is hitting something with a hammer inside.

I'm not terribly amused anymore. If this is the actual quality of the current flagship Logitech wheel, it's a very grim situation. If I managed to get a second defective example in a row, something is very wrong with the quality control.
 
This case got closed for me. The second one was also replaced under warranty. I then received a third wheel, it clattered just as bad as the previous two, and at that point I called the game over, took the refund and ran.

The retailer told me that there's another customer going through a similar warranty loop with a G29, with similar symptoms. It seems like there's been a bad batch of some component and the entire production blocks may be affected. I may have another try some day but for now I'll keep going with the old G25 that still behaves better.
 
Myself, and two posters on Reddit, have been having this same problem with the G923 but for us it's only on GTS. I had mostly been using the wheel on PC with Dirt Rally 2.0 and Project Cars 2. I never got the rattle with those game, or any others I tried it with including Wreckfest, Dirt 4, or Beamdog.

Once I got GTS on sale and hooked up my wheel for the first time to my PS4 was when I noticed the rattling. Turning down the vibration level reduces the sound significantly but it's still there. I really think this is an issue with GTS and not the wheel itself. I tried the demos for Dirt Rally 2.0 and GRID which both have TrueForce support and neither produced the sound.
 
My G29 worked ok in Gran Turismo , but in F1 it rattled and vibrated so much the game was unplayable.

The problem is the 2 motors are crude - their shafts move laterally, forwards and backwards during FFB, causing the helical gear to knock against the front bearing and make the banging noise.

I fixed it by adding a pinion gear with grub screw onto the rear shaft of each motor, locking the shaft against the bearings, essentially removing the play from the shafts. Not too tight to restrict movement, but just enough to stop the lateral play. Use a couple of washers to help with friction and add oil occasionally. The shaft with the sensor needs a very thin gear, or cut the toothed part of the gear from the collar.

You have to pull the unit apart, and know what you are doing, add heatsinks and fans etc, but after I did this the rattle was gone, my wheel responded much much better, and I could feel it far more, the FFB was really good. The motor will heat up a bit more, so heatsinks and fans are necessary to keep them cool.

F1 then worked like a dream, really good feeling from the wheel. It's not much work, but you need to know how to tune this wheel up a bit if you want it to perform. Logitech will give you no support in fixing things like this, you have to learn how to do it yourself and be comfortable with working on your new, or old, purchase enough to mod it. Yes, you lose your warranty - however if something goes wrong, at least you'll know how to fix it and improve it so it lasts a long time, and these kinds of fixes are not difficult or expensive, and you'll have a better wheel. In the end, the mods are pretty easy, just get over thinking you cant do things like this and you'll surprise yourself.
 
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Either I'm having some terrible luck with this (well, these) thing(s) or something else is going on. In short, I'm now on my second G923 in three weeks and it's still not looking - or actually sounding - good.

The first one sounded like this.



The official Logitech support was completely useless, I offered them the video and a description about what's happening, and they didn't even look at the video. They didn't in any way acknowledge what I told them. The best they could do was "disconnect the wheel and reconnect it again" and a troubleshooting list for the G Hub software. Then I contacted @LOGI_Rich here and the response was miles better.

Eventually I took the wheel back to the retailer, filed a warranty claim, and surely enough it was broken as I got a new one with no more questions asked. Well... it sounds like this. Further descriptions in the videos on the YouTube sit

My old G25 which I bought in 2007 and which got me through GT4-HD-5P-5-6-Sport has been tortured nearly daily over a span of 13 years, it's done some 400.000 km and that's a conservative guess, and it doesn't sound like that. It rattles a bit as it's certainly not in pristine condition anymore but it doesn't sound like someone is hitting something with a hammer inside.

I'm not terribly amused anymore. If this is the actual quality of the current flagship Logitech wheel, it's a very grim situation. If I managed to get a second defective example in a row, something is very wrong with the quality control.
 
My own G923 sounded just like this, out of the box. I had a G29 set up on a different rig, and 2 years of regular use on GT Sport and GT7 saw it still running quietly (well, relatively!).

The G923 was massively noisy, to the point I could not use it when my partner was in the house. ANYWHERE in the house.

I found this fix, though. It clearly demonstrates the same sort of noise you show, and the almost silent operation afterward. Enjoy!

 
This sounds like a normal G29. Mine has been making the same noises since I got it in late 2017 and it’s still perfectly fine. It was the worst in Codemasters games though and I always lowered the ffb settings to make it less intense.
 
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If they're really all like that it's pretty alarming seeing that my old G25 did 15 years without ever making a sound that loud. On the other hand it has straight cut gears and thus whines a bit but the helical cut in the later models may actually be the root cause of the problem as they also create axial forces for the gears. Why the G27 and G29 with similar internals are still relatively quiet though remains a mystery.

Eventually I made a rich man's choice and solved the problem by buying a T-GT II. That's not to say the Logitech is a bad wheel though, I just didn't want to take the chance of getting a fourth loud one after calling it quits once.
 
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