Generic How long should steering wheel last in everyday use?

Hi to all,

I bought Thrustmaster T300RS steering wheel set. It took two months and the weak pedals and Thrurstmaster T300 wheel were both broken. It is also possible that the full metallic PRO pedals add on which I bought during this two months period were also broken. This was a bit scary although I am promised that I will soon get both new pedals and T300 steering wheel from warranty. I believe this and these equipment are on their way to me hopefully before Christmas 24 day.

Anyway I am curious to know what brand in general does the most solid and strongest steering wheels for everyday eSports use? What is a typical lifetime for this Thrustmaster T300 wheel set and wheel sets in general? Did I buy too cheap and low cost wheel set when I bought T300RS wheel set? At least the all metallic pro pedals feel like high quality work but they went also broken according to sales maintenance. I have understood that the FFB wheel set up will last its full functionality for years to come if it is a decent example and not so called "Monday morning made" bad example which wont be really good wheel ever and do not represent average manufacturing quality at all. It is however obvious that some percentage of the steering wheels are bad since they leave the factory and will create similar kind of disappointment as I now have had with Thrustmaster T300. As a curiosity I must mention that I have never bought a smart phone which has not been broken during the warranty period at all. Never. However after the warranty repair the phones has started to work as they should for couple of years. I do not use badly my smartphone, just normal everyday use. I do not drop my smart phones and I handle them rather carefully.

This is no good advertisement for Thrustmaster T300 set no matter whether or not I will get new set of wheels and pedals. Please let me know what kind of horror stories you have had with your FFB wheel sets. Thank you in advance.

 

My horror story:

T500RS and Pro Pedals - used in AC ~750 hours and 250hours in Spintires (much harder for the wheel. a lot of 1080 degrees action with really high forces)

Until now - nothing.

 

Sounds pretty bad.

 

Hm, my g27 has over 1400 hours in AC only. Maybe another 300h in other games. Still working perfectly

 

I have also heard from other people who are sim racers that Logitech is a long lasting product.

 

T500 seems to be a lot more reliable then the T300.
I have the T300RS and had a the calibration failure problem and also random button activation after 14 months of use. The wheel base was replaced under warranty but the random button activation has rendered the wheel useless. It shifts gears randomly during laps and it is now on the shelf. I use my G27 and it is 5 years old and never had a single problem. If you get the settings right for Assetto it is every bit as good as the T300. I really enjoyed the FFB of the T300 and thought it was far better than the G27 but now that I have the G27 tuned in I would not go back to the T300. Pedals for G27 are rock solid apart from potentiometer wear and tear that all similar pedal sets suffer from.
Reading other forums I would say the failure rate of the T300 is running at around 50% which is pretty poor.

 

i have my G27 since 2012, 600 or so hours on AC, 130 hours on BeamNG, countless hours on LFS (about 500 or 600), GT legends, etc...

Apart from dissasembly, clean & assembly once every year, my G27 ain't getting tired.

 

I bought my T300 used off Ebay and have since logged over a couple thousand hours in AC with no issues at all.

 

2200 hrs or something in AC with my T500RS, and maybe more in other sims before. The only problem I've had is that one of the paddle shifters microswitches stopped working, but TM sent me a replacement.

 

Indeed, I`ve had three Thrustmaster`s in the space of a couple of years,
but this £80 Logitech DFGT toy, I brought from Argos,
Currently lasting five years and counting,
still fresh from the day I purchased it.

(Love to get a DD wheel,lovely pedals and gear shifter some day.)

 

Sadly, I must concur regarding Thrustmaster, insofar as it concerns their lower grade wheels including the T300RS...didn't own it a year before the motor was giving out, first losing strength of the forces, then overheating. Can't say for their higher end products, a la TS-PC and other such wheels...but my old Logitech, and my ClubSport material...rock solid after running at peak forces for several years. I use external cooling which helps, but something tells me with/without...they work as they should.

 

I had a logitech G25 that lasted for many years since rfactor 1 until about 12 months ago. Aftr that died I got a g27 and it broke within 1 month, got a replacement and it died just recently. I have given up on the logitech wheels and also wanted a DD wheel so ordered an Accuforce v2 which I should get soon, this should be considerably stronger then the logitech g27 thats mostly made of plastic bits including the wheel mount to the base being just a flimsy piece of plastic.

When I had the G25 I had it mounted to a desk with just the desk clamps and it had no issues until I hard mounted it where it started to fail, the G27's were all hard mounted and for me I think this was the main issue. The wheel clamps would fail and the wheel would rip off the desk but once hard mounted all the load went into the cheap plastic bits its made from and is what caused my issues. The first g27 the full wheel ripped off the base, not a good thing when its got no quick release lol. I sent it back and Logitech said this was fairly common and replaced it all for me, the 2nd wheel had developed a crack in the top cover and the wheel would move up and down. Eventually this got so bad it would free spin if turning on the PC and it did its auto calibration, many people however used the Logitech wheels without issues but after seeing the insides and the flimsy plastic making up critical parts I am amazed they generally last as long as they do.

 

The main issue with the T300RS seems to be the durability of the motor when subjected to sustained stall forces (any force which delivers a constant/near-constant torque value, like a turn on a race track) and adequate cooling. I ran my T300RS at full blast with some clipping on tracks like SPA and Nordschleife and the motor ultimately gave out. I have a cold room, ambient temps not too high...after my tests, it seems heat has trouble escaping the wheel base's housing. Thrustmaster applies adequate cooling (miniature fans) but no adequate venting imo...removal of the black base cover dropped wheel ambient temps by more than 5C. The motor isn't the strongest imo...if you run any dampening in the assettocorsa.ini...say goodbye to the motor. I discovered later that it was not really designed to hold up to such forces...intended rather to run without dampening for "fast zig-zags" and whatnot as Thrustmaster is now saying for several of their wheels. I suppose I contributed to its demise...but when I wheel includes mechanical dampening...shouldn't it work with or without it? As others have said: Logitech...fairly bulletproof.

 

Got my t500 in 2011 use it daily with strong ffb hasn’t missed a beat many thousands of hours started on PS3 then PS4 now PC, pedals still work perfect along with being modified. It seems to be a lucky dip no matter what brand you choose some last years some only a few tries..

 

i drive for arround 4-6 hour a day , my T300 Alcantara is now 1 year old , had a issue on my pedals and they gave me new ones (fault pedal problem) , apart this 0 problems and trully happy with it

 

I own a T300RS, my cousin bought one a month later. Both wheel bases have been broken after ~ 15 month. Hopefully they last longer after being repaired.


sent from my mobile, cheers!

 

T500RS & pedals + TH8A shifter, bought in mid 2014, about 2000 hours in AC (and I like FFB strength rather high) and no problem since then except the plastic table clamp which fissured lately but I fixed it by myself with some metal wire. Happy camper. So, a decent wheel should definitely last a few years.