Fanatec Clubsport Shifter SQ review

[Nick Moxley]

I noticed the CSS was either put back or sold out.
I had hoped to order one next week, when it looked like they would be in stock.......I doubt I'll have to pre-order.
Not a big fan of pay now get it sometime though

Seems to be the Only way to get em. Unless going with a Used unit from another racer.

I personally waited the month and was Overly Glad I did. Freekin Awesome piece of gear.

 

[Dian_]

Here's how I fixed the problem with skipping gears, just tighten the two screws. Now everything works as it should. They rigidly fixed the board on which is the HAL sensor.

 

[bumer]

Damn the availability date has been postponed (again) until the end of April

Well it seems that I was right that you can preorder from another batch at the moment, not that they have been postponed again, because some people reported that they got their shipping confirmation. So it seems that there's still more demand than their little production line can deliever.

 

[magicaldog]

Well it seems that I was right that you can preorder from another batch at the moment, not that they have been postponed again, because some people reported that they got their shipping confirmation. So it seems that there's still more demand than their little production line can deliever.

As Carson79 said:

"Not a big fan of pay now get it sometime though"

 

[bumer]

As Carson79 said:

"Not a big fan of pay now get it sometime though"

Well, lately they have been delievering at the times they promised to deliever. Of course everybody has a choice, if you are not willing to pay now, you are just not that interested in it at the moment, because there is probably no need for it and there's no reason to spend money on something you don't need.

 

[magicaldog]

Well, lately they have been delievering at the times they promised to deliever. Of course everybody has a choice, if you are not willing to pay now, you are just not that interested in it at the moment, because there is probably no need for it and there's no reason to spend money on something you don't need.

 

[oqvist]

May be a case of english not being a primary language. If you want to preorder to make sure to get an earlier then if you wait until all shifters is sold it does make perfect sense to preorder and pay in advance! I am happy I did even though I apparently got super lucky and had a whopping 1 week wait time or something.

I am having a lot of use of it now trying to run an 150 minute race on a sprint mapping that is only designed for 90-120 minutes. You just can´t engine brake as effectively with seq shifter as with paddles that and with the help of having the rev limiter as low as possible I am positive I will finish the race. With all the testing I am really growing to like the seq shifter more though I recon it´s not as fast as the more direct seq shifters out there.

 

[bumer]

@magicaldog

 

[Cote Dazur]

Just a short update, since mid Feb, when I received my CSS SQ shifter. I am totally happy with it, I had the opportunity to used my old shifter as I used my older Porsche wheel while travelling, it made me realized how spoiled and fortunate I am to be able to enjoy that amazing shifter. Switching from H gate to sequential takes second, so alternating from sequential race car to H-gate is practical.
I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a more immersive SIM driving experience, it will not make you faster but it can make you more satisfied.

 

[christinewong]

I lost my trust to Fanatec because of the CSS SQ I ordered.

It is a long story, but I think it worth to read it all.


I have pre-ordered the CSS SQ on 2013.8.22, and folks, I am still haven’t solve the issue with Fanatec.

I am living in Asia so I have asked my friend in US to receive the thing for me. All my orders were done in US account. It was sent to my friend’s house on about 2013.12.28 and I received it on 12.31 and I thought “That is Great!” as I finally got it by the end of the year. But that is the start of nightmare! I quickly took the CSSSQ out and did the setting and test. After calibration I found the shifter doesn’t work for 2nd 4th and 6th gear. We have recalibrated many times but the results are the same.

Moreover the rj11 to ps2 cable is extremely short (40cm) and I can’t mount my shifter anywhere. I am using a gt3rs v2 rim with firmware version 756 and running pc driver 177, with club sport pedal v1. The results are the same on both PC and PS3 with GT6.

Emailed to Fanatec on the same night that is 2013.12.31 and until 2014.1.7 they asked me to upload the video to them, I have a long trip from 1.8-26 therefore I uploaded the video after I returned. Video sent to them on 2.5, showing clearly the firmware version, how we calibrate & our PC driver version.

I waited patiently, hoping they will find out a way to solve this. But it seems they are not going to reply to me…I emailed them again on 3.6 & 3.13. They just let me wait for 1 month!!! This really makes me feel bad, very bad!

Then, they finally told me they are going to replace the faulty CSS SQ for me on 3.17. They asked me to pay for the shipping cost, okay, I will pay for it. I requested the new CSS SQ to be send from Germany, they quoted me the price on 3.20, another 4 days, at a price of $76.

Friends, it’s been 3.5 months until then! (in which I have 1 month out of town)

Sound unbelievable!!

I agreed to pay the postal and all my orders were made under US account, so the dollar unit “we are talking about should be in US, is it normal? Fanatec told me ‘NO, No way! The staff from Germany send me an email telling they will need me to pay for the postal first and its $90, wait, it s EUR$90!!!!! That is really crazy I can said, I never experienced such kind of service before. I am indeed VERY ANGRY!!! As for the past few months I have been very patient and tolerate to them. I asked them why the shipment cost is not the same as they quoted before ($76) and secondly, why is it in EURO?? I asked, but the staff from Germany just replied with no sorry, just nothing, that is the fee. I don’t know what I can said at this moment!

I opposed and asked why the fee quoted is different, then, the staff later on replied the adjusted postal is EURO$75, the date is 3.25.

My mate said okay let’s just get it done and finish the whole drama. So finally I paid for the postal which is EURO$75 on 3.26. I asked them to send out the tested CSS SQ asap.

Then, I received an email telling “your order will be shipped now” on 3.26. I thought “GOD, please, please let me have all these finish. That is too terrible!” I just hope to receive the workable CSS SQ asap.

After another week of waiting, I still haven’t receive the anything. Therefore I emailed them and asked to make sure the CSSSQ is being shipped. You know what? They HAVE NOT send out the CSSSQ. They just DID NOT DO WHAT THEY PROMISED.

Because they want me to send them the faulty one first. They never mention it clearly that I have to send out in advance or else they will not send the new one to me. And what is the meaning of the email telling my thing is already being sent and let me wait. ONLY UNTIL I asked them, they said so to me. This is the way they do. They never trust me & just let me wait forever.

Try to imagine all these happening to you, what will you feel? I really want to know what other people will feel and do.

I am angry! What are they doing? I am just a customer that trust them and prepaid them for their product, and it’s their problem to have poor QC and have so many problematic product, I already agreed to pay and paid in advance for the postal, but now they are still hurting me in this way. I just want to drive my game with the CSS SQ, why I have to experience all these and to bear all the cost? What a waste of time and money!

I am too angry that I just stop here and I haven’t decide to complete all these or not.

The faulty CSS SQ is still here with me.

Any suggestion to me please?

 

[magicaldog]

I pre ordered !!! my CSS SQ 10 days ago ! got it yesterday

Fantastic piece of hardware !

Totally love it !

Spent many hours with it and everything works great.

The Assetto Corsa F40 feels so much more immersive with the right hardware and so do the rest of the non paddle shift cars.

Thank you Fanatec for enhancing my Sim racing experience

 

[Carson79]

@christinewong
I think others have had the same issue, and it is the sensor. I think one guy took his apart and adjusted the sensor and after that it worked fine. This may be something to consider to save time and money for you

 

[Cote Dazur]

@ Christinewong , since you are asking for a recommendation, I recommend that you send the CCS SQ back, what they are asking of you is exactly what I had to do to have a replacement.
Your new one is going to be sent as soon as they receive the faulty one.
It seems that like for me, you receive an automated email saying they are sending one, it is a good sign it means that they have an order for a new one for you and that they have one to send. But since it is a replacement, it will not ship until the faulty one arrives.
Also agree that the people who write emails at Fanatec should take a course on email etiquette as their email sound like their send by the police, a little smile in those email and a little sorry to cause all this issues would be appreciated.
All that said, the CCS SQ is worth it, please write a comment on how you feel when you receive the functioning CSS.

 

[christinewong]

@christinewong
I think others have had the same issue, and it is the sensor. I think one guy took his apart and adjusted the sensor and after that it worked fine. This may be something to consider to save time and money for you

Thank you for your reply! yes actually i read many of us have the very similar problem, obviously there is a problem with their QC! Money and time spend already....

 

[christinewong]

@ Christinewong , since you are asking for a recommendation, I recommend that you send the CCS SQ back, what they are asking of you is exactly what I had to do to have a replacement.
Your new one is going to be sent as soon as they receive the faulty one.
It seems that like for me, you receive an automated email saying they are sending one, it is a good sign it means that they have an order for a new one for you and that they have one to send. But since it is a replacement, it will not ship until the faulty one arrives.
Also agree that the people who write emails at Fanatec should take a course on email etiquette as their email sound like their send by the police, a little smile in those email and a little sorry to cause all this issues would be appreciated.
All that said, the CCS SQ is worth it, please write a comment on how you feel when you receive the functioning CSS.

Thanks a lot Dazur!! I read all the post in this thread and also in some other forum. Its really annoying and the quality and stability of the CSS SQ is questionable. I just think if they are going to sell this, they should make sure it is okay as now i can see the fault rate is very high compare with others.

Yes you are very right, i think the way they express in the emails are not nice as this is not their problem nor their fault....besides, the time they keep me waiting is unacceptably long, if i dont chase them, they seems never get back.....its hard for me during the past months...

Thank you so much Dazur I feel better after reading you and Carson79 replies to me, appreciate your guys words!

Still Thomas has to know our experiences and what is happening about the faulty CSSSQ Hope he ll read these.

 

[fatkrakr]

Why would Thomas care at this point about faulty products? He has been selling a faulty CSW with no attempt to correct the issue, just keeps sending out the same junk motors. The shifter has been defective since they released it and people are still lining up to buy it. At Fanatec it has to look pretty good, as long as they can keep ignoring their emails.

 

[bumer]

Why would Thomas care at this point about faulty products? He has been selling a faulty CSW with no attempt to correct the issue, just keeps sending out the same junk motors. The shifter has been defective since they released it and people are still lining up to buy it. At Fanatec it has to look pretty good, as long as they can keep ignoring their emails.

I think your statistics and Fanatec statistics are a little different. At manufacturing, there is usually 3% allowable defect rate or something like that. There may be 5 to 10 (I don't really know, don't count the people) in this forum who have problems with motors and there is many more in the world but we don't know how many CSW's or any of their products Fanatec have sold. To you, it may seem a serious problem, to them, maybe usual allowable defect rate. Also more expensive and more reliable motors cost more. Higher price reduces the appeal of the product.

 

[fatkrakr]

I think your statistics and Fanatec statistics are a little different. At manufacturing, there is usually 3% allowable defect rate or something like that. There may be 5 to 10 (I don't really know, don't count the people) in this forum who have problems with motors and there is many more in the world but we don't know how many CSW's or any of their products Fanatec have sold. To you, it may seem a serious problem, to them, maybe usual allowable defect rate. Also more expensive and more reliable motors cost more. Higher price reduces the appeal of the product.

Your right, it is very obvious that Fanatec see this as completely acceptable, but they also find ignoring support emails perfectly acceptable as well, that doesn't make it right. Had I of known that I was going to get $3 motors in my $1000 CSW I damn sure wouldn't of purchased it. That info didn't come to light until a month after I bought mine. When I did find out about it though I was pretty sure I made a mistake in my purchase, then Thomas came around saying it was a faulty batch of motors.

Which brings me to my issue with Fanatec. Thomas came on this fourm and stated it was a faulty batch of motors. We all know now that isn't the case, but Fanatec new that was a LIE when he stated it. To me that is the same thing as fraud (maybe not legally but morally) and I think as consumers we shouldn't allow a company to LIE about their product that way and not call them on it.

So what about it Thomas, care to share with your paying customers why you stated it was a faulty batch of motors? It is clear that it wasn't bad motors, but a bad choice of motors. Is Fanatec ever going to offer a solution to their 🤬-up or are we the consumer just screwed and need to find our own solution to my 10 year steering wheel. Anyone remember that statement . I cant get my wheel to last 10 months let alone 10 years.

 

[bumer]

Well, those motors are always questionable. My wheel is from the first production batch, so, in less than 3 months, it will be 2 years old. Of course warranty is about to end and it makes me concern about those motors. But, so far, 1 year and 9 months later, I haven't had any problems with them, still the same motors. So, how can it be, that I have used them 3 months less than 2 years and no problems at all, while others need them replaced every 1 or 2 months. It is not like I'm driving FFB on 20. I have both, FF and Force on 100 in wheel settings. With some cars in some games, FFB feels too strong and I tone it down to 80 or 90.

 

[fatkrakr]

My guess is if you where to put new motors in your base you would feel the difference. The wheels will keep working and even put out decent ffb with a burnt motor. It is just weaker and tends to fade sooner. I am currently still using my wheel even though I know it needs a new motor block, Im just not ready to loose my wheel AGAIN for a month or more.

 

[Cote Dazur]

Bumer, than you for sharing your CSW experience, nice to read that some wheels seems to last the way they should, as we read more about the one who have gone bad, my wheel motors went bad, it was still working, but the FFB was very botchy. the motors got checked after I changed the block and one of them was Kaput.
I wish that the happy users share more, it would seem fair, as from my point of view, from what I can see the motors are very weak and tend to fail more often than not. I wish the failure rate is 5 to 10 % but I highly doubt it.
As far as better motor to make the wheel more expensive, I would gladly pay a premium for a better wheel and would purchase an updated kit from Fanatec that would address the motor weakness and the lack of adequate cooling.
eKretz offers a popular mod with better motors, in https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/thre...e-modders-thread-update-february-2014.274631/

 

[bumer]

I would gladly pay a premium for a better wheel

You yes, but you have to draw a line somewhere. I would gladly pay for Bodnar or such wheel too, but with the salary in my country, I would need to work for almost half a year and not spend a cent to get one.

I think if this wheel would cost more, many would definitely prefer T500.

I don't think that failure rate is that high. If that is the case, it shows that people at Fanatec are very bad at business, loosing a lot of money for no QC and bad parts and still not learning from it after very many years in business.

 

[fatkrakr]

You yes, but you have to draw a line somewhere. I would gladly pay for Bodnar or such wheel too, but with the salary in my country, I would need to work for almost half a year and not spend a cent to get one.

I think if this wheel would cost more, many would definitely prefer T500.

I don't think that failure rate is that high. If that is the case, it shows that people at Fanatec are very bad at business, loosing a lot of money for no QC and bad parts and still not learning from it after very many years in business.

That is exactly the point. With the stock motors this wheel isn't worth what they are charging for a G27. The wheel in its current state is an inferior sim wheel to ANYTHING else on the market. If you use your CSW as it was designed it will fail. Its been proven time and time again. Hell at one point (before the faulty motor crap) they honestly suggested to people to turn down the ffb. Really? Turn down the effects on my $1000 sim wheel? When the community went up in arms over that load of crap they came up with the faulty batch of motors story.

 

[DeeVeePee]

@fatkrakr
Sorry but I am really tyred to read this BS! Did you ever ask them (Fanatec) what the motor problem is/was and if and how it was solved? What you are writing is nothing more or less than plain WRONG!

@christinewong
This is really a sad story and I hope for you that it will be solved/finished soon. Please keep also in mind that Fanatec does only do direct distribution and there systen is focused to work fine when you order from a "supported" country. If you re-direct the product to another country something can get very wrong. It sounds like that is the case here :-( All the best!

 

[magicaldog]

@fatkrakr
Sorry but I am really tyred to read this BS! Did you ever ask them (Fanatec) what the motor problem is/was and if and how it was solved? What you are writing is nothing more or less than plain WRONG!

Totally agree with you !



The so called Fanatec horror stories seems to be snowballing around the Sim Forums.

I wouldn't be surprised if in fact there are only a handful of REAL problems.

I read on one forum where Thomas from Fanatec actually answered one who had issues.

For some reason the person who had problems suddenly turned quiet when Thomas said he couldn't find this person in their database

I have bought a lot of Fanatec equipment and there have been a couple of minor issues but Fanatec has always been quick to fix them within a week.

In the Clubsport price range Fanatec has zero competition. The competition is just plastic fantastic crap in my opinion.

I've put down nearly 300 hours in Assetto Corsa alone and probably just as much time in RBR and my CSW motors are just fine after 9 months of hard use.

 

[JogoAsobi]

My my, how things have evolved since I left the show.

@fatkrakr
Sorry but I am really tyred to read this BS! Did you ever ask them (Fanatec) what the motor problem is/was and if and how it was solved? What you are writing is nothing more or less than plain WRONG!

@christinewong
This is really a sad story and I hope for you that it will be solved/finished soon. Please keep also in mind that Fanatec does only do direct distribution and there systen is focused to work fine when you order from a "supported" country. If you re-direct the product to another country something can get very wrong. It sounds like that is the case here :-( All the best!

My my, your first post. ...combined with the post ^...
...sure-fire recipe for a flame war. Just an observation.

 

[DeeVeePee]

I am deeply sorry that this is my first post but I admit that I have been reading here on GTP since quite a long time but finally I had to make a comment. I also have been "afraid" of getting a CSW because of those stories and this is why I asked the Fanatec Team about the motor problem and not just blew a bunch of crap out into the endless forum space in the web.

I will not be a part of a flame war. That's a promise!

 

[magicaldog]

I am deeply sorry that this is my first post but I admit that I have been reading here on GTP since quite a long time but finally I had to make a comment. I also have been "afraid" of getting a CSW because of those stories and this is why I asked the Fanatec Team about the motor problem and not just blew a bunch of crap out into the endless forum space in the web.

I will not be a part of a flame war. That's a promise!

Please do share your conversation with the Fanatec Team 👍

Have you ordered your CSW yet ?

 

[Cote Dazur]

I am deeply sorry that this is my first post but I admit that I have been reading here on GTP since quite a long time but finally I had to make a comment. I also have been "afraid" of getting a CSW because of those stories and this is why I asked the Fanatec Team about the motor problem and not just blew a bunch of crap out into the endless forum space in the web.

I will not be a part of a flame war. That's a promise!

I hope you do order your CSW, it is only fair ordering it knowing that some of us have had issue, but most of us, me the first, would order a wheel again, even if I have had issue with a set of motor and still believe they are weak.
That said the wheel is that good and IMO above the other offering, that it is worth it. Fanatec support has always been good to me. I hope you never have to find out.
Maybe because we love Fanatec product that makes some of us whishing Fanatec would be an even better company. Overall we could all appreciate better reliability and more transparency.

 

[fatkrakr]

[quote="DeeVeePee, [/quote]

I am begging Fanatec to tell me exactly that. It has already been determined what the problem is though, the motors being used are designed to either push paper or move a printer head not run a sim wheel. The problem is my $1000 wheel has $3 motors in it.
How its being solved presently? By sending out the same junk ass motors. By totally ignoring their customers who are begging them for a solution. Not only begging for a solution, but willing to pay them to have their wheels work as it should of from the start.
I don't know what else we are suppose to do to get their attention, but scream from the rooftops until someone at Fanatec decides to give a care.
Im not exactly sure what BS you think I am giving here, but I assure you I own a CSW and have had to have it repaired twice now and the current motor block needs replacing.
If your tired of reading it close your eyes, because this isn't going away anytime soon. People have been waiting along time for these answers and its about time Fanatec come clean with their customer base.[/quote]