Fanatec CSW/CSR Elite Modders Thread *UPDATE February 2014*

  • Thread starter eKretz
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Wow, I'm glad to see so much support here! S the wheel arrived today, and to my surprise it is actually quite nice. The loose wheel was in fact the two bolts, one was stripped so I tapped the threads up to M6 and now the fitment is super solid. This elite does have the common issue where the shaft can move in and out slightly. I will be repairing this either by disassembling and installing shims between the c-clips and bearings or if I am lucky by fitting a couple e-clips with everything assembled. Overall it is quite nice, I will include some photos below. Don't mind the ugly hex head bolt, I didn't have a short Allen cap head bolt on hand so this will be replaced with stainless or matching black bolts. I havent had a chance to power the wheel up yet and try it out in game but everything seems to be in order. I will certainly report back once I have a chance to test it out after work tomorrow.

Blue: I am interested in the PCB and some other spare parts, I just have to see how much shipping would be because I am in USA. I didn't notice the fact that we are in different countries lol. I believe Fanatec will sell the PCB upon request, I'm not sure on the cost but I heard it was only like $65! I could be wrong though. Let me know what you think, have you ever shipped to the US before? If so was it expensive?

Here are some pics of the wheel, I haven't had a chance to clean up the rim yet but you can see it isn't in bad condition. The first couple pics are when I had the wheel case partially removed.
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Very nice! I had to re-tap the threads for the neck bolts on my CSR-E too. That wobble left and right was pretty annoying at times.


Jerome
 
Well I'm glad I could help :)

In regards to the wheel breaking down I don't think you will have any issues, I have had mine for nearly four years now and the only problem I had was with the stock motors and I did kill one pcb but though my own fault. Even now for the past yeah or so pushing my wheel with a much stronger motor than stock (~300w compared to 120w stock) I have not had any issues whatsoever. It really is a great wheel and if you decide to start modding it really can be rewarding.

Sorry if I've been a bit slow on replying, I still haven't managed to get the package weighed yet but I'll let you know as soon as I do

No worries, I'm not in a rush or anything. I'm one of those people who will wait days to open something I'm really excited about, so then when I finally do I'm that much more childish lol. So I dont mind the wait.
And that is comforting to know, I think the electronics are the only weak points in my wheel now (being that they're so old, possibly beta since there's no power button, I will be drilling the front plate for this when I swap to the new PCB and switch set) so once I replace the PCB, switches and sensors I should be good to go. I do plan on looking into upgrade motors in the future, but I might try to find a csw PCB, wiring harness, and quick release hub first so I can have a Clubsport elite lol. I love the orange/black of this case so I would love to convert the elite base to csw. Just for cool factor :) that will have to be down the road though.
 
No worries, I'm not in a rush or anything. I'm one of those people who will wait days to open something I'm really excited about, so then when I finally do I'm that much more childish lol. So I dont mind the wait.
And that is comforting to know, I think the electronics are the only weak points in my wheel now (being that they're so old, possibly beta since there's no power button, I will be drilling the front plate for this when I swap to the new PCB and switch set) so once I replace the PCB, switches and sensors I should be good to go. I do plan on looking into upgrade motors in the future, but I might try to find a csw PCB, wiring harness, and quick release hub first so I can have a Clubsport elite lol. I love the orange/black of this case so I would love to convert the elite base to csw. Just for cool factor :) that will have to be down the road though.

I am currently doing the exact same thing with a csr elite, I already have everything i need except for the pcb. Unfortunately fanatec Australia refused to sell me one so I have been trying to find one, Eric was helping get one but I know he has a lot on his plate so I don't want to pester him about it. Already have the xbox one uni hub ready to go too, I really wish these parts were easier to get but ill just have to be patient till one comes my way. that's also what the money for all the parts is going towards by the way :)
 
Well I'm glad the money is going right back into your SIM racing gear :) I think it would be so sweet to have a elite base with CSW internals. Does the uni hub work with the v1 csw? I actually got a good deal on a set of csw static shifter paddles (actually two sets, one production set and one Fanatec prototype set) I know they aren't listed as being compatible I dont see why they wouldn't be, the wheel recognizes them as an SQ shifter as far as I can tell, and the holes are there. Of course ill have to make an adapter and mount an aftermarket rim to use them.
I'm surprised they wont sell you a PCB. I know fanatec sells the elite PCB in the US somewhat recently, I dont see why they wouldn't sell a CSW one. Was it because you dont have a CSW base and serial number? I was going to get a PCB from Fanatec for the elite but I met you and never bothered trying. I could always try to ask Fanatec USA, but I dont know how to put through a request without a serial number, they make me put it in in order to submit the email. If you know of a way to get a request through to them I am happy to try. They should just have the replacement parts on their site, many people would buy parts way before they would buy a new wheel. I'm sure there are many people who just leave the hobby or buy used or another brand when their wheel fails. If they supplied parts regularly than they could still make money off those people. I guess they figure we'll just buy the next best thing, without considering that people like me are on a budget, but have the skills to install parts.
 
Yeah uni hub for xbox one works on any clubsport wheel. Static shifter pales should even work on the csr elite too, I don't think they list it because it's a discontinued product.

For me fanatec have been touch and go with spare parts, I have bought a few bits from them but some other parts I enquire about they say no, even though I have seen other people here buy the same parts. Could just be the fact they don't send those spare parts to the Australian warehouse, I don't know for sure
 
Yea I've heard of the same thing, telling one person no and another yes. I'm probably the least likely type of person they would sell to. Even though I own the elite wheel, csp v2 pedals+2 color kits, elite pedals+inversion kit, CSS sq, Clubsport handbrake, turbo s, basic csr wheel, clubsport static paddlesx2 (coming soon), and an old Porsche shifter I haven't bought one item from fanatec. All I bought directly from fanatec was one G27 to Fanatec wheel adapter, so I'm sure I'm there least favorite type fanatec owner lol. I actually bought all of my gear, including my non fanatec gear, either locally or through the SIM racing forums, so all of the money went into the hands of a fellow SIM racer :)
 
I'm in a similar boat, I have 2 csr elites, cs pedals v1, 911 gt2, porche shifter set, cs shifter sq v1.5, xbox one uni hub. But the only things I have bought directly from them are the uni hub and the sq shifter. But the reason the other things weren't bought through them was because the didn't have an Australian Web store here previously. The csr elites were already discontinued before they opened the aus store, and my gt2 bundle was bought through pagnian imports (the only way to get fanatec gear here before they opened their store)

I was planning on getting the csw V2 but I held off after the anouncement mentioned that the uni hub would also work on the v1. And now thanks to the aconomy to get the v2 base here is about $1000 and I just can't afford or justify that price right now
 
Yea thats way too expensive for me too lol. Believe it or not I was quite lucky to find anywhere from moderately good, to extremely good deals on all the gear I bought. Otherwise I wouldn't have it :) I also wait and wait for several months until I find the item I want within my budget, thats my only option financially often times.
Btw, I mounted the elite to my rig. Everything is a mess right now because I've been working on it but I included some pics. That angled plate is definitely going to help. I had to angle the wheel deck on my custom rig quite a bit, making it not suitable for my other wheels. Everything is a mess but I included some pics. (as you can see, despite having higher end pedals available, my modded G27s remain in my rig :) I'll swap to the CSPs soon)

I had my original CSR rim mounted at first, it is exactly the same PCB in both rims.
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Your room looks like mine lol! I like the inverted CSPs. What kind of paddle shifters are on the yellow stripped rim?
 
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This was my first thought when I found out I was getting an elite wheel. I figured the toughest part to come across would be the hub adapter and wiring harness but I guess the PCB is tough to get ahold of too:/
 
Hello again, I just wanted to give everyone an update on my csr elite wheel. Since receiving the wheel last Monday I have spent some time here and there fixing it up and would like to share the experience. I work two jobs and I also make/sell my shift knob kits for the TH8 so I am usually pretty busy during the week. Fortunately I was able to get most everything done before the weekend. So, from the beginning. I purchased the wheel knowing that it had issues, I knew that the wheel hub adapter would need attention as it was wobbling and I was told that the wheel did function (power on etc) however there were no guarantees (as to be expected at the price I paid). Once the wheel arrived at my house I quickly tapped the upper adapter thread to M6 and this helped quite a bit. The lower was not stripped. I found that it would be tight initially after the screw were tightened but there was a small gap that would allow the wheel to still wobble a small amount. I remedied this with a .4mm thick price of paper/cardboard type material. It was actually a band aid box that I used the lid off of. This cost me nothing as the band aids are still good (and I found them in my bathroom lol). Once this was fixed it was time to introduce power to the base and see what happens. The first thing I realized was the lack of a power button on this very early version of the elite base. The base powers up at plugin. I powered up the base, it did a sort of calibration, stopped far from center and the --- in the led screen disappeared within a second after if appeared fallowing calibration. I power cycled again but this time I hit the back button as soon as --- appeared. This got the wheel into PC mode. The center position was almost 180* off so I set the center (I mentioned this previously and it didn't work because I wasn't in PC mode). When in PC mode the wheel centered properly, which is good because until this point I thought it would never go into PC mode or allow center to reset. It was not all good news though, when I would rotate the wheel back and forth the center position wold be lost. Upon closer diagnosis I found that the axle play (in/out sliding movement of axle inside bearings) was causing the loss of center. When the wheel axle was slid inwards the position sensor could not read the encoder wheel. This would only happen when the axle was all the way toward the inward position. So the next step was to remove that slack. In order to do this I went to the hardware store and started looking for thin shim/washer like hardware with an inner diameter of 30mm (the size of the axle O.D.). I could not find anything like this so I landed on a couple of snap rings with an I.D. that was very close to 30mm, within .3mm ($.50 cents each, only used one). The snap rings in their stock state were too thick, I used my small bench grinder to thin out the snap rings until I got the desired thickness. I could find out the final thicknesses but this will vary wheel to wheel. I plan on changing to shims anyways, I have to order them. After installing my home made shims there was zero in/out movement of the axle, if you push or pull with enough force and look at the bearings you can see how the shim fits perfectly. It does not out force on the hearing race or original snap ring under neutral conditions, and when pulling/pushing you can see the bearing race take on pressure and go back to a relaxed position. The snap ring fits perfectly snug, removing all unwanted movement without undue force being applied. Now I had a solid hub, solid axle, but because the new position was actually all the way inward the position sensor would not read at all. No biggie, I removed the side panel to access the mounting screw for the sensor. I adjusted the position of the sensor so it is perfectly centered around the optical wheel. Once I had everything positioned properly I powered up again and entered driver. This is when I started to get excited. The wheel position finally read perfectly, and the soft locks hit in the same spot in each direction (just before hard lock hits). I rotated the wheel back and forth and performed a bunch of ffb tests and all went well, no loss of center and exactly 450* of rotation detected in each direction without missing a step. The next step was to fire up my favorite means of testing a wheels power, the rally tracks in GT6, and FIA WRC (3 in this case). The off road tracks in these games give crazy amounts of ffb and are a great way to feel the power. I have to say I was impressed, this wheel provides much smoother, more refined and detailed ffb feel compared to my T500. This is the first wheel I have used that can accurately simulate vibration feel through the motors (not the vibration motors). With tye T500 driving off road sort of punches really hard back and forth but it seems like the force will be applied for too long. This means the wheel cant vibrate or shiver but more shake. The elite is way different. It I still plenty powerful but can also provide a very detailed, precise feeling. Not to mention how much smoother it is. I dont when need drift mode at all (older fanatec wheels I have to set at 1-3). I put the wheel through its paces for about an hour and it performed well with no issues:)
I will say there are still some weird little kinks. For one thing, the wheel creates power when completely unplugged if you rotate the wheel left or right fast enough. The LEDs will light up as a result. The other issue is the at startup. The wheel will not perform the final stage of calibration. It will turn right, left, that's it. It should have a third motion that brings it close to center. Instead it stays at about 180* after calibration. Also, the --- symbol on the led screen disappears about one second after it comes on following calibration. I have found that I can enter PC /PS3 mode by pressing the back button quickly before the --- symbol. Overall I am quite happy with the purchase. Now that I know how much I like the feel of the wheel I will consider future mods and I hope to keep this base going as long as possible. Fortunately the parts I'm buying from blue should help with that:)
The only weak spot was the rim, luckily I remembered I had an adapter machined for my older fanatec wheels a while back. The adapter was actually a G27 adapter that was machines again to fit the four bolt pattern that is found on the older fanatec axles. Fortunately the elite adapter hub has the same pattern of you take the stock rim off the male side of the hub. I will use my regular CSR rim/wiring harness so I cam leave the elite wires in the axle for easy reinstallation of the stock rim. Anyways this is getting really long lol, I will include some pics. Let me know what you think :)

Blue, I added cash onto my PayPal yesterday. I know we don't have the exact shipping price yet but I think I loaded up enough to cover it. I was thinking about it and I am pretty sure the weight will be within the 2kg limit to get the 30-40 price, but that's just an educated guess. I know 2kg is over 4lbs which is a decent amount of weight. Never the less just let me know the weight/price whenever you get a chance. Like I said before no rush at all. I just wanted to let you know the money is there when your ready:)

Here are some pics:
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Hey guys, just thought I'd ask a question here as someone might have the answer. Does anyone know how to differentiate the original V1/elite motor block from the V1.5 from the V2.0? I just bought a V2.0 motor block for my CSRE and I am waiting for it to arrive. It was listed as a V2.0 for CSRE however I have no way of knowing for sure unless there are some sort of markings on the motors, or packaging that I can reference to once the package arrives. This was an ebay purchase so I am skeptical as to whether or not it was listed correctly.

Also, I would like to give a public thank you to Blue028, we have finalized our deal on the CSRE spare parts and PCB and I would be happy to deal with blue again. The package will take a while to make its way from Australia to USA but once it does I will let Gunstar know in case he would like either of the items he mentioned possibly wanting. Thank you very much Blue for working with me and giving such detailed information.
 
To the best of my knoledge there is no visual way of telling what version the motor blocks are.

If you really want the stock motors to last there's a couple of mods to have a think about, the most important one would be the cooling. Stock cooling is pretty much useless, if you get some air flowing through the inside of the motor it will help considerably. The other mod is adding some ball bearing to the motors (stock they are bushes, so high belt tension=high drag which isn't too good for feel or ffb) there are two ways I've seen that you can ad ball bearings, 1 is to pull the motor apart and find a ball bearing the same size as the bush and swap them out. The other way is to make a custom motor mount that has a bearing support that locates in the front of the pulleys (there is a Japanese modded who has done this).
 
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Hey, thanks for the response. I have added some cooling already. I have a very powerful 12v brushless amplifier fan (overkill) blowing across the motor control and rear of motors. Of course the back is off in order to do this. I did some testing last night and after about a half hour of full fbb in GT including 15 min on a rally stage (high ffb in gt6) and the motor control never got above 85* Fahrenheit! The motors got to about 91*. This is the sale result I get on the smaller Porsche wheels with this fan. I am also thinking about adding small barbs into the back of the motor jackets and pumping air through (similar to erics mod). I have to say with the amp fan the ffb stated strong but more important crisp. I am OBSESSED with cooling, I work as an R/C and Drone technician for a local hobby shop and ever since I built my first brushless race boat I've known how good it is to keep things cool :) I got the motor for $35 shipped new, it was listed as a V2 so hopefully that's the case. I read a post online that claimed the new V2.0 motors had a better feel than the V1.5s. Idk if this is true or not but I plan on comparing myself :)

As for the bushing replacement, I'm sure I could get bearings through work, I hadn't though of that. I wonder if the cans are easily disassembled, ill have to look :)

I must say I am more and more happy with this wheel. I get soooo much more subtle road feel with this wheel than with the T500 or older Porsche wheels. My G27 had ok road feel but this is worlds ahead of course. I will have a good collection of spare parts now so I should be able to keep this wheel going for a ling time.
 
Question for you guys, Anyone else have their Buhler's start to squeak @ low rotation speeds ? Cant say ive ever heard a DC motor squeal like im hearing.

PS its 100% the motor and not the belt. Confirmed that already.
 
hello Guys,



I will buy these two engines http://www.elmeq.es/es/p/productos/corriente-continua/m/1-13-049-xxx , model 1.13.049.402 (the last off the page)

for my CSW v1, but I have doubts about 24v power supply (or should I buy with more voltage????), can someone tell me, where to buy in Europe ??


Regards.

Edit: found the spec sheet on the Buhler website, you will need a 10 amp minimum power supply, and stick with 24v

Question for you guys, Anyone else have their Buhler's start to squeak @ low rotation speeds ? Cant say ive ever heard a DC motor squeal like im hearing.


PS its 100% the motor and not the belt. Confirmed that already.




I would imagine it's the brushes causing the noise, or it could be a bearing seizing up. Hard to say but those are the first things that come to mind
 
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I would imagine it's the brushes causing the noise, or it could be a bearing seizing up. Hard to say but those are the first things that come to mind

The bearing's have been oiled a couple times already so its not there, Must be the brushes....dammit why cant these buhler's be as easy to dis assemble/service as the modern RC stuff. :irked:
 
OK got a quick question for you CSW owners, the flex ribbon cable that connects the power button to the PCB are they inverted ends or same side?

I've finally gotten all the parts required for the CSR-E to CSW conversion but i have 2 problems at the moment, first is the ribbon cable i ordered months ago is the wrong one (8 pin, should be 9 pin) and i want to be sure that i get the right ends on it. the other problem i have is that i can get the wheel to calibrate and it shows in the property page but as soon as i attach a wheel (X1 universal hub) it disconnects and tries to re-calibrate indefinitely till i cut the power, i have no idea what is causing it
 
Hey guys, just thought I'd post this listing I found as it may be a direct replacement for Fanatec wheels. Specifically the older 911/csr basic wheels as the motors are sold individually not as a part of a motor block. I know, I know many people post with possible motors that don't match but these motors have the exact same numbers as the fanabuchi motors and are listed as fanatec replacements. I will include a picture of the eBay listing below (link not available on my app). The seller is in china and it looks like these motors have been available in the past. For some reason it is now listed as a fanatec replacement motor which is how I found it. What do you guys think? As far as I can tell they are the same, I haven't compared specs directly though.

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Edit: Specifications show 24V values, I know the title says 12v.
 
Nice find.

Update on my csr-e->csw conversion:

It's working! The reason the wheel was acting up was the firmware didn't recognize the hub, managed to get the wheel into bootloader mode with my dodgy cable and all was good.

The whole process was pretty straight forward, the only issue I did have (besides having the wrong ribbon cable) was the position sensor, because it plugs into the far left side of the PCB, as aposed to top middle/right hand side on the csr elite pcb, the wires were not long enough to reach so I had to extend them
 
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