POLL: Thrustmaster T300RS/GTE Reliability Poll

[p-coletray]

Can I just say this:. Everyone who paid $200+ on a wheel should demand absolutely the best quality electronics, hardware, and software. If we are being ripped off, and after a long review of forums here, I'd say we are, then let's all of us, everyone who is in the angry chair, file a BBB COMPLAINT.

It's very simple. Maybe this can be an indicator to them and PD that we're fed up.

Thrustmaster has no BBB recognized company in the States anymore. I've called and emailed them multiple times with no response. Just a foreign answering desk who says they'll review... I think that's his job is to say that and hang up. Really he is unprofessional. Anyone else know what I'm talking about?

 

[ikral]

I guess this is RROD Thrustmaster edition, better machine than Logitech but unreliable af. I'm on the quest for buying a new wheel, so taking those problems with T300 in concern, my choice will be T150 or G29. I believe T150 because of hybrid drive, I really hated that cogging sound on my DFGT. Fanatec is Far Cry for me and my wallet.

 

[RattyMcClelland]

I got mine is January 2015 and used it perfectly with the PS3 and pS4 ever since.

Today i put in the new TM rally wheel R383 onto my T300rs. Played GT sport but the buttons were all wrong. I go to update the firmware which was on the original 23 and upgraded it to 27. Updated fine then suddenly disconnected and it no no longer powers up. I never even used the wheel so it wasnt hot.
It no longer works. Fuse is fine in the plug but the wheel is dead. I emailed Thrustmaster uk but i dont expect to hear from them.

Looks like ill have to get a new Servo base at £230.

 

[Racemachine]

My t300rs won't calibrate just spins a little to the left and all the way to the right, and does it over and over and the ps button does nothing! Won't connect to the PS4. Had a t500rs for a little over a month and the just died, sent it back to amazon and got another one and it was good for a little over 2years just out of warranty and it died! So bought this t300 and now this. I'm thinking of getting fanatic wheel are they any good? Or g29 just looking for reliability.

 

[insert coin]

I got mine is January 2015 and used it perfectly with the PS3 and pS4 ever since.

Today i put in the new TM rally wheel R383 onto my T300rs. Played GT sport but the buttons were all wrong. I go to update the firmware which was on the original 23 and upgraded it to 27. Updated fine then suddenly disconnected and it no no longer powers up. I never even used the wheel so it wasnt hot.
It no longer works. Fuse is fine in the plug but the wheel is dead. I emailed Thrustmaster uk but i dont expect to hear from them.

Looks like ill have to get a new Servo base at £230.

Maybe it is this problem:

 

[shoemaker]

I got mine is January 2015 and used it perfectly with the PS3 and pS4 ever since.

Today i put in the new TM rally wheel R383 onto my T300rs. Played GT sport but the buttons were all wrong. I go to update the firmware which was on the original 23 and upgraded it to 27. Updated fine then suddenly disconnected and it no no longer powers up. I never even used the wheel so it wasnt hot.
It no longer works. Fuse is fine in the plug but the wheel is dead. I emailed Thrustmaster uk but i dont expect to hear from them.

Looks like ill have to get a new Servo base at £230.

You have a 2 year warranty from thrustmaster so send it in to them.

 

[RattyMcClelland]

Maybe it is this problem:

Perfect. I'll fine that a go I think.

You have a 2 year warranty from thrustmaster so send it in to them.

I got it on January 2015 so it's out of warranty now.

 

[shoemaker]

Perfect. I'll fine that a go I think.




I got it on January 2015 so it's out of warranty now.

Ah yes, sorry. You could always ask them to service it, has to be cheaper than buying another wheel. Worth a shot !

 

[p-coletray]

So I cracked mine open today, tried some things, no dice. Thrustmaster won't answer my emails. It's easily under warranty. They are infuriating to deal with. $470 for a fishing weight. One guy over on another forum burnt up 4 wheels, one guy said the shipping cost was over $120 and they sent him the wrong model wheel back, etc etc. there's a lot of horror stories on the internet. I just don't know what to do. I can't fix it, smells like burnt electronics when I plug it in. They are a dishonorable company with a cool product.

 

[LordDrift]

I've had 2 wheels with issues. That should be worth 2 votes.

 

[RattyMcClelland]

Well spank my ass and call me Dennis.

Thrustmaster uk emailed me back today.
They have give me a process to do where I force the t300rs into the bootloader connection and update the firmware again.

Well I followed the guide and guess what, It's only gone and worked.

Works perfectly.

Big thumbs up for thrusty mc ukmaster.

 

[Awong124]

I got mine is January 2015 and used it perfectly with the PS3 and pS4 ever since.

Today i put in the new TM rally wheel R383 onto my T300rs. Played GT sport but the buttons were all wrong. I go to update the firmware which was on the original 23 and upgraded it to 27. Updated fine then suddenly disconnected and it no no longer powers up. I never even used the wheel so it wasnt hot.
It no longer works. Fuse is fine in the plug but the wheel is dead. I emailed Thrustmaster uk but i dont expect to hear from them.

Looks like ill have to get a new Servo base at £230.

I didn't read this until now, but yeah, same thing happened to me when I first got the wheel. I fixed it by doing the bootloader thing as well.

 

[Daz555]

My wheel is still working fine (only a couple of months old) but has had one issue. On one occasion for about 5 mins the cooling fan made a horrific noise and I assumed it was dead. After reboot of wheel however it was quiet again and it has not happened since. Given the wheel is fine otherwise I'm going to ignore it for now - will return for replacement if it happens again. If I was aleady out of warranty I would have already replaced the fan to be honest. Drilling holes and a new fan is my long term plan for this wheel - asuming it lasts that long.

 

[cjr3559]

With all of the return/replacements on this wheel, I wonder how many are refurbished, repacked, and sold as new.

 

[Daz555]

Cooling fan is now permanently knackered so I have orderd a replacement - have ordered a 70mm fan as well and see if I can squeeze that in there with a non-invasive mod. Looks like it can be swapped out without voiding the warranty as no warranty stickers etc are on the T300 so they will not be able to tell device has been opened. I will keep the old fan and put it back in if I have a more serious problem in future and have to return under warranty.

Reluctant to return to Thrustmaster as it will take ages to repair swap anfd if I get another wheel back it could easily have a different problem in a few months. I'd rather stick with the one I have as for now at least from a FFB perspective it works perfectly.

 

[Racetee]

Cooling fan is now permanently knackered so I have orderd a replacement - have ordered a 70mm fan as well and see if I can squeeze that in there with a non-invasive mod. Looks like it can be swapped out without voiding the warranty as no warranty stickers etc are on the T300 so they will not be able to tell device has been opened. I will keep the old fan and put it back in if I have a more serious problem in future and have to return under warranty.

Reluctant to return to Thrustmaster as it will take ages to repair swap anfd if I get another wheel back it could easily have a different problem in a few months. I'd rather stick with the one I have as for now at least from a FFB perspective it works perfectly.

Fan screws (beside all others inside) have this red thing over them, so they will know you were doing something inside. If just the fan is the problem, then they will replace just that and you will get the same wheel back. Or problably they will just sent you a new fan and tell you to replace it yourself. Definitely contact them first.

 

[Daz555]

Fan screws (beside all others inside) have this red thing over them, so they will know you were doing something inside. If just the fan is the problem, then they will replace just that and you will get the same wheel back. Or problably they will just sent you a new fan and tell you to replace it yourself. Definitely contact them first.

Looking at pics online it looks like some sort of thread lock? Also not quite sure I want another $1 fan installed into it if I go down the warranty route. I'll think on it!

 

[Racetee]

Looking at pics online it looks like some sort of thread lock? Also not quite sure I want another $1 fan installed into it if I go down the warranty route. I'll think on it!

If you will replace the fan yourself, you will lose the warranty anyway. If they sent you a new fan and tell you to replace it yourself, then you can just put your own fan in and keep the warranty

 

[edhunterbg]

I recently bought T300RS GT edition, played once Gran Turismo Sport with no issues. And after couple of days on next attempt to use it - it was completely dead - even in bootloader mode. What a shame.
I decided to open it to see what might be a problem. I suspected the power supply inside, but it turned out to be fine. I disassembled the wheel further in order to get to the main board - and what I saw disgusted me - the quality of soldering was so bad, there were small pieces of solder material moving freely on the board.
I will never trust TM again.

 

[DaddyBox1300]

I guess this is RROD Thrustmaster edition, better machine than Logitech but unreliable af. I'm on the quest for buying a new wheel, so taking those problems with T300 in concern, my choice will be T150 or G29. I believe T150 because of hybrid drive, I really hated that cogging sound on my DFGT. Fanatec is Far Cry for me and my wallet.

I have the T150 with T3PA Pro pedals and the G920 (pretty much the same as G29) and I love them both in their own way. T150 is quite smooth, but not powerful as the G920. The G920 has good ffb, even maybe better than the T150, but it's not as smooth (more notchy), but not bothersome. I can run almost identical laptimes on PC games. Just need to adjust slightly. The T150 on GT Sport is amazing, but GT Sport doesn't have the best physics. Fun as hell to play though.

 

[Daz555]

Well I have now learned how shocking TM customer support is. Nearly 3 weeks just to get a response to an email query. You live and learn but my T300 (as good as it is performance wise) is the last TM product I'll ever buy. Any company with shoddy customer service or after-sale support is a permanent ban from me.

 

[derutatu]

I recently bought T300RS GT edition, played once Gran Turismo Sport with no issues. And after couple of days on next attempt to use it - it was completely dead - even in bootloader mode. What a shame.
I decided to open it to see what might be a problem. I suspected the power supply inside, but it turned out to be fine. I disassembled the wheel further in order to get to the main board - and what I saw disgusted me - the quality of soldering was so bad, there were small pieces of solder material moving freely on the board.
I will never trust TM again.

Did you try to resolder the parts you think that were not good ? Does the wheel work now ?

I want to buy tomorrow a t300rs gt, with 2 year warranty at a local store ..but all i see is problems

 

[edhunterbg]

Actually there were no visible blown parts on the mainboard. I just cleaned the board and removed excessive pieces of solder, but it didnt help at all. I could not restore it. If you are reading this thread may be you know what to expect 50% chance of failure. In another forum I red for guy that had 4 t300 in a row that failed.

 

[derutatu]

I saw that also..but also saw many people beeing happy with it ..i'm gonna buy it from someone who used it for 4 months now..no issues ..it still has 1 year and 8 months warranty to return it, in case of failure, but from what i see and read, most wheels that fail, fail after little usage ..so ..maybe it's a good batch ?

 

[PaulDiRoosta]

My first one failed, calibration failure, after about 14 months if I remember correctly. The second one just gradually got worse over about 6 months till it had so many random gear shifts it is just not possible to race with it. Good luck with it because you will need that luck

 

[derutatu]

Thanks. May the gods hear you . I think i will buy it, just because it's under warranty and if it fails, i can return it to the local store, and get a new one. Or a G29.

 

[KATTILA]

I have had two broken T300RS wheels. I always has got a new wheel from warranty. Now I have my third T300RS wheel at use. Today it lost it's power for a second...the red led did not burn and the ffb felt really odd, I could feel the rolling of the gears inside the wheel. But suddenly the power came back and I have no issues with the wheel at this moment. I hope the future is also better and I do not need to return this wheel to the store again. But the service is good and they said at our local PC store that I could make another RMA claim again if the wheel goes dead. However this time I want a refund and another wheel like TS PC racer. Hopefully TS PC racer is a better wheel with decent quality. I hope I am not wrong with this.

 

[Knukel]

Pricing in local store is ridiculous for T300rs GT edition, for the price of it you can buy standard T300rs with upgraded pedals and shifter. Ridiculous and depressing, it's a old product. And due to possible reliability issues i wont order it from Amazon where the pricing is about right.
Quess i'm stuck with old T150 for at least one another year. (Which is now +50% of what i paid two years ago)

 

[Daz555]

If you will replace the fan yourself, you will lose the warranty anyway. If they sent you a new fan and tell you to replace it yourself, then you can just put your own fan in and keep the warranty

I asked, they do not send replacement parts to customers - it took me 8 weeks to get that answer from them. I also asked them for an SLA if I was to return my wheel to them for repair - 3 to 7 weeks was the response I got and it took abother 3 weeks to get that answer. Shambles.

I have now replaced the fan myself as 7 weeks without a wheel would leave my racing leagues shot to pieces - so sod that. I was extremely careful with the disassembly and notice that the red "stuff" on various nuts and bolts inside the wheel is just bog standard red threadlock. It will be easy to re-assemble and maintain the warranty. Just to illustrate how shoddy TM build quality is, only one of the nuts securing the fan in my wheel had any on it at all, the other 3 were already working their way loose which probably contributed to the fan failing to start with due to vibrations.

 

[McNulty]

I've had my T300RS for 4 years now with only one issue. When you turn the wheel it would make a squeaking sound that i fixed today by pulling it apart and adding some more grease where some had dried up.

Over all though i'm really happy with it and hoping it will last another few years before i upgrade.