The Thrustmaster T500RS Thread

[skazz]

Driveclub devs have confirmed that the T500RS works. That was one of the reasons why I purchased my T500RS in December, together with all the confirmation that T500RS latest revision is a mature design where all of the weak points have been improved (springs, fan, airflow, shaft screws).

The TX is still in the first 6 months of teething troubles due to the new motor design, and it doesn't support Playstation, only Xbox One and PC. So it's not really an actual alternative unless you only care about PC

 

[Bkim]

Today it happened...i wasn't strong enough against those extreme forces...i bought the T500. With a sad feeling i uncoupled my G27...Logitech: BRAVO! (we all wish you will make a G29...one day). But as soon as i started lapping Mills Metro outside loop A a huge smile from ear to ear appeared. WOW...what a absolute difference between the G27 and the T500. I have read it many times people saying it on forums and i thought: yeah...yeah...makes you faster huh...
Nope...but it makes me much more consistent. Im on the line and i stay there. IT is much more precise (which i also heard and thought..."uhuh"...).
And the most beatiful thing...the main reason that i have bought this wheel. When i hit the kerbs at full speed or enter the gravel, all i hear is this humm of vibration...no rattling shackles tak tak tak. just silence...i LOVE IT!
Brake pedal is better than Logitech, so i will keep driving this for a while. So far so good!!!
By the way: came in the new blue GT6 box, bought in in The Netherlands (Europe).

 

[LogiForce]

Today it happened...i wasn't strong enough against those extreme forces...i bought the T500. With a sad feeling i uncoupled my G27...Logitech: BRAVO! (we all wish you will make a G29...one day). But as soon as i started lapping Mills Metro outside loop A a huge smile from ear to ear appeared. WOW...what a absolute difference between the G27 and the T500. I have read it many times people saying it on forums and i thought: yeah...yeah...makes you faster huh...
Nope...but it makes me much more consistent. Im on the line and i stay there. IT is much more precise (which i also heard and thought..."uhuh"...).
And the most beatiful thing...the main reason that i have bought this wheel. When i hit the kerbs at full speed or enter the gravel, all i hear is this humm of vibration...no rattling shackles tak tak tak. just silence...i LOVE IT!
Brake pedal is better than Logitech, so i will keep driving this for a while. So far so good!!!
By the way: came in the new blue GT6 box, bought in in The Netherlands (Europe).

Want to be more precise? Buy a DSD T500 adapter and a nice steering wheel. 350mm is the maximum diameter to pick if you still wish to reach the static shifter paddles.

I got a simple 350mm wheel from Autostyle.nl for 50 euros and it just feels much better than the hard rubber wheels Thrustmaster makes. More precise and it just feels more... proper in your hands. Of course the more money you spend, the better the wheels become.

Be warned though. There are wheels that are made for usage with gloves, and wheels made for handling with your bare hands.

Just watch this video for an idea what to look for in a steering wheel.

 

[ANFD]

I've had my T500 RS for 14 months now. Bought it with both the GT and Ferrari F1 wheel. I've praised the heck out of it in various threads and still think it makes my G25 feel like a toy. However, there is one aspect that bothers me .... the G25 was 4.5 years old when I switched it out for the Thrustmaster and still working perfectly. The Thrustmaster broke it's first tension spring in the brake pedal at 11 months. I received a "spring kit" from Thrustmaster with 6 springs, enough to rebuild all 3 pedals (2 per pedal). Since the brake pedal springs are a bit stiffer than the rest, I took the one that hadn't broken and put it in the throttle pedal to add a bit more resistance and put the two new stiff springs in the brake pedal. One week later, that spring also broke, so I used the new springs from the kit and rebuilt the throttle pedal. Then two weeks ago one of the new springs in the brake pedal broke again. I've already had the pedals dis-assembled three times and now have to do it again. Then last week, one of the toggle switches on the Ferrari F1 wheel shorted out which rendered most of the other buttons non functional. Add to that dilema, the new Thrustmaster Wireless Headset I got for Christmas failed within the first 2 weeks (the ON/OFF button wouldn't turn the headset off). I sent it back to Amazon for a refund. So, it appears as though my beloved Thrustmaster has a quality control issue company wide. And now for the best part .... when I contacted them to see about getting the F1 wheel repaired, they insisted that I send them a video of the wheel connected to their online Control Panel (on my PC) to demonstrate to them that the toggle switch had indeed failed. After I jumped through all their hoops, they finally did issue a RMA to return it (at my expense of course).

Hope you have better luck with yours than I did

 

[LogiForce]

*shrugs* We each have our own experiences with companies. In the end each company has issues and each product has at least one or more weak points in them. Some an oversight during R&D others maybe with intention of increasing sales (although no company will admit that of course).

Personally every Seagate harddrive I or my dad have owned in about 25 years now, maybe more, has failed within warranty or was having issues when I took it out of the box. Sometimes not dead yet, but you could for example hear the heads getting slammed against the insides as if they hit the spinning platters.
So I always got Western Digital or Maxtor drives myself and never had an issue with them. Heck, I still own a 10 MegaByte WDC harddrive built onto a IDE-controller that still works.
When I got to know more people that worked with computers (before the internet boom hardly anyone had one) I got to learn that people had the same experience I had with Seagate with the other popular companies. And when I estimated how big both camps were, they were roughly equal in size. Still I decided to stick with what I felt most comfortable with and in a way was personally the most lucky with to get the good quality items from.

So yeah, it's always a hit or miss and a bit of luck.

 

[Gunstar]

Double post/forgot the quote.

 

[Gunstar]

Has anyone ever mentioned what brand of motor it is? Is it a Chinese motor now, or are they getting a brushless motor from Buhler (Germany) too?

I haven't heard anything about who makes the TX motor, only that it's brushless.

 

[Bkim]

Want to be more precise? Buy a DSD T500 adapter and a nice steering wheel. 350mm is the maximum diameter to pick if you still wish to reach the static shifter paddles.

I got a simple 350mm wheel from Autostyle.nl for 50 euros and it just feels much better than the hard rubber wheels Thrustmaster makes. More precise and it just feels more... proper in your hands. Of course the more money you spend, the better the wheels become.

Be warned though. There are wheels that are made for usage with gloves, and wheels made for handling with your bare hands.

Just watch this video for an idea what to look for in a steering wheel.

Thanks for the info Lforce, i saw a YT vid of a Slimline quick release modded onto the T500. That is exactly what im thinking about. Already have my eye on a Sparco wheel: R353. But before i can do that i must be able to remove the standard wheel. It is very tight and i do not have enough space to apply force and turn the ring.

 

[oqvist]

Have you tried a 380 mm LogiForce?

 

[LogiForce]

Thanks for the info Lforce, i saw a YT vid of a Slimline quick release modded onto the T500. That is exactly what im thinking about. Already have my eye on a Sparco wheel: R353. But before i can do that i must be able to remove the standard wheel. It is very tight and i do not have enough space to apply force and turn the ring.

Push and pull on the side of the wheel a bit. Wiggling it like that plus applying some force by hand is enough to get it loose.
Mine are stuck like that too sometimes. Just keep it at like that and it will come off eventually.

Have you tried a 380 mm LogiForce?

No, I have not. My Sparco glove size is a UK size 9. So that's small hands for a guy, but I am a small guy that falls into the Richard Hammond size category (sadly).
In any case, with my size 9 hands I can still just about grab the paddles comfortably enough without letting go of the wheel. If the wheel becomes 1cm/10mm bigger than I will have issues.
So a 380mm will be too big in that scenario.

Now if you wonder if I think the T500 can handle 380mm wheels FFB wise. Yes it can, as the FFB hardly changed when going from the 300mm GT rim to my current 350mm one. So I totally will not expect any degradation of the FFB effects up till 400mm.

One thing I need to add though, my new rim was about just as heavy as the stock GT rim. So when picking a wheel, don't make it a wheel that is too heavy, as I do think this will decrease FFB performance.

 

[Paul33993]

Agreed about the weight. Size doesn't seem to affect things (from my limited experience). But I suspect if you went with some wheel that was heavy, it would definitely change things. My 330mm Momo with DSD adapter is the same/slightly lighter than the stock GT rim. Which means it's also quite a bit lighter than the GTE rim.

 

[LogiForce]

Oh, I still forgot a point that I never have seen mentioned anywhere.

The point where you put your thumbs at the 9 to 3 positions is also important for feel. A wheel where you put your thumbs on level with the center of the wheel hub will feel very different than one where you put them above the wheel hub.

For example, these three feel very different because of the thumb positions.

 

[oqvist]

One huge benefit with larger diameter is that you loose a lot of that gravel feel the T500RS has. When I started out with my F1 rim I really felt you could not do nascar racing on the T500RS due to the gravel feel. It´s not entirely gone on the 350 mm but much better and just feels so much smoother.

As for 380 mm I believe it may be borderline but I am not sure how awkward it would be having to shift the grip some to reach the paddles. It may actually be perfectly fine. I can reach the paddles with super ease on my 350 mm rim with a bout 20 mm dash. So there is some leaway if I can find a perfectly flat 380 mm rim surely

Grip does matter too. I am not sure what I preferr. Those ergonomical grips do generally give a more secure grip but thinner round grips do have it´s benefits as well. Though I have to admit the thin grip on the 350 mm (only 30mm) feel thin even with gloves to me. It´s not ergonomical when you have to put pressure on the wheel to keep the grip. But then the T500RS don´t have ffb capabilities that really demand a firm grip so it´s not really a problem.

As for ffb I would say it don´t have enough even for a 210 mm rim but it just cost to much getting a proper servo motor ffb wheel with decent torque capabilities lol.

 

[Gunstar]

I always thought he T500RS belt also has some "break-in" needed, or at least that's my impression. My wheel actually feels better than when I got it, except the loudness of the fan, and I just need to get unlazy and replace it.

HOWEVER, I do typically use a larger wheel now tho, a 320mm, so maybe that's the difference maker, although I didn't notice any loss of feel when I put my GT rim back on for GT6.

 

[LogiForce]

I always thought he T500RS belt also has some "break-in" needed, or at least that's my impression. My wheel actually feels better than when I got it, except the loudness of the fan, and I just need to get unlazy and replace it.

HOWEVER, I do typically use a larger wheel now tho, a 320mm, so maybe that's the difference maker, although I didn't notice any loss of feel when I put my GT rim back on for GT6.

The break-in is purely the fact that the wheel is shipped and enters warm and cold areas while sitting still (not turning the wheel) for a long time. In that time due to the temperature influences and no movement the belts get the chance to settle around the gears they wrap around. Leaving the 'notches' around the area where the belt makes the tightest turns (around the motor's axle for example).
Over time and having the belt warm up (so it gets softer) due to use it will naturally fade away.

There is no reason it will settle quickly unless you store it for more than 3 months, or the temperature fluctuates heavily in the room it is stored in.
So it is kind of like with guitars. If you keep the temperature and moisture levels constant, there won't be a lot of influences acting upon it. Still a guitar can 'work' over time non the less.

 

[ROB 256R]

I was thinking this about the belt and have started leaving my wheel at different steering angles when not in use so the belt is not always in the same position. Sometimes left, sometimes right, sometimes upside down; just random steering angles. I figure it spends enough time in the straight ahead position when driving on straights and inbetween races. So the rest of the time I like to let the belt relax in other positions. I cannot think of any downside to doing this, even if it doesn't do anything.

 

[Gunstar]

The break-in is purely the fact that the wheel is shipped and enters warm and cold areas while sitting still (not turning the wheel) for a long time. In that time due to the temperature influences and no movement the belts get the chance to settle around the gears they wrap around. Leaving the 'notches' around the area where the belt makes the tightest turns (around the motor's axle for example).
Over time and having the belt warm up (so it gets softer) due to use it will naturally fade away.

There is no reason it will settle quickly unless you store it for more than 3 months, or the temperature fluctuates heavily in the room it is stored in.
So it is kind of like with guitars. If you keep the temperature and moisture levels constant, there won't be a lot of influences acting upon it. Still a guitar can 'work' over time non the less.

Sounds reasonable.

 

[oqvist]

Ì haven´t noticed any change in the notchyness other then the part where you get used to it. the center detention whent away quickly for me. It´s like headphone the most active burnin is when actually using it and you create a new normal

I know it would happen sooner or later so better sooner. Ordered a flat momo classic 370 mm rim. A bit of gamble as it used hopefully it will be fine. The stitching and leather work can hardly be worse made then on my loved 350 mm rim so I am sure I will be fine

 

[80nrc]

Hi! New here. Just to let you know, I ordered myself a T500rs from pixmania. The details in their website and the invoice said that it was a GT5 T500rs, but it actually was in the new blue GT6 box 👍 It cost me 400e delivered

 

[80nrc]

double

 

[Simmpa]

Hi! New here. Just to let you know, I ordered myself a T500rs from pixmania. The details in their website and the invoice said that it was a GT5 T500rs, but it actually was in the new blue GT6 box 👍 It cost me 400e delivered

Isn´t Pixmania very unreliable? Atleast here in Sweden I heard alot of horror stories.

 

[Minor]

Isn´t Pixmania very unreliable? Atleast here in Sweden I heard alot of horror stories.

I ordered my T500RS from Pixmania. Yes, I've read LOTS of bad experiences with Pixmania but the price was 100€ lower than here in Finland. Luckily, everything went very well, I received the wheel in a week and it's the new GT6 package.
So far so good, I hope I don't have to deal with warranty, Don't know how slick that might be...

 

[80nrc]

I had no problems either, received it in a week as promised via UPS

e. I googled Pixmania before I made my order. At least on finnish forums it didn't seem that unreliable.. Also got it over a hundred euros cheaper than from the finnish website verkkokauppa.com

 

[Simmpa]

well caseking.de or alternate.de have it for only 350€ compared to Pixmanias 413€

http://www.alternate.de/Thrustmaster/T500RS,_Lenkrad/html/product/790604/?

http://www.caseking.de/shop/catalog/Thrustmaster-T500-RS-Lenkrad-fuer-PS3-und-PC::19020.html

 

[Paul33993]

I haven't heard anything about who makes the TX motor, only that it's brushless.

It'll be interesting to see who actually manufactured it. The Buhler motor in the T500 is definitely the shining star of its construction/material list. Conversely, judging by the Fanatec thread, the cheap Chinese motors seem to be a real problem for that setup. Hopefully Thrustmaster kept the quality there, but you never know. Cost cutting seemed like it was priority one with the TX.

 

[Bkim]

I have just opened up my new T500RS to have a peak of the inside. First thing i noticed immediately was the lack of the motor cooling ribs. So either this is the new standard at which TM sells the T500 or....this has been a replacement and TM forgot the install the cooling ribs. Can someone enlighten me?

 

[Kaelsberg]

Is there a way to attach a handbrake to the T500RS whilst using the TH8 shifter too?

You could wire it into the L3 or R3 buttons on the wheel base

Or you can solder Wires in your PS3 controller, and connect them to the E-brake indicator

I ordered my T500RS from Pixmania. Yes, I've read LOTS of bad experiences with Pixmania but the price was 100€ lower than here in Finland. Luckily, everything went very well, I received the wheel in a week and it's the new GT6 package.
So far so good, I hope I don't have to deal with warranty, Don't know how slick that might be...

When i bought the T500rs 19months ago, Pixmania were the cheapest place to buy in Denmark, it came thru just fine altho their delivery time was quite slow. A year later i had serious issues with the Wheel base, got in contact with TS Support with out correspending with Pix. TM Support only wanted to see a Photo of the serial number on sticker beneath Wheel base and a invoice/receipt of the purchase. I actually end up sending the base to France for repair, and recived a brand new base from Thrustmaster totally free of charge. With out talking with Pixmania 👍

 

[Bkim]

@LogiForce i have noticed that during racing the T500 standard GT wheel my thumps are on the wheel itself rather than inside the rim. Purely because it is faster when i have to make a fast correction to keep the car on track. At the moment the only thing that realy bothers me is the standard wheel material: rubber. I need leather or gloves.

 

[Paul33993]

I have just opened up my new T500RS to have a peak of the inside. First thing i noticed immediately was the lack of the motor cooling ribs. So either this is the new standard at which TM sells the T500 or....this has been a replacement and TM forgot the install the cooling ribs. Can someone enlighten me?

View attachment 114133

Somebody posted a similar picture a while back. It's their new policy. Considering everything else in the T500 in plastic, that's all that was left to eliminate for cost cutting. I don't really see it as an issue though. Between the top vent being closed and the fan blowing across, it's probably more effective than the old method anyways. Plus, I was never that impressed with the heatsink. I'm not sure this isn't yielding better temps on the actual motor anyways. It was obstructing a lot of air flow and the quality seemed pretty questionable IMO. Would be an interesting experiment if somebody took a temperature probe and measured temps on the right side of the motor on the old model and new model. I'm betting the new model wins by quite a bit.

 

[Gunstar]

It'll be interesting to see who actually manufactured it. The Buhler motor in the T500 is definitely the shining star of its construction/material list. Conversely, judging by the Fanatec thread, the cheap Chinese motors seem to be a real problem for that setup. Hopefully Thrustmaster kept the quality there, but you never know. Cost cutting seemed like it was priority one with the TX.

To me it seems the only place it really seems like TM actually "cost cut" the TX was the pedals and rim, which are both re-uses from earlier wheels. I can see why they did too, it makes sense to try to get into that "$300 - $400" neighborhood rather than the premium "$500+" one the T500RS is in... and then make up the difference to those who want it with add-ons. I just got a TX 458 rim off of another forum to play with on my T500RS, and that thing isn't bad at all... BUT as a scaled down 458 Italia steering wheel replica it looks FAR too toy like. I think had TM included the GTE wheel it would have made a much better impression. Of course, they could have dropped the Ferrari tie in altogether and charged $100 less too.