G27 losing its centering position (hardware fix)

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by gorgias1976, Mar 11, 2013.

  1. gorgias1976

    gorgias1976 Registered

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    At yesterday's simracers4life.com online event at Essington I suffered at both races a wheel problem; the center of the wheel started veering left. This means that for keeping car straight I had to keep my G27 slightly veered to the left (as when you have damaged your car after a crash).
    This happened in both races right after "fighting the wheel" in an oversteering situation. I ended up crashing and retiring both times as it was quite wierd to drive.

    I went then for investigation and I've found that it is quite a common issue for this wheel, once it starts happening it won't stop. Once you fight a strong FFB kick the wheel will start losing its center and won't recover it untill you unplug and plug it back in the USB port (so wheel gets recalibrated).

    The reason why this happens is at the wheel position sensor failing due to vibrations and also for this sensor not correctly glued to it's axis and therefore slipping at quick FFB corrections. This sensor is a small wheel, very similar to the ones the old mouses had inside (if you ever dissasembled an old mouse to clean its inside, you know what I'm talking about).

    So there are two posible solutions.
    First: the sensor screws get loose, and screwing them back does the fix.
    Second: Putting some epoxy glue (plastic against metal) at the sensor wheel's axis, so it won't slip at strong and quick FFB corrections.

    As I don't have an epoxy glue at the moment I've gone for the first solution, and if the problem reappears I'll go for the second.

    What you need:
    -An hexagonal Allen key (If you have some Ikea forniture any of those hexagonal keys will fit ;D)
    -A phillips screw driver-average size
    -A phillips screw driver-small size

    Steps you need to make (Pictures are from other sites, not mine):

    1-Dissasemble wheel
    1a - Using an hexagonal key (Allen key we calle it here) remove the front part of the steering wheel.

    1b - remove the small board (2 screws) and unplug it from the wheel case.
    [​IMG]

    1c - Remove this three long screws to be able to get the paddles off the steering case
    [​IMG]

    1d - Unscrew all this screws and you'll be able to remove the cover
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  2. gorgias1976

    gorgias1976 Registered

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    2-Looking for the position sensor.

    This sensor is in the right servo-motor as shown in the picture, the one with a black cover (no need to disassemble them as in the picture)
    [​IMG]

    2a - carefully remove the plug that avoids the black cover from the servo-motor to be remove.

    2b - Now remove the black cover and you'll get to the see the sensor (the pictures shows the servo dissasembled, but as I said, there's no need to do it)

    2c - Remove the small board that surrounds the sensor wheel. And screw the screws that hold the sensor to the servo-motor (mines where quite loose. You'll need the small phillips screwdriver to access on of the two screws.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    2d - If you have epoxy glue, apply it at the axis of the sensor wheel, to make it sure it won't slip again when high fast forces are applied.

    [​IMG]


    3-Reasemble all parts and wait some hours for the glue to perfectly dry (if you used it).


    Hope it can help.
     
  3. c4rLo5

    c4rLo5 Registered

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  4. DrR1pper

    DrR1pper Registered

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    This is happening to my CSR-E...need to figure out how to fix it.
     
  5. martymoose

    martymoose Registered

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    I don't have this issue but does the reset FFB option not help in this case? I know you can map a button to reset FFB and in the PLR file there is also an option to auto reset after a preset time period.
     
  6. TIG_green

    TIG_green Registered

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    Is this common problem with G27?... I was thinking of getting g27 but not if it has this kind of problems :p
     
  7. crz

    crz Registered

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    No unfortunately this does not help if the sensor is giving false information to the software.

    I had my G25 for nearly 5 year until i ran into this problem. It is pretty easy to fix and apart from that the wheel is really reliable. I can't really comment on the G27 but i read they are similar. Do some research before buying and also read some stuff about other wheels failing much earlier where the only help is to send it back and wait. That has put me off buying a replacement for my old wheel.
     
  8. Fabio Pittol

    Fabio Pittol Registered

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    Nice DYI! Just had to do it a month ago. Works like a charm! :cool:
     
  9. Paul_Ceglia

    Paul_Ceglia Registered

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    ive had my g27 for over 4 years now and this is happening at the moment. I would also recommend some loc-tight for the screw (high strength)
     
  10. GTClub_wajdi

    GTClub_wajdi Registered

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  11. gorgias1976

    gorgias1976 Registered

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    reseting FFB won't return wheel to its centered position. Tried several times during the race but to no success.

    Yes Paul, the next time I'll need to fix it again I'll put some special glue for the screws and for the sensor's wheel axis.

    I guess that if you properly glue that new wheel to it's axis the problem will get resolved, but unless you had the factory wheel broken I wouldn't expend 30USD in that, just glue the original one to it's axis, and properly adjust screws should be enough
     
  12. gorgias1976

    gorgias1976 Registered

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    I must also say that the wheel is 21 months old and has had an intense use (besides in rFactor2 I prefer a bit of strong FFB, never below 1.00 FFB Multiplier), so I'm glad that with the only trouble I've had with it I early found a solution at logitech forums (No official solution as they always suggest you not to open the wheel)
     
  13. ORA-Oldie

    ORA-Oldie Registered

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    I've done this repair myself about 18 months ago on my G25.. now five years old.. and it works a treat. But, you must get the alignment right on reassembly otherwise your wheel will be one or more teeth out and so will not be perfectly straight, although the issue of slipping off centre will be fixed.
     
  14. Hedlund_90

    Hedlund_90 Registered

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    Now I've got this problem with my G27. Very annoying, and I've crashed several times because of it. I have to try this, but I don't want to destroy my wheel so I can't drive rF2 anymore lol :p
     
  15. Timpie Claessens

    Timpie Claessens Registered

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    For some reason, rF2 is the only game where my G27 doesnt properly center and I have to manually center it in the controls screen.
    Very strange indeed :p
     
  16. Hedlund_90

    Hedlund_90 Registered

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    rF2 force you to move the wheel quicker and correct slides more than other games because the tarmac is so slippery lol :p
     
  17. Timpie Claessens

    Timpie Claessens Registered

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    No it's not that's it's changing during the driving or anything. I just have to recalibrate the center in the control screen a bit to the right. In every other racinggame I have it centers properly. Only started with the last build.
    But havent heard anyone else mention it so I probably should delete my config file or something.
     
  18. Hedlund_90

    Hedlund_90 Registered

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    How do I remove the black cover from the servo motor!?!? I see no "plug" (if you don't mean the small electronic cables on the top of the black cover? Doesn't feels like they are preventing the cover from coming loose. The cover feels like it's glued to the servo!!
     
  19. Jim Beam

    Jim Beam Registered

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    get a small screw driver under the flat side of the cap..and forcefully (but taking care) pop it...itll feel like its going to break but then will let go
     
  20. Hedlund_90

    Hedlund_90 Registered

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    Thank you I solved it... But now I read somewhere that you should have started the wheel up right before you started to take it apart, to let it calibrate.. Now I didn't do that and I've rotated that little plastic optical wheel on the servo-motor with my finger :/ Now I connect my wheel to computer and I think my wheel is a bit to the right now instead :( (I haven't put things together yet, I have only the shift paddles to see if the wheel was perfectly straight or not). And it's not.

    How can I fix that? Do I have to adjust that little plastic wheel and guess how it should sit??
     

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