Am I crazy? T300 feels worse to me than my GT3RS did - notchiness in particular

[Matt Diffey]

My T300 arrived today, and ngl after hearing everyone rave about how smooth it is I've been really disappointed. The steering mechanism feels a little notchy, the centering spring is /really/ notchy (see here:

) and when driving it's really noticeable - small movements get kind of caught in the notches and big movements it's really easy to feel that I'm going over a lot of them.

I'd assumed that given over half a decade of development, a higher price point and the brushless motors on top of the belt mechanism, this would be a huge improvement over my old (broken) GT3RS, but to be honest I'd have been happier if they'd just sent a new one of those for my 240 quid. Is my wheel faulty or is this just how T300's are? When turning the wheel even with the power off there's a light notchiness to the mechanism (whereas the powered-down Fanatec is butter smooth and the resistance is completely uniform).

I might be slightly misremembering how smooth the GT3RSv2 was, admittedly, but I'm really disappointed with the T300 so far - almost certainly going to return it, the question is whether this is a defective item (so I'll get another T300) or this is just how T300's are (so I'll find a second hand Fanatec wheel somewhere)

 

[yusupov]

have you been diagnosed with OCD by any chance?

 

[Mark_McQ]

That's definitely not right, there shouldn't be any sort of resistance like that at all, powered or off.

 

[Metzger82]

It is broken. I had t300 and it is very smooth. Almost close CSWv2.
Contact Thrustmaster support.

 

[Skazz]

I still have my Fanatec Porsche GT2 wheel upstairs in a box, supplanted by Thrustmaster kit now. And I can tell you for sure that the T300 should blow it away in areas such as: FFB power, spin speed, ease of rotation (lack of internal resistance), latency of FFB, nimbleness (due to much less weight hanging off the rim), rim ergonomics. But in smoothness the Porsche wheels are slightly better.

The T300 has a toothed belt, whereas Porsche wheels have a smooth one. This has benefits: it means that while the T300 will always feel slightly less smooth, the T300 is better at changing direction and doesn't have belt slipping of any kind. You feel that clearly in the quality of the FFB especially when the wheel is required to change direction quickly.

Some things to note:

1. The belt when new has very pronounced teeth which will wear in slightly. A few weeks makes a small difference in my experience.
2. When the T300 is unpowered you can indeed feel a little notchiness while spinning the wheel (but spin it and you see it's WAY lower internal resistance than a Porsche wheel). I find that when powered the notchy feel almost disappears, which I suspect is something to do with the motor. I simply don't notice any significant notchiness while driving.

If you are having a notchy feel especially when the wheel is powered and in use, I think potentially the motor might be bad in some way (said without any technical understanding of how/why).

 

[MeizerOne]

I started to feel my t300 exactly the same, kinda like my g29 did. So when I opened the case to see what was wrong I realized that the output shaft that comes out of the motor (the one that has a white gear on it that is connected to the belt) is bent. So I started thinking and a couple of days ago I had a friend in my house (it was his first time with a sim wheel) and approaching to a corner twice the speed he was intended to, he yanked the wheel to make the car turn, making the tv fall over him.
Before I continue, just so you know, it is not super notchy and not very very noticeable, It does exactly like the video above.
So right now I think that first of all I'm gonna try to unbend the shaft. If it doesn't work I'm gonna try to buy a spare used t300 motor, or a wheelbase for parts and the last option a new motor from China (which is not the best because it is a pain in the ass to mount). for those of you that are interested, the stock motor seems to be this one (B4260m-s03).
Either way, I'll try to fix the problem and update you with the progress.