Granite Arrma Granite broke after 4 weeks - 2yr warranty worthless?

[Dave of the glen]

Hi guys

I’m from the UK, I looked about at RC cars this Christmas for myself and my two sons to start enjoying a new hobby together.

https://www.arrma-rc.com/rc-cars/latest/granite/mega/4x4

After going to buy a Quantum flux MT, I was advised by our local shop to choose the more expensive Arrma granite instead, they spoke highly of the company, a better uk company, easy spares, 2yr warranty, It was a good pitch so I paid the extra £150. I bought this so myself and my two sons could use it in the fields behind our house, which we did and loved it for a number of weeks, but the motor and the esc failed after 1 month of intermittent use.

I took the car to our local shop who looked at the motor which isn’t working any more and the esc which has an acrid burning smell. Both are in perfect condition on the outside, we cleaned the car down after any muddy outings. We stopped using the car one day when we smelt the burning smell. I serviced the car and adjusted the clutch as per the website (which i initially thought was giving off the burning smell), cleaned and greased bearings and all moving parts, then we took the car out a few days later, the car then stopped moving after about 10 minutes with a near full battery left, and when we retrieved it the burning smell was back.



My local shop sent off the motor I believe but didn’t take the esc to send. Arrma have decided that it was misuse and have charged me for a new motor and esc, but as we were only 1 month into a 2yr warranty and with light use on the car I presume the full circumstance had not been conveyed, I've tried to contact Arrma direct but not heard back from anyone and my local shop doesn't seen keen to bother and just wants me to buy new parts.


-Has anyone else had these parts fail so quickly? I have the car on 50% power mode with my 5yr old and 7yr old driving it around in a very tame fashion so I'm really surprised that the parts failed so quickly.
-if they wont replace the parts should i get the same esc and motor or are there better options?
-is this a known issue that these parts fail or are we just unlucky?

Cheers guys

 

[FlipSide]

The Mega motors do overheat and burn up easily on the Granite. We wen't through 4 in 4 months on my son's Granite. Unfortunately, the way to solve this issue is to upgrade to a Brushless system...and you will be mad you didn't buy the 3S version right away.

It sounds like yours was clearly defective. 50% power on a Mega should not have been a problem at all, unless everything is rusted and seized on the truck. It seems to me you have a valid warranty claim and your LHS should work harder to help you out. That being said, I never attempted any warranty for RC stuff, so I'm not expert on these matters...

 

[Dave of the glen]

The Mega motors do overheat and burn up easily on the Granite. We wen't through 4 in 4 months on my son's Granite. Unfortunately, the way to solve this issue is to upgrade to a Brushless system...and you will be mad you didn't buy the 3S version right away.

It sounds like yours was clearly defective. 50% power on a Mega should not have been a problem at all, unless everything is rusted and seized on the truck. It seems to me you have a valid warranty claim and your LHS should work harder to help you out. That being said, I never attempted any warranty for RC stuff, so I'm not expert on these matters...

cheers for the quick response, if i cant get warranty replacements, what would be the upgrade path, is it the blx 100 motor and esc? would i need a stronger clutch system too?

 

[RC_kid]

Hi guys

I’m from the UK, I looked about at RC cars this Christmas for myself and my two sons to start enjoying a new hobby together.

https://www.arrma-rc.com/rc-cars/latest/granite/mega/4x4

After going to buy a Quantum flux MT, I was advised by our local shop to choose the more expensive Arrma granite instead, they spoke highly of the company, a better uk company, easy spares, 2yr warranty, It was a good pitch so I paid the extra £150. I bought this so myself and my two sons could use it in the fields behind our house, which we did and loved it for a number of weeks, but the motor and the esc failed after 1 month of intermittent use.

I took the car to our local shop who looked at the motor which isn’t working any more and the esc which has an acrid burning smell. Both are in perfect condition on the outside, we cleaned the car down after any muddy outings. We stopped using the car one day when we smelt the burning smell. I serviced the car and adjusted the clutch as per the website (which i initially thought was giving off the burning smell), cleaned and greased bearings and all moving parts, then we took the car out a few days later, the car then stopped moving after about 10 minutes with a near full battery left, and when we retrieved it the burning smell was back.



My local shop sent off the motor I believe but didn’t take the esc to send. Arrma have decided that it was misuse and have charged me for a new motor and esc, but as we were only 1 month into a 2yr warranty and with light use on the car I presume the full circumstance had not been conveyed, I've tried to contact Arrma direct but not heard back from anyone and my local shop doesn't seen keen to bother and just wants me to buy new parts.


-Has anyone else had these parts fail so quickly? I have the car on 50% power mode with my 5yr old and 7yr old driving it around in a very tame fashion so I'm really surprised that the parts failed so quickly.
-if they wont replace the parts should i get the same esc and motor or are there better options?
-is this a known issue that these parts fail or are we just unlucky?

Cheers guys

i too agree and at 50% throttle??? nooo waaay it burnt up! i have had my mega motor burn out and then a few months later, my esc burst into flames! and i reccomend a hobbywing esc if the warranty does not work out and the traxxas titan 12 is also basically the same as the granite motor, but for some reason the traxxas motor is way better quality and makes more speed and tourque so i reccomend them
(i use the hobbywing 880 dual motor brushed esc and the traxxas titan 12T brushed motor. with the dual motor esc you can run 2 motors with it because it has 4 wires but you can just plug 1 motor in and it still works perfectly )

 

[FlipSide]

cheers for the quick response, if i cant get warranty replacements, what would be the upgrade path, is it the blx 100 motor and esc? would i need a stronger clutch system too?

When I converted my son's Granite to brushless, I went the easy but expensive way: I simply bought a brand new Granite 3S, transfered the Motor + ESC + slipper chutch + diffs and input gear in the Mega.

Do you have a V3 (the one coming with the Spektrum SLT3 remote)? If so, you already have the brushless-ready input gear and diffs.

Since you kids are still young, you will probably only want to use 2S and the Mega slipper will probably be strong enough for a while on 2S at 50-75%. If you want to keep the Mega slipper, make sure you can upgrade the spur gear and pinion to the 3S version with this slipper clutch (I don't know if the 3S spur gear is compatible with the Mega slipper). If you have the funds, it may be preferable to upgrade the Motor + ESC + slipper assembly and be sure you won't have compatibility issues down the line.

Other user will know better than me what can and what can't be done with the Mega slipper clutch with a brushless system.

 

[Virginia mud]

Horizon hobby warnty. Make a claim it takes a wile on the phone . Be calm and nice. Just tell them your motor is not working anymore. They should cover it

 

[Exc3l]

Go on their live chat. www.HorizonHobby.com

 

[Freelander]

I have successfully claimed both an ESC and a motor. I don't know what the general concensus is but my own experience was good.

 

[Yas]

The brushed version isn't worth getting IMO, and you'll be better off upgrading the electronics to brushless and the slipper/spur assembly to the BLX version. Good opportunity to upgrade!

Regardless, did you speak to Logic RC? They are the distributor for Arrma and other Horizon Hobby products in the UK. They aren't as "generous" as the US Horizon Hobby services, but as long as you haven't washed the car down with water, they should cover the electronics, although you may need to send them the faulty gear. Their email address and tel.# is at the bottom of the page:

https://www.logicrc.com/

 

[Chad76]

I just got a V3 BLX for Christmas and the esc crapped out in less than a month time. I had no issue with Horizon and the warranty. I have a new esc on its way under warranty although it will be 3 weeks till i see it. In the meantime I upgraded my electronics to this. I think your hobby shop sounds like they are a bit untrustworthy. Good luck with it.

https://www.amainhobbies.com/hobbyw...3660sl-motor-combo-3200kv-hwa38010200/p607213

 

[Freelander]

It says back ordered for the blx100 on the horizon hobby website but I got mine a couple days ago after maybe 1 week I made the claim.

 

[Chad76]

It says back ordered for the blx100 on the horizon hobby website but I got mine a couple days ago after maybe 1 week I made the claim.

When I did my claim they told me it was out of stock and 3 to 4 weeks out for delivery

 

[Exc3l]

Horizon Restocks fast AF. I back-ordered metal diffs which were due more in April but They just shipped out today. I think I got lucky. Yes, I blanked out parts, so don't think ur going crazy lol.

 

[sfboldeagle]

I don’t understand the issues with the mega. Maybe I am lucky, but in South Florida I have burned up a single ESC that I did not think to warranty. And that is likely my fault for running 80C batteries. I installed two cooling fans, one on the motor and one on the ESC and my 2 trucks run great. If the Mega was good enough for your kids (I have a 6 year old running a Mega) I would go that route. My 2 cents

 

[Dave of the glen]

When I converted my son's Granite to brushless, I went the easy but expensive way: I simply bought a brand new Granite 3S, transfered the Motor + ESC + slipper chutch + diffs and input gear in the Mega.

Do you have a V3 (the one coming with the Spektrum SLT3 remote)? If so, you already have the brushless-ready input gear and diffs.

Since you kids are still young, you will probably only want to use 2S and the Mega slipper will probably be strong enough for a while on 2S at 50-75%. If you want to keep the Mega slipper, make sure you can upgrade the spur gear and pinion to the 3S version with this slipper clutch (I don't know if the 3S spur gear is compatible with the Mega slipper). If you have the funds, it may be preferable to upgrade the Motor + ESC + slipper assembly and be sure you won't have compatibility issues down the line.

Other user will know better than me what can and what can't be done with the Mega slipper clutch with a brushless system.

my one does have the SLT3 remote yes, wondering if I should get the traxxas motor, I'm looking on the UK sites, I'm not keyed up on exactly which parts will fit my truck but I'm told it needs a longer engine spur, some of the other motors have shorter pins that don't fit these trucks, If i can swap for a brushless motor and better esc that will just last longer that'd be great. just want the kids to be able to play with it

 

[Haymaker]

My v2 esc died within a month of purchase. Arrma replaced it no questions asked really besides proof of purchase. Arrma kindly did this 3 times... Sad part was both replacements never really worked although in hindsight I may have been abusive to the original esc as I was new to the hobby . They would go into limp mode at ~3.95v. I swapped out the esc for a hobbywing quickrun 8BL150. Now its a beast! I'm so happy to have those esc issues behind me. Its not worth the hastle. Try again. If you get a replacement throw it in another vehicle or sell on ebay. Spend $75 and move on

 

[Yas]

My v2 esc died within a month of purchase. Arrma replaced it no questions asked really besides proof of purchase. Arrma kindly did this 3 times... Sad part was both replacements never really worked although in hindsight I may have been abusive to the original esc as I was new to the hobby . They would go into limp mode at ~3.95v. I swapped out the esc for a hobbywing quickrun 8BL150. Now its a beast! I'm so happy to have those esc issues behind me. Its not worth the hastle. Try again. If you get a replacement throw it in another vehicle or sell on ebay. Spend $75 and move on

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The BLX100 definitely had an issue of hitting LVC early. I once had it trigger in just 1 minute of run time using a variety of fully charged 3S lipos, although it was in cold weather. As soon as I hit full throttle it would trigger it, and I'd keep having to reset it by switching it on/off multiple times

I explained this problem to Logic RC in the UK (where I live) and they offered to firmware update it if I sent it them. This was meant to have updated the LVC setting too, but it's now a spare ESC so I haven't tried it since I've had it back. Maybe you could send your ESCs off for firmware updating?

 

[GatorBait]

Was finally able to run my Granite v3 blx for the first time today after waiting 2 weeks. Same issue as others. Running 3s it would be fine for a few minutes then go into lvc. Switch off and on and another couple of minutes until another lvc. Getting a warranty replacement. Sad I couldn't run it longer but for those couple of minutes all I can say is WOW and man do I need to learn how to drive...

 

[Haymaker]

I have a suspicion that moisture gets to the esc board. I know it says waterproof and I never submerged mine, but I also did my share of doughnuts in puddles. New to the game Im sure I let it sit wet for a bit on occasion. Maybe it's not as water resistant as I thought.

 

[Haymaker]

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