I've had my G-25 since approximately late January/early February. Currently, it is starting to emit a "burning Smell" after a few hours of usage.

Recently, I was on vacation and purchased rFactor and downloaded the highest rated mods and tracks to see what the hype was all about. I should have just tossed my forty-five bucks out the window of my truck and watched people in the street fight over the money because that would have been a whole lot more satisfying than the product I got. I found it extremely hard to get my wheel set up and after reading literally hundreds of forum posts, tinkering with ini. settings, and using the crummy "RealFeel", I never really found a setup as satisfying as the force feedback I get in Live For Speed. I had to set the feedback in rFactor higher than I like just to be able to keep the wheel centered. After I finally got fed up (and I'm a pretty patient guy) I came back home to LFS and now, after a few hours of racing, I can smell burning coming from the vents in the base of the wheel. Furthermore, the base feels sort of warm.

I am thinking that I might have damaged the motors in the wheel by over-working them. Has anyone experienced a burning smell from their G-25 and is it anything I should be concerned over?

I must say that my wheel has got some pretty heavy use in LFS throughout the year, but it was not until just very recently (after rFactor) that it gave me any grief. It might just be coincidence...or maybe I am just being punished for trying that stupid game. I don't know. It's not smoking and it's not getting hot...yet. I figure I'll just have to keep an eye on it and hope I can get a couple of more months out of it before I but a new one.

P.S. Sorry for playing rFactor and I hope yall forgive me. To make amends, I am thinking of starting an rFactor Blows website as a service to the community so that no other race simmers throw their money away like I did.

Well, you see, all stuff works with this magical gray smoke. Long as the smoke stays inside the "stuff" it works. So, it's probably trying to get out, hence the smell.

I'd take it back to the shop complaining the burning smell.

Sounds normal to me. The motors are just getting hot that's all. But don't overdo it, maybe reduce ffb a bit.

Mine gets rather warm, not to the burning level, but still warm, sometimes even hot to the touch.

I have never reached a hot enough temp...

If it gets too bad, then give Logitech a bell.

I guess your motor brushes are wearing down.

i feel your pain about rfactor. i got a copy of it because of some of the mods out(asa late models, sprint cars, and dirt modifieds mainly) and i was pretty disappointed. seemed like every third or fourth time i loaded the game up, i had to setup all my controls again because rfactor had forgotten them. i was never satisfied with the feel of the force feedback after i thought i had it set up right, either.

about the g25 though, mine gets pretty hot after an hour or so of use, but i've never smelled any burning, i'd contact logitech and see what they have to say about it.

I entered the GFC race this weekend and I'll be putting in 54 laps around South City Rev. That should make for a decent stress test. I just hope it holds out.

As for heating up, I know that is normal. It always did warm up pretty good after a few hours...but never emitted a burning smell. Since February, I have always run LFS FFB at 200% and "Overall Effects" at 105% and never had a hitch. It just seems that rFactor's FFB felt so strong and sloppy that it seemed like the motors in the wheel were doing triple duty and might have cooked something.

If it starts up with the burning smell again, I'll phone Logitech on Monday and see what they have to say. I cannot take it back to the store because I bought it from GoGamer. I will check my receipt. Ten bucks says I bought an extended warranty if it was offered. My biggest thing is that I absolutely need it to at least last the weekend with all the practicing I've been putting in. It's never let me down so I expect that it will do alright.

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I was just thinking...my wife sometimes leaves the computer room door open and her cat occasionally gets in. I am tempted to open it up and see if it might have some cat hair inside. That might be the culprit. Before I do, though, I'll check with Logitech first.

Thanks for the replies fellas.

Quote from DaveWS :

Sounds normal to me. The motors are just getting hot that's all. But don't overdo it, maybe reduce ffb a bit.

electric motors dont smell like something burnt regardless of how hot they may get (unless of course something did in fact get hot enough to burn)

mine (the first one i had) gave off the distinctive smell of burnt turns after just a few mins of usage so id hazard a guess that logitech has some issues with their motors

Its probably the Brushes as I said earlier.

I have made a fan at the back of my G25, I noticed at a warm day the ff-motors get really hot.
I modified the wheel so an extra fan was no problem.

mine gets quite hot but it is fine although i dont use alot of ffb i do kinow of someone who have it set to max everywere and he had it even more serious than you, my advice is to turn ffb down a bit

Quote from bmwe30m3 :

problem for me has been that dust has gotten into the vents

That sounds believable. Try cleaning the air vents with a powerful vacuum cleaner, or preferably, an air compressor.

As a general tip, compressors are really-really handy when you want to get the last bit of dust out of something. Vacuums are not very efficient from a distance, and lots of areas just aren't accessible to huge nozzles.