Steering Wheel Advice

Hi all,

I hope to get some advice here regarding a good wheel setup..

I've had a Logitech G27 for almost 2 years, however I've never been satisfied with it.. rFactor, GSC, and Assetto Corsa are terrible. It's a long story that I won't get into now, but it was replaced with a brand new sealed unit about 6 weeks ago, (incl a new 2 year warranty). This new unit is better than the old one, but the noise it makes, which was the main reason I returned the old one, is still present. The rattles and clunks it makes are totally unacceptable for the price I paid, and my Sim racing hobby has become very limited to certain games and cars, where the noise is at its least.

I'm not asking for advice on the G27, as I want to push the supplier for a full refund and look at purchasing another brand.

I'm interested in a Thrustmaster T300RS; reviews for this look really good. Price wise it may be above my budget though - I can't find it locally. Apparently there is a PC version, and the FFB is a little better than the T500RS. I'd consider a T500RS, but I'm put off by the paddle shifter being static and not rotating with the wheel. Any Thrustmaster users here? Your thoughts.. Any local Thrustmaster suppliers? I'm in PMB, so KZN area preferably. Is a second hand T500RS on Gumtree a good idea?

I'd like a 3 pedal setup and an H-pattern shifter to go along with it. The G27 pedals are perfect and the shifter is not too bad either, so something on par with this is what I'd like.
Total budget including pedals and shifter - not more than R8K. Is this realistic? R6K on a wheel, R2K on pedals and shifter.
Games: GTR2, GTL, GTR Evo, rFactor, rFactor2, GSC, Formula Truck, and Assetto Corsa. GSC and Assetto Corsa being the main ones.

I'll be posting a similar thread on another SA forum because I need all the help I can get

Cheers,
Mike

Christo would be the go too guy.
I will let him get in touch with you as soon as possible. He has tried most of them.

Hi Mike
I am sorry to hear your bad experience with the G27. As other members will confirm there are a lot of us here that also got a G27, WITHOUT the noises you talk about. I have one personally and it is working just fine, 100% satisfied with it. The only noises I have is the road noise, the rumble strip noise and the grass noise when I go off track
The wheel itself is known to be much more quiet than the G25 it replaced. Pity you so far away as I would have loved to visit you to hear the noises you talk about first hand.
Is it not that you got too much ffb set up maybe? I use my wheel on all the games you listed and it is perfect. If you have a landline we can call each other free after 7 or even through mumble I can give you the profiler settings as well as in-game settings. Let me know if we must arrange this.
I cannot help you with a choice of the other wheels you talk about as I do not have any experience with them.

Thanks for your replies guys...

Christo, I appreciate your offer and I'll take you up on it.. I'll PM you and then if you don't mind a call sometime that would be great!

I just can't see it being a setting though, but if by some chance it is I'd be over the moon if I could sort it out!
Search Google and Youtube for: "G27 noisy", and there are 1,000s of results.. Pretty much as mine. It appears to be normal behavior, which is why I want to dump this wheel completely; I don't know how G27 owners can put up with this. Maybe there are good batches of these and bad batches.. I've been sh&# out of luck with both of mine.
This here is way worse than mine, but this is the noise I am referring to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvI2LIEgKeU
If I were to turn the FFB effects up to high it would probably be like the vid. I get these noises on a much lower level, but for no acceptable reason.. Straight sections of road, small bumps, and under breaking in GSC.... And of course jumping the curbs.
I don't play Assetto Corsa much yet (new graphics card required) and have not configured it much, but look at the 5:08 mark here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wrl1zUG45w. That's what mine is doing in AC.

Let's look at GSC...
Profiler is set to 107% (or 109%, I can't recall now). Anything less than 107% gives me a big dead zone in the centre for the steering.
All other settings are on zero.
Rotation. 540, or 900 depending on car. 540 for V8s and 900 for Mini's.
Ticked for both "use special game settings" and "allow game to adjust settings".

In game: Force Feedback: Low (higher than this the noises are excessive)
Percentage: -100%. I can go down to -80% but lower than this I may as well turn FFB off, as I can barely feel it. FFB is already low as is.

The V8 stock cars are OK with this setting, and maybe the minis too. Anything else (open wheelers, karts which are the worst!, mods are unenjoyable).
The game Copa Petrobras de Marcas is an exception, this is almost noise free with the above settings.

I notice it as I exit the pit garage with just about all cars. The wheel makes a big clunk each time I exit the garage. I'll test this evening and find a car track combo in GSC where it's bad and we'll compare settings.

Mike

After listening to 2x youtube videos, I can tell you it is not normal. There is a distinct cluck sound over the kerbs. Mine does not do that at all. There is NO noise only the ffb you can feel through the wheel.
If they replace your wheel with a new one then surely they must have a bad batch of them if it is not a setting that is causing it.
I think we must be in touch so I can give you all settings as per mine. If it still does it we know it is the wheel at fault.
I also like a stronger ffb feel and mine is set up like that - without the cluckssssssss.

Hey Mike.

I have a G27, i know all about the clunking sounds from Assetto corsa, but i dont have them in GSC or rFactor. It could be a setting maybe over doing the effects. You welcome to try my settings and see if it helps.

Otherwise, in Durbs there is Esquire, they do Thrustmaster but no T300rs only a TX wheel, which works just great on pc and is still part of the eco system.

Your setting are similar in Window sprofiler to mine, same 107% and that, but in game i run full effects but on V8 Aussie cars i run positive 60% ffb in game and most other cars negative 75%.

I like a heavy wheel, some cars are very light in GSC...i use the realfeel to get what i like. Assetto had good weight but curbs felt they would break my wheel, i actually complained to them about it on their forums lol.

Thanks Denis,
I've just tried it with effects on full, and turning down the % strength.. No improvement for me.
Christo is helping me out via PMs.. Wish us luck.
I'll check out Esquire

Hi guys.... i don't want to interfere just yet but those sounds are very familiar to me. Let me explain....

I have a GT Force Pro which worked very well up untill the point where I got a little violent with it and took it out for a sparing session. Needless to say, that noise appeared instantly. I eventually got brave enough and open up the wheel to find a broken piece of the calibrater frame lodged in the column.

If the supplier gave you a new unit, then it would be impossible for it to be that, but it could be possible that they tried to have it repaired and replace it to you as a new part. I don't know... just saying but that sound is definitely something broken.

Just my 5 cents worth

Migs, I can relate.. With the noise my wheel makes I've felt like giving it a good whack many times too! It's had no abuse though.. New one or old.. I even give it some cushioning support when it self calibrates upon power up.. That never sounds good to me the way it rotates one way.. then CLUNK when it hits its limit, then the other way and CLUNK again. I opened up my old one to apply a fix when it went out of alignment.. Tighten up some screws for the optical encoder. Relatively easy, and effective.

My replacement is definitely a brand new unit. Pedals, shifter, the lot.

Like I said Mike, it was just my 5 cents worth and having experienced the same, I thought maybe you were done in which I'm glad you weren't.
As people would say... luck of the draw... which happened to be you unfortunately. I really hope you get your issues sorted soon cause we need you on track with us.
On another point, I've been having some serious issues with Telkom hence the reason why I again was forced to miss Wednesday race at Bathurst courtesy of a faulty port card at my exchange - Same issue 2 weeks running now - You would think that there would be some kind of resolve by now atleast!!!
Regardless... some things happen as a blessing in disguise. Not only is my problem now sorted at Telkom, I have also made a solid contact whom I can contact at a moments notice should this crap happen again.
There you go, the way life happens is not up to us.

Thanks Migs... Yip, I'm hoping to be on track soon too! It looks like a great community here and I want to be part of the on track action.
Here's hoping you come right with Telkom. Good news about the contact you have there