A friend recommended this RC toy car from Jaibaile. It's a 1:43 scale RC car that's really zippy. The gyroscope on board seems to make it corner more like a real car, although I'm still trying to understand exactly what the gyro does. It's been a ton of fun and great value. The car syncs to its remote on power-on so you can run several at once to race. However, mine has spent more time on the shelf waiting for repair than it has spent ready to run. Here's what I've discovered about repairs:
Car turns on, but frequently de-syncs from the remote
The lights turn on, and may even control normally for a while, but will stop responding to the RC remote after a while. For me, this issue was low battery voltage. Replacing the batteries in the remote and charging the car helped, but the problem quickly returned. In the end, the permanent fix was to swap in a replacement LiPo battery. A small, 3.7V battery did the trick, but I did have to swap the connector to fit the connector type that came on the old battery
The steering is jittery
The next problem I had was that the wheels would jitter or vibrate while turning. This one turned out to be a burnt-out servo. The servo that came with the car doesn't have any markings and doesn't seem to be a standard size so finding a replacement was a real challenge. I did find servo model S0002P from Surpass Hobby that's a near-enough fit. The plastic cover that holds the servo-motor in place doesn't fit over the S0002P so I had to super-glue it to the frame, which isn't ideal. But it does seem to have the same voltage characteristics and range of motion as the original. The S0002P also comes with the wrong connector so I had to swap out the connector from the old, broken servo. Note that the seller I linked has several models on the same page, but only the S0002P fits.
Front wheel stops turning / car spins around front wheel
One of my front wheels stopped getting power from the drive motor. It would turn freely, and steer, but not drive making the whole car spin around that front wheel. This one turned out to be a snapped tie rod between axle and the wheel. Super glue didn't create a strong enough bond to simply glue it back together, but it might have worked better if I was able to clean the grease off the tie rod more thoroughly. Instead, I used a hobby knife to cut a new tie rod from some left-over plastic sprue from another project.
I have a feeling this is not the end of the repairs this car will need. I'll keep posting if I find anything else worth sharing.
