Wheel Centering Drift
Michael Dew
Member
I am noticing that my wheel center is drifting gradually over several laps and I have to frequently reset the center.
Using the DD1 in iRacing as an example, Laguna Seca after several laps of hard cornering (generally counterclockwise) my wheel center drifts by 20 to 30 degrees counterclockwise. This wheel and base are relatively new to me as is iRacing but I have a lot of prior track time on older Fanatec hardware mostly on Forza / console which I haven't experienced this. It happens with several cars I've tried but fastest and worst drift of center on BMW M3 GT3 (again iRacing PC) which is much stiffer (higher FF) steering. I really haven't made any significant adjustments to the base settings and am not sure how to approach sorting this problem. Having to stop and reset the wheel center every few laps is getting old so if someone could direct me in trouble shooting this I'd be grateful.
Comments
Given the design of the DD1/2 shaft, have you tried tightening the circular locking collar which holds the base-side QR shaft in place? This is the black metal piece with 3 holes drilled through each half and two hex bolts holding the ring halves together.
When I swapped my DD1 from QR1 to QR2, I was afraid of over tightening and saw this exact issue crop up. I recentered the collar (gaps on collar should line up with gaps on base shaft) and tightened the bolts like 1/8 to 1/4 turn on alternating sides until it was extemely snug.
I don't believe so Jason. Thanks. I will take a look at it.
Perfect! Thanks again. That was indeed the problem.
Excellent, I'm glad this fixed it for you! It seems like every wheelbase has its own quirks so it can be really tricky whenever some weird hardware thing like this is the culprit.
For the DD1/2 series of bases (and maybe earlier Fanatec bases also?), they use a pair of wire connectors to attach the QR shaft back into the mainboard (so the shaft moves independently of the wires as they twist together), but the CSL DD uses USB-C (so if it rotates it breaks the USB adaptor). Both of them require these friction-based clamps to keep the QR shaft and motor shaft coupled together tightly.
The CS DD definitely looks to be the best iteration though as it uses a single wire connector, but it doesn't twist like the DD1/2 bases do (I think the rotating shaft portion must go all the way through the base) and they separated the female end of the pin connections from the QR2 mechanism itself so it all bolts up really securely to avoid the two twisting issues above.