WPL C24 Crawler RC Car 1/16 RC Rock Crawler

[MRobinson57]

I got one for Xmas from Amazon and it worked great for the first few days. Now when I go to run it, it will run sluggish for about 3 seconds then will stop and the headlights will start flashing like it is not connected to the remote. I did all the things. Fresh batteries all round. Same issue with any of the 3 battery packs that it comes with. I also put fresh batteries in the controller. I did not run it hard at all. Just around the house a little bit.

Any advice before I return for full refund?

 

[ZaneC]

Welcome to RCT!
Have you charged the batteries yet? (Just checking.)
If you have, check the battery connections on the truck and charger, you may find a loose wire. If that doesn't help, look up how to re-bind the remote.
And if after all this it doesn't work, send it back or contact WPL.

 

[WickedFog]

It sounds like maybe something is binding.

WPL axles were notorious for having a terrible mesh in the ring and pinion gears. I had one with major issues with the gear machining. No amount of shimming would fix it. In the end, after assembling the axles, I smeared rubbing compound on the gears, then put them in the diff housing and closed it up. Then I put the pinion's output shaft in a drill and ran it til things smoothed up. I basically wore the gears into tolerance. Remove an axle housing from the truck and see if the pinion rotates smoothly.

 

[Xraycer]

I would just return it for a new one. I've had mine for a few years now, and while I hardly run it any more, it's never had any issues. But, I've ran it pretty hard, initially, and after painting liquid electrical tape on the main electronic board, even ran it through puddles to near submersion.

 

[CertifiedMike]

I got one for Xmas from Amazon and it worked great for the first few days. Now when I go to run it, it will run sluggish for about 3 seconds then will stop and the headlights will start flashing like it is not connected to the remote. I did all the things. Fresh batteries all round. Same issue with any of the 3 battery packs that it comes with. I also put fresh batteries in the controller. I did not run it hard at all. Just around the house a little bit.

Any advice before I return for full refund?

Welcome to RCTALK.COM!
It sounds like low voltage which is crazy from 3 packs!
Have you actually just verified the voltage from your packs with a meter?

 

[Panko75]

Have you tried to charge any of the batteries? What you're deacribing sounds like the low voltage cut-off mode. The batteries aren't fully charged out of the box.

 

[DogtownSk8s]

I got one for Xmas from Amazon and it worked great for the first few days. Now when I go to run it, it will run sluggish for about 3 seconds then will stop and the headlights will start flashing like it is not connected to the remote. I did all the things. Fresh batteries all round. Same issue with any of the 3 battery packs that it comes with. I also put fresh batteries in the controller. I did not run it hard at all. Just around the house a little bit.

Any advice before I return for full refund?

I have 4 of those trucks and two of them are doing exactly that. They are out of warranty by now so I dunno what to do. They run for 5 seconds then lights flash and nothing. I have 6 battery packs and fully charged and still same thing. This sucks.