BMW M4 GT3 right shifter intermittent failure to shift

Ade Allen

I've had to log a support ticket for my BMW M4 GT3 wheel which I've had for less than 3 months.

The right shift paddle intermittently fails to shift up, making the wheel useless for any competitive racing.

A demo of the issue can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR10qIfLC2k

Not what I would expect from a product costing 1500 euros.

I've read about problems with the shifter becomes loose, but that's not the case here - it just sometimes fails to register a shift :(

I've switched back to the McLaren GT3 v2 for now. I used to love this wheel but after the M4 wheel it now feels like a cheap toy!

Ade Allen

Fanatec support contacted me this afternoon with an RMA number to return the wheel to their UK service centre for repair. I have to let them know when it will be ready and they will arrange collection.

Support ticket logged on Thursday 4th, RMA number supplied on the following Tuesday 9th. I don't think that's too bad in terms of time taken to get a response.

Now I just hope they can fix it and it stays fixed.

Ade Allen

Well, I received a new wheel from Fanatec, shipped from Germany, rather than a repair to the wheel I sent to the UK RMA centre. On unboxing it I tried the shift paddles before even connecting the wheel to anything and could immediately feel the right paddle didn't feel right - the microswitch wasn't activating until the paddle reached full travel (whereas left paddle the microswitch activates as soon as the paddle unlatches from the magnet).

Sure enough trying it out in-sim now and again it would fail to shift up.

Now this morning I'm noticing that the right paddle has become loose and wobbly. It's only had about 30 minutes use since it arrived.

Still waiting for a response from Fanatec on these further problems but I'm seriously unimpressed that they can replace a 3 month old 1500 Euro wheel with one that has even worse problems. Where's the quality control?