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Not my problem???

jcboof

jcboof

I wanna be Dave
Joined
Oct 11, 2008
Messages
2,238
Location
I miss Rowdy
Last week I sold a 4wd Racing sedan on RCTech.net. I sold the car to a guy and gave him a great deal on it and figured everything should be ok.

Before I shipped the car out I tested everything again on it and it worked perfectly as it has for the entire racing season. Never have I ever had a problem with anything on the car.

I get a PM last night from the guy and he said that as soon as he plugged the car in, that the ESC popped and fried!!:evil: Now what the hell could have happened....... He's not asking me to do anything about it at this point but I still feel bad that it happened but is it really my responsibility?? I have never sold junk or ever had any problems with this car.

Heres the hitch. After thinking and thinking about it for a while, the only way an ESC can fry instantly upon plugging a battery in is by reverse polarity.

I went back and looked at a few pics of the car to check the wiring. I then noticed that the deans plug on the esc was wired backwards!!! When I bought the car last fall, I had bought it RTR with batteries and everything. The batteries were bullet connector batteries and there was a dean to bullet adapter that I had kept. I just checked the connector and it is also wired backwards.

The question to you guys is, Should I be responsible for not disclosing that the ESC connector was wired backwards even if I didn't realize it??? Or should it have been the buyers responsibility to check that before connecting the battery?

The buyer has not asked me to do anything as of this point and the way he worded his message makes me think that he will NOT ask me to do anything about it and just write it off as a bad experience and chitty luck.
 
I honestly think that since it was wired incorrectly it is your fault for not telling him about it. Any battery he bought was going to send the esc to electronic heaven. Would it have been smart for him to check polarity yes! However since you said it working fine all this time he plugged up the battery an didn't think twice about checking polarity. You jut assume its going to work correctly. He won't have that problem anymore because the new esc will be wired correctly to prevent that problem. Ive done this before, to my personal vehicles and didn't bother to fix it because well they are mine and I knew that it was wired backwards. However when I sold an rc18t to a buddy of mine with this same problem, I got it back to do a tear down and boom I fired the esc! I explained to him what had happened an I replaced it with an old one I had laying around. His son now has the truck and it's been fine ever since. I would confess and help with the problem. Good luck
 
Pretty sure he already had the battery as throughout our original conversations about him buying the car he had asked if his Venom lipos would fit in the chassis. But I'm not sure if they were Deans or bullet connector batteries.


He may have realized what happened if he did cross polarity and that is why he isn't wanting to do anything about it and just chalking it up as a loss.

He said he had another identical speedo that he hooked up and everything worked fine as it would if the polarity on the connector was correct.

I have another speedo I can send him if he want, but I'm still just a bit conflicted if I should be offering to send it to him for free.


highlucks said:
If you had red and black wires then it is totally his fault for plugging black to red and vice versa.
Click to expand...

Yes, the wires were red and black.


Heres a pic of the car before I shipped it to him.
You can clearly see the connector wired backwards.

jcboof-24498-albums2528-31838.jpg
 
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If it was me I would want to clear my conscience about the problem and help them out. It is both parties fault but you can't always remember everything.
 
Thats kinda what I'm thinking too.

The only thing that I don't know is if it was actually connected backwards, or if he had rewired the plug before connecting it. He won't tell me whether or not he rewired it.

Now if he rewired it I will not do a thing about the problem as he could have destroyed the esc himself by overheating the wires and damaging the board or anything really. But if he can provide me proof that he connected the battery with reverse polarity, I'll probably offer to help him out.
 
I'd say its 50/50. Yes he should have checked, but according to you everything was tested and in perfect working condition, so its perfectly reasonable to assume that he could just plug in and go.

If it were me, I'd go halfsies on a replacement esc.
 
jwalker said:
If it was me I would want to clear my conscience about the problem and help them out. It is both parties fault but you can't always remember everything.
Click to expand...


X2, If he didn't do anything to it. just send him an ESC, You never know when he or someone knows him may have a deal your wanting. "thumbsup"
 
AdverseCity said:
If it was me I'd rather have him think I helped when I shouldn't have than think I didn't help when I should've. I'd offer him the other ESC you have at half what you'd normally sell it for.
Click to expand...

That is what I'm going to do. I can sell the speedo I have for around 50-60 bucks so I think 25 is a fair price.
I would feel better about the whole situation if I did this rather than telling him tough luck.

Or I can just send him 50 bucks and call it done. He already replaced the esc and I'd have to buy another one so I can keep racing my other car.
 
Last edited:
jcboof said:
Thats kinda what I'm thinking too.

The only thing that I don't know is if it was actually connected backwards, or if he had rewired the plug before connecting it. He won't tell me whether or not he rewired it.

Now if he rewired it I will not do a thing about the problem as he could have destroyed the esc himself by overheating the wires and damaging the board or anything really. But if he can provide me proof that he connected the battery with reverse polarity, I'll probably offer to help him out.
Click to expand...


If he won't tell you whether or not he rewired it, he seems shady to me, fawk him."thumbsup"
 
I am inclined to agree with travis. I don't know why someone wouldn't answer if they rewired it or not. If he did and won't say he obviously knows he fawked up. But pictures can reveal what actually happened. I hope this all works out for you. Keep us updated.
 
I asked him if he had the polarity correct and he said Yes. But If he didn't rewire it, I would think he was lying. This is where things get a little weird for me. He won't tell me whether or not he did anything to the connector yet he says that polarity was right which I know for a fact that it would not be unless he rewired it.

I'm gonna fire a couple questions at him and see if he is willing to cooperate with some photos or at least let me know if he rewired it.
 
Yea, if he's saying it was right, and you have proof that it wasn't, which in the pic it clearly isn't, then he rewired and more than likely screwed something over on it through no fault of yours. This whole situation just seems really sketchy....
 
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