I just bought a Photon Mini Buggy. Before the first LiPo was finished, the front Diff was history! The next day, we returned to our LHS where the purchase was made and they kindly replaced the Buggy with the only other one they had.

That afternoon, not even halfway through the LiPo, the new one started to make a noise that sounded like......you guessed it, the front diff has one or two rough spots in it!

I have NOT run this car hard by any means. The second one was treated with "Kit Gloves" and still, I'm loosing a diff.! I realize that the HiMax motor has a lot of power, but it seems that if you can't even run this car in your driveway for 15 minutes without a gear related failure, I have to question whether or not the purchase is worth it! Having to change parts that soon, just running in the driveway, not a racing enviroment, just don't make sense.

So, the problem is, I want to keep this car and make it work for me. I don't mind upgrading to the metal diffs if they will hold up. I'm having doubts whether or not they will last if the stock ones won't last longer that 15 to 20 minutes.

My LHS said that they will check into the metal diffs and maybe the posibility of the need for shims. I am even considering the larger pinion gear to take a little torque out of it. The problem with that is, I'm not sure how that will change the performance.

I REALLY love the speed of this thing!! It handles great and tracks true for such a little car. It just needs to do it for more that one battery pack.

My questions to the rep(s) here are:
1. Can you tell me if there is a know issue with the stock diffs? If so, could you help me out?
2. Would shims help the life span of these? (I ask because the LHS changed the bad one off of the first Buggy, and it looked loose and sloppy).
3. Will the cost of the metal gears be worth the longevity of the parts?
4. Do you think the 17T Pinion will make a big difference.

Can and will IRC help me with this?

I think the the buggy is a great concept with the Mamba/HiMax combo, but is it a tad too much "beef" for this little thing?

Thanks in advance for any help or advice. The wife really loves this thing when it runs, and you know how important keeping her happy is to all of my hobbies!!

RADR G-Man