My Stampede has an aftermarket 15t motor with a Dynamite Tazer 15t ESC. It has ran fine in the past, but today it suddenly began cutting in and out (it seemed at first like a malfunction with my receiver). I decided to reprogram it which I have done several times in the past and never had a problem getting it to work. However, when I did it today the only functions it has is full speed and brake (no variable speed, no reverse).

I followed the instructions and still couldn't get it to work properly. What's wrong with it? Could it be from water damage? Is something wrong with my receiver? It may have gotten a little wet today from snow, but nothing more than usual.

Call traxxas and see...
See if it could be replaced.

It wouldn't be replaceable, it's not stock. It was fairly cheap though and can only handle a 15t motor, I'm thinking about upgrading to something that can handle brushless or down to 10 turn.

Haha well whatever was wrong with my ESC will never be known....it literally just went up in colorful stinky flames while I was troubleshooting the issue. The heatsinks were scorching hot within 10 seconds of testing the motor. I don't know what the problem was, I've had the same motor/ESC setup for several years and it's worked fine. My recent upgrade in batteries may have been too much juice for it....time for brushless!

Upon further investigation it was most likely water damage. I'm curious though, there were several decent sized grains of sand inside my ESC on the circuit board. Would it be possible for a pebble to short out the circuit board? That's where the flames were coming from...