Hey all,
I took my Slayer out for some parking lot fun, and ran it for maybe half a tank before the night got cut short. It sat for like 15 mins with the electronics on, and then I loaded it up in my car. While driving down the road, I noticed something smelled funny. I looked back, and saw my Slayer with a glowing flame coming from under the body, like there was a lighter being lit under it. Then, copious amounts of smoke started bellowing out from beneath, and it filled up the entire cab - I pulled over and rolled down the windows, and then there was nothing. It turned out to be the steering servo, and there was a hole burned straight through it. It was a stock Traxxas 2070 servo. Has this happened to anyone before? I sent Traxxas an email, wonder if it's common.


Here's a picture - what could be the cause?

wow ive never seen that before im gonna start taking more care of my servos lol

It happens when they burn out sometimes. Especially if the servo is slightly under spec and has to work a bit too hard, it gets hot. A good quality servo with a heatsink will stand up much better.

MOST standard servos are just not powerful enough to get the job done, sounds like this guy died out early. Try contacting traxxas about a new one, or getting something stronger [>:]. Also if there was an internal electrical short that can cause the parts to heat up so much as to cause all the smoke.... inside the car [&:]

Man, now I need to go check on my Slayer........

I've seen that happen in some airplanes where the control surfaces put too much stress on their servo. I'd imagine Traxxas would replace that though.