P3A stress crack

Jimph1 · Aug 31, 2016

Hi everyone, my P3A is at DJI to be repaired due to a stress crack below a rear motor.

Can Anyone tell me through experience etc if they are putting a stronger shell on the phantom 3's when in for warranty repair or is it just the original weak shell I bought it with.

Jim

TuT · Oct 2, 2016

Hi Jim,
I'm in the same boat. My 2 month old P3A is already developing stress cracks. About a dozen flights in total and this is with the new shell.

Rubbish plastic in my opinion. I'll contact my retailer this week. Who knows.. maybe thy'll give me a Phantom 4 or just a tube of superglue. I'm not impressed, wondering when this quad will fall from the sky and land on some poor kid's head.

cactus683 · Oct 6, 2016

Same here P3A just shipped it out to DJI,i flew it 7 times since i got it in Feburary,found a crack on it after my flight 2 days ago,hope they put a decent shell on it this time because this is BS.

gecarey · Oct 22, 2016

My first P3P went back to DJI 3 times for cracks under warranty. Each time total shell replacement, and back in my hands usually under 7 days. Granted I am on the west coast and it only is a 2 day transit time each way. But still they seem to really have their game on. In the 3rd round trip, two weeks ago, I got a brand new, or factory refurbished bird.... Couldn't believe it, I actually had to dig out the serial # info from the first one to make sure I wasn't seeing things.
I would say thumbs up for the repair people, Cust svc... better but not great.

cactus683 · Oct 22, 2016

I got mine back the other day,it has a diffrent serial,dji says they didnt swap it out so i dont know if they put a bottom shell on it without my original serial on it or what.

jnix · Oct 22, 2016

Jimph1 said:
Hi everyone, my P3A is at DJI to be repaired due to a stress crack below a rear motor.

Can Anyone tell me through experience etc if they are putting a stronger shell on the phantom 3's when in for warranty repair or is it just the original weak shell I bought it with.

Jim

Been through it. Don't go through DJI buy the 2nd generation shell and do it yourself,cause it wasn't hard just time consuming. The shell was 58.00 and took me 3-4 hours and it is flying great. You have to remember one thing, just don't over torque the screws like the factory did....

Alan Russel · Oct 23, 2016

wow sending the bird back 3 times for a shell replacement..i think the problem is either DJI are still tightening screws to much or the plastic these shells are made of are not up to sctatch.

jnix · Oct 23, 2016

Alan Russel said:
wow sending the bird back 3 times for a shell replacement..i think the problem is either DJI are still tightening screws to much or the plastic these shells are made of are not up to sctatch.

Dji is using the same shell not the generation 2 shell with more support in the plastic. It may be do to over tightening too.

Domikk · Oct 23, 2016

Hi all,

I got a problem with my P3P - shell in my phantom is cracking (I saw it today after a short fly!) My Phantom NEVER did fall or did not have any hard landing, I keep it only in DJI HARD SHELL (which I never drop).

The reason why Im write here is that my crack's are on the TOP not on the bottom of the arm.. Did everyone had this problem? My Phantom got 6 month's - are warrianty includes it ?

Richard R · Oct 23, 2016

I bought mine in Jan and sent it in for crack repair in August DJI covered it all.

jnix · Oct 23, 2016

Domikk said:
Hi all,

I got a problem with my P3P - shell in my phantom is cracking (I saw it today after a short fly!) My Phantom NEVER did fall or did not have any hard landing, I keep it only in DJI HARD SHELL (which I never drop).

The reason why Im write here is that my crack's are on the TOP not on the bottom of the arm.. Did everyone had this problem? My Phantom got 6 month's - are warrianty includes it ?

That's crazy. I don't know that I've ever seen it on the top portion of the bird. Saving grace is it is on top and 200 times easier to replace than the bottom if you decide to replace it yourself.

Deleted member 68677 · Oct 23, 2016

Stress cracks are from fast takeoffs and hard braking... Fly in attitude mode you will never have this problem

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chrismatthewssr · Oct 23, 2016

I'm sorry Agent Smith I don't think so

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chrismatthewssr · Oct 23, 2016

Cracks are coming from cheap plastic from DJI Mine was cracked after 2 hours of flying and I babied my p3 p drone

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PFCO · Oct 23, 2016

This is concerning as I have just ordered my P3A.

Do any aftermarket parts help avoid this issue?

Deleted member 68677 · Oct 23, 2016

There are no aftermarket parts for this issue... Just try to get the latest airframe if and when you need one.

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swoot · Oct 23, 2016

Rhino.1 said:
This is concerning as I have just ordered my P3A.

Do any aftermarket parts help avoid this issue?

There are parts to help. Search eBay for phantom stress cracks or similar and you'll see metal reinforcement plates that be fitted under each motor on the outside to strengthen the shell. Mine are due soon at £4 each it's worth it.

Deleted member 68677 · Oct 23, 2016

My apologies I was unaware that there were parts available for the airframe

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ROD PAINTER · Oct 23, 2016

I have the polar pro landing gear extenders. I took them off to do imu calibration and I noticed this white powder where the extenders attach. I believe the shell and landing gear plastic is not being cured properly. Never seen any plastic that leaves residue on whatever it's attached to!

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Deleted member 68677 · Oct 23, 2016

I have never experienced any stress cracks in my airframe... But yes that is strange that there is a white powder in the landing gear

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