Hello,
I’ve bought a Phantom 3 Professional on eBay, the owner didn’t fly it often. After about 4 hours of flying, I noticed a few Stress cracks on the bottom shell, resulting in one motor being loose and wiggling in its mount. Now It’s obviously unsafe to fly, so I’ll need to repair it. Since the drone is from 2016 and the owner didn’t give me the receipt, it will probably cost something and won’t be a warranty Case. (Even though it is a manufacturing issue, because the drone didn’t crash once or was otherwise damaged). Now my question is, if DJI would really charge me something and how much it would cost. If it was to expensive, I’d just buy a new bottom shell and fix it myself.
Thanks for your help
Umm, IMHO very unlikely to be a manufacturing defect, more likely the drone has been flown quite a lot and these stress cracks can occur. How do you know it hasn’t had a crash? Bought from Ebay?
Picture(s) would be useful and the good news is that they are almost certainly fixable!
Hi there, thanks for answering 
I bought it on eBay but the person who sold it to me claimed that it was his backup drone and that he sold drone footage for a living. So I thought it was credible and bought it. After about 4-5 hours of flying I noticed a strange clicking noise, like the propeller was somehow hitting something at high speed. Turns out that the stress cracks caused the motor to be loose.
I already sent it to DJI but I have some pictures.
In the second picture focus on the right motor,
The picture is a screenshot from a slow mo video, you can see the motor in a very weird and unnatural position. …Nevermind I can only upload 1 picture.
Those cracks are almost certainly caused by impact to the motor causing twisting of the shell. The can be quite easily repaired but ideally, to accomplish this, you need to split the casing, remove the motor and then repair from the inside by the application of a suitable glue/filler.
However, if you’ve sent it off to DJI they will probably charge you for a complete shell.
Make sure they return the damaged one to you, always good to have a spare.
Oh, well in that case it will probably cost about 100€
I bought the drone for 350€, did I get ripped off?
You may have a comeback on the seller of the drone on Ebay. Look closely at the listing, what did it say, what wording was used in the description? Did it mention the cracks (I doubt it!)? What did the pictures show?
The original listing was deleted by EBay because it was sold, I asked the guy if he could send me the receipt from when he bought the drone. He said he had lost it but asked DJI for a copy. After 2 weeks I asked him again several times because I couldn’t believe DJI was taking that long for a simple document. Then he blocked me. I guess he knew about the cracks and what they would result in.
Well anyway, if I pay 100€ now, it’s still a normal offer for the drone…
If you go to your Ebay account. Top right is “My Ebay”. Put your pointer on that and a drop down menu will appear. Scroll down to “Purchase History” and click on that and you can access all your purchases back over the years, they are not deleted - well mine aren’t, I can go back to 2017!
Have a look.
Im from Germany, it’s Not the Original Ebay Version but another version called „Ebay Kleinanzeigen“. As far as I know it’s only available in Germany, it’s the same as Craigslist.
I already contacted eBay now and asked them to send me a copy.
But unfortunately I think there’s nothing I can do about that “mini scam”.
Hi…maybe someone tight those screws too tight and that is what happened maybe even later…maybe…
Umm, I’m surprised that Ebay allow this “copy” company to trade under it’s name! Ebay is highly regulated and has very strict laws as to how sellers conduct themselves!
I’m sorry you’ve had this issue, be interesting to know how DJI respond.
Good luck.
Tanks, I’ll let you know!
Oh and that’s actually from the company eBay so it’s not a fake, just another version of eBay.
Very strange that it hasn’t got the same make-up of the “proper” one, retaining all buying and selling history, for just such a situation that you find yourself in!
Yes indeed,
But I just got an email from DJI telling me what they replaced:
Phantom 3 Lower Cover Module
Anzahl: 1
Quantity
Zwischensumme netto: 7.56
Net Price
Gesamtbetragnetto: 7.56
Total Price
Upper Cover
Anzahl: 1
Quantity
Zwischensumme netto: 2.52
Net Price
Gesamtbetragnetto: 2.52
Total Price
Right Landing Gear Module
Anzahl: 1
Quantity
Zwischensumme netto: 10.08
Net Price
Gesamtbetragnetto: 10.08
Total Price
Left Landing Gear V2
Anzahl: 1
Quantity
Zwischensumme netto: 1.68
Net Price
Gesamtbetragnetto: 1.68
Total Price
Phantom 3 Professional Camera Lens Hood (4K)
Anzahl: 1
Quantity
Zwischensumme netto: 7.56
Net Price
Gesamtbetragnetto: 7.56
Total Price
Repair Service Fee
Anzahl: 1
Quantity
Zwischensumme netto: 50.00
Net Price
Gesamtbetragnetto: 50.00
Total Price
Versandkosten
Shipping Cost
6.00
Rabatt
Discount
- 21.84
Zwischensumme
Total Net
63.56
USt. ( 16% )
TAX ( 16% )
10.17
Gesamtbetrag (EUR)
Total ( EUR )
73.73
73€ Is okay in my opinion
I think that’s very reasonable Arthur! Ready to fly!
Any help, please ask. Good luck - keep safe 
Thanks for everything, cheddarman. You’re the man!
By the way that dog is incredibly cute 
Her name is Mella, short for Mel Mellis which is Latin for honey, and she sure is!
That’s adorable
I learned Latin in school
Hi,
Turns out they actually crashed my drone during damage evaluation
…lol
Ha! Ha! Hilarious! 
Guess you ended up with a better repair than you would have done!
Have you flown drones before Arthur? I’, 81 and my son gave me mine a couple of years ago and I found it very easy 