Same Chassis - Different Performance

Guys,

I know I'm far from knowing all there is to know about HO, but, got a question on two chassis I have. Both look brand spankin new. Both have a stamp on the top plate that says "AW Round 2, LLC. 2000 Made in China." The difference? One sounds all crunchy and like the gears are messed up and the other runs smooth and nearly soundless. One, when I look at it, looks like it is sloppy gear meshing (potentially the sound I hear) while the other, appears to be "tight" or properly meshing. It's like one has a ton of imperfections and the other does not. Now, I know that they are probably mass produced and what not, but is this just a luck of the draw on the good one? Any one have a bit more info on these chassis? And how can I potential make the bad one run like the good one without sinking a ton of cash into it?

Thanks for the feedback and input!
PD2

Paul it has to be part of the inspection process. AW is making millions of these cars, more cars have been produced since the reissue than AF/X ever intended. Some of the molds I'm sure are worn out but they are still being used until they break. As a result you get this kind of quality. The mold plates for the chassis, and I think there are three of them, cost about $25,000 each and are good for 250,000 uses. That's when the sliding mold machine is properly maintained, so use your imagination there too. Ofter they're out of adjustment, I get bare chassis sometimes that have a lot of flash needing to be trimmed too.

I had a young man bring his car into the shop wanting to know why it wouldn't run. Well I scattered the car out on a paper towel on the counter and found that the chassis was warped so bad that the brushes would not contact the comm. This was an AW car as well. I swapped out the chassis for one from my box, put the car back together and tested it, it still wouldn't run. I pulled the top plate off and when I did the entire comm plate stayed in the chassis. At this point I just pulled another car off the wall, put his body on it and handed it over. I threw the junk car in my personal box for parts. I do this a couple times a month, and I sell probably 50 or 60 cars. That's about a 3% failure rate. Sure, most of the time it's little thinks like gear noise but once in a while I get a car that should have never made it to the boat.

Thanks for the reply Mr. Champion! I don't think the car is to that point yet, but it is definitely rougher than the one that runs great!

So, question for you: when you get a car, regardless of the manufacturer, do you instantly have a "punch list" of things you do to QA / tune the car? And if you do, as you go through that list and find an issue, how do you resolve it or what are some of the things you can do to fix the issue?

Though its a different scale, the 1/32 cars usually are things such as lubing and sanding or replacing tires, at most. I usualy run a 1/32 car and then begin mainly tuning the car for handling and performance, not for QA'ing (very rarely are there QA issues with 1/32 cars, but they have been known to happen). So I'm a little unfamiliar with what to look for on the HO chassis to say this is an issue or that has a problem, etc.

Thanks again for the reply! I greatly appreciate it!
PD2