so i binned my quad pretty hard into a concrete barrier last weekend, one of those stupid ones you dont even see until its too late. front left motor is definitely toast - shaft is bent and it just vibrates like crazy on the bench even at low throttle. swapped it out for a spare T-Motor F40 i had sitting around which should be fine since it's the same kv as the rest.

what im wondering is whether there's stuff i should be looking at beyond just the motor. the arm itself looks okay visually, no cracks i can see, but im a little worried about the frame. also the ESC on that corner was getting warm during my bench test which it wasnt really doing before. is that just because the new motor needs to break in or should i be pulling the stack and checking things more carefully

fly like 4-5 packs a week so i dont want to send it up if somethings actually wrong

warm ESC after a crash is worth paying attention to honestly. could just be a phase wire that took a knock and has a slightly dodgy connection now, which makes the ESC work harder. id check continuity on all three phase wires going to that new motor before you fly again, and give the solder joints a look under decent light. a hairline crack in a solder joint can be basically invisible but cause all kinds of grief under load.

also worth running motor direction and doing a full ESC calibration through blheli even if you think everything is fine. had a situation like this once where everything looked clean but there was a partial short that only showed up properly when i desync'd mid-flight. not saying thats whats happening with you but its a quick check.

the arm - if you genuinely cant feel any flex or see cracking youre probably okay but i usually run my thumb along the inside of the arm near the motor mount screws because thats where stress fractures like to hide

yeah check the props too, even if they look fine. had a crash that looked way worse than yours and the motors were all good but one prop had a tiny chip i missed and the vibration absolutely killed my video for two whole flights before i figured it out. also blackbox if you have it - worth pulling a short log on the bench and looking at gyro noise on that front left axis specifically