so this has been bugging me for a few days now. running a 5inch freestyle build, 2306 motors, 45a blheli_32 escs and one of my motors just twitches when i arm it then cuts out completely. the other three spin up fine. if i desync during a flight the whole thing just falls out of the sky which has happened twice already.

ive already swapped the motor to a different esc output on the FC just to rule out a bad esc signal pad and the problem followed the motor so i think the motor itself is cooked but im not 100% sure. the bell spins smooth, no grinding, no obviously burnt smell. just that weird twitch and then nothing.

anyone seen this before? wondering if i should just replace the motor or if there's something else i should be checking first before i spend money on parts

yeah that twitch-and-die thing is almost always a phase wire issue or a partial short inside the stator windings. even if the bell spins smooth by hand that doesnt tell you much, the damage can be really subtle. grab a multimeter and check resistance between each pair of phase wires - should be nearly identical across all three pairs. if one reads noticeably different or you get continuity between a phase wire and the motor casing then yeah the motor is toast.

also worth checking the solder joints at the esc where the motor wires connect, ive had a cold joint cause almost the exact same symptoms and it drove me crazy for like a week before i spotted it under a magnifying glass. but based on what you said about the problem following the motor to a different esc output, yeah id just replace it at this point, motors arent worth the time to diagnose too deeply unless its an expensive one

had basically this exact thing happen on my 4in build last month. mine turned out to be a broken stator wire internally, couldnt see anything wrong from outside at all. just buy a new motor honestly, 2306s arent that expensive and youll spend more time trying to figure it out than its worth