The grip has worn off your thumbsticks

94MER / Repair Guides / Controllers

Controllers · Symptom guide

The textured rubber has gone smooth and shiny, or it has split and started peeling away from the plastic underneath.

The cap is rubber and your thumb is abrasive. On a controller used daily the surface polishes smooth within a couple of years, and once it is slick your thumb slides at exactly the wrong moment.

Do these first. They cost nothing.

Check this before you buy anything

  1. Clean them first

    Isopropyl on a cloth. Built-up skin oil feels like wear and wipes off.

  2. Check the stick itself still centres correctly

    If the stick drifts as well as being worn, caps alone will not fix that.

If every one of those comes back clean, now it is worth buying a part.

If that did not fix it, here is the part

Xbox One Joystick CoversXbox One Joystick Covers$2.99Xbox 360 Joystick CoversXbox 360 Joystick Covers$2.99Xbox Series X|S Joystick CoversXbox Series X|S Joystick Covers$2.99GameCube Joystick CoversGameCube Joystick Covers$2.993DS / 2DS Circle Pad Cap3DS / 2DS Circle Pad Cap$3.99PSP 1000 Joystick CoverPSP 1000 Joystick Cover$3.99

Before you order

Caps are not interchangeable between console families. Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Xbox Series pads all take different caps, and the GameCube pair covers both the control stick and the C-stick.

What this is not

Caps are cosmetic and tactile only. They do not fix drift, which is a worn sensor underneath.

Related faults

Your character moves when you are not touching the stickYour N64 stick wanders on its own or feels sloppy

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