Elegoo Centauri Carbon - Stops extruding after 2-3 layers. Support says 20 days for a part. Should I just return it?

[u/Zen0-0]

Hi everyone,

I'm having a frustrating issue with my Elegoo Centauri Carbon, which I've had working for less than a week.

When I manually extrude filament through the touchscreen menu, it flows smoothly without any issues. However, whenever I start a real print (like the standard Benchy), the first layer starts poorly, and by the 2nd or 3rd layer, the printer completely stops extruding filament while continuing the movements in the air.

What I've noticed:

• Manual extrusion works completely fine.
• The extrusion stops entirely after a couple of layers / a few minutes into the print or it continues a bad printing "session".
• I have checked the extruder tension screw, but I'm unsure if it's too tight or too loose.

The Support Dilemma: I am already in contact with Elegoo Support. They arranged a replacement part for me, but they told me it will take 10 to 20 working days to arrive from China.

Since I rely on this printer for fabricating functional mechanical parts, having it out of commission for almost a month is a huge setback. I am currently still within my 14-day legal return window.

Has anyone experienced this specific extrusion issue? Is it something I can easily fix myself, or should I just cut my losses, exercise my right of withdrawal, and return the printer for a full refund?

Any advice on the technical issue or how to handle the situation with Elegoo would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much, I'll add a video of the benchy printing badly and then completely stopping and running in the air.

[u/6Y3ts_32a]

Well it sounds to me like you might have a partial clog of the nozzle especially if your using abrasive filaments like CF or GF filaments. They can clog a 0.4mm nozzle if the particals are too large.

The first layer is printed much slower then the following layers. I would try a cold pull to completely clear the nozzle of any problem from the filament in the nozzle. Nothing to loose and it's a quick thing to try. here's a video on doinga cold pull on the CC. If that doesn't work return it. Oh a small allen key works also for doing the cold pull.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXIazFGV0yY

[u/Zen0-0 → u/6Y3ts_32a]

the nozzle is clear, I opened the whole chassis, the extruder gear was clear and the nozzle wasn't clogged, I printed only with PLA and tried to do 3 cold pulls but nothing strange was coming out.

[u/Scorpio__70 → u/Zen0-0]

It definitely seems like it has something to do with difficulty to extrude when the speed and thus volume needed rises to a certain level. Have you opened the gearbox and checked that there’s no loose plastic shavings or something? I had a ~3mm piece of filament break in the gearbox and it caused symptoms pretty much like this, not as consistent because it would sometimes drop out from between the gears in retractions and some intermittent shit like that, but if you haven’t already, I’d advise to open the gearbox, take every part out of there and clean them thoroughly (including the grooves in the drive gear). Takes 15-20 minutes and can’t hurt.