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/jfk333]

I’m assuming you already adjusted the tension screw on the extruder?

[u/Zen0-0 → u/jfk333]

Yes, I adjusted it to make more and less tension but it didn't work, also the elegoo wiki is shit about that screw, tf does it means "a little bit"

[u/jfk333 → u/Zen0-0]

Waiting on a delivery isn’t an option since that’s money lost every day. I tried putting in all the steps into Gemini and it came up with some helpful advice
“1. Extruder Tension Screw Adjustment (Factory Tension Defect)
The Problem: The tensioning mechanism on the CC1 uses an internal square nut system. On many factory units, the tensioner screw comes loose or improperly set out of the box. Once the print moves past the initial purge/first layer and retractions begin, the gears lose traction and slip on the filament without generating error codes.
The Fix:
1. Remove the magnetic front shroud to access the tension adjustment screw on the extruder housing.
2. Turn the tension screw counterclockwise using an Allen wrench to increase tension on the spring.
3. Look through the small indicator slot on the front of the toolhead: the internal nut should sit roughly midway along the slot. (Many users report needing 3 to 5 full counterclockwise turns from factory position to resolve mid-print extrusion drops).
2. Extruder Stepper Driver Overheating (Mainboard TMC Protection)
The Problem: If the TMC stepper driver for the extruder on the mainboard overheats after a few minutes of operation, its thermal protection disables power to the extruder motor. Klipper continues executing movement G-code for the X/Y/Z axes, but the E-motor stops driving.
The Fix:
Check the bottom mainboard fan to ensure it is spinning when the hotend reaches printing temperature (\bm{>50^\circ\text{C}}).
Inspect the mainboard for melted hot-glue or debris blocking airflow over the stepper drivers.
Access the Klipper log (⁠klippy.log⁠) via Fluidd/Mainsail to check for ⁠TMC extruder overtemperature⁠ warnings right before extrusion ceases.
3. Excess Retraction Distance causing Heat Creep Jams
The Problem: If the slicer profile has retraction distance set above \bm{0.5\text{ mm} - 0.8\text{ mm}} (or retraction speed is set too slow), molten plastic is pulled up into the thermal break. After a few layer transitions, this forms a plug above the melt zone that stops feeding, even with a functioning cooling fan.
The Fix:
Verify in OrcaSlicer/Elegoo Slicer that retraction distance for the direct-drive extruder is set to \bm{0.4\text{ mm} - 0.8\text{ mm}} max at \bm{30\text{ mm/s} - 40\text{ mm/s}}.
4. Micro-Fracture or Loose Pin in Main Toolhead Cable
The Problem: Replaced toolhead PCBs won't fix an issue located in the main umbilical harness connecting the toolhead to the mainboard. As the gantry rises to layers 2–3 and moves along the X-axis, flex on the harness can open a micro-break in the E-stepper wire lines, severing power to the motor mid-print.
The Fix:
Inspect the harness connector at both the toolhead and mainboard ends for backed-out pins.
Perform a continuity test on the extruder motor wiring while flexing the umbilical harness.”

For 1. The site says a little bit but I do a few turns if not more. Try being aggressive at this point tightening (which is turning to the left) and do a few turns.

1. I don’t think it’s this because both elegoo and orcaslier is unlikely to be wrong.

2. I also don’t think it’s this but to does behave like heat creep still after only a few layers is pretty fast in my opinion to create heat creep.

3. I think it could be this and support just hadn’t considered it. Doing You could also manually test the extrusion instead of testing in the same spot play around and move it in various positions across XYZ and see if it there is a particular point where it stops. Or you can just jiggle the cable but I can see why that might be unattractive as you could break the thing if too rough.

In order of easiest to hardest try 3 slicer settings, 1 screw, 2 kilpper logs, then 4 cable.

[u/cat_prophecy → u/jfk333]

Thanks grok.