Title basically. I got a Fanatec (don't hate me for it ok?) CSL DD 8nm and I mostly play BeamNG with it. As everyone probably knows, this game has extremely unforgiving, dangerous and strong FFB, especially when going off road or crashing. I'm not a strong person so I don't hold the wheel very hard when driving. This means when ~~a skill issue~~ one of the above mentioned events happen, the wheel oscillates and vibrates quite hard.
I do have interpolation and smoothening enabled but I don't want to crank it up too high in order to save details. So can the vibration significantly hurt the hardware? I'm planning to get a Clubsport QR1 soon to eliminate one of the concerns but I still don't know if everything else is going to be fine. I'm not able to repair or replace the hardware every few months after all
It's more likely that strong FFB effects will harm you than the wheel itself. Just let go when you crash and don't worry about the hardware too much.
That's what I always do. I try to press pause or restart (that I have 4 buttons mapped for just in case) as soon as possible as well
I wouldn't worry too much about pausing the game. If the hardware is not made for such high forces, than it would not output those. And even Fanatec should not be that dumb.
Thank you for reassuring me, mister/miss. I'm glad there's a sim racing community like this here on the Fediverse