I have a 5 year old X52 that has never had a problem, other than it's starting to squeak and grunt with every movement. My son uses this one since he started playing AH. The new set I bought for me has been plagued by problems from the beginning, connecting wire making bad connection, loose screws on the sensors causing erratic behavior, USB cord issues causing stick to just go dead randomly..........
I have the screws removed since I have to open it up and tweak the screws and wires inside the stick about once a week.
On the plus side, I always have an excuse for getting shot down.