Joy-Con drift: repair instead of buying a new pair
Mario sliding left on his own, the menu selection scrolling: Joy-Con drift is almost inevitable. No need to buy new because of it.
Joy-Con sticks are tiny and their resistive track wears even faster than on a full-size controller. Nintendo eventually covered the problem in some countries, but for consoles out of warranty the simplest solution remains replacing the stick module.
The repair
We open the Joy-Con (four tri-wing screws), disconnect the battery, remove the stick's ribbon cable and clip in a new module: on a Joy-Con the stick isn't soldered, it is a ribbon. We then recalibrate in the console settings. Allow half an hour per controller, by appointment.
What we look at meanwhile
The rail (broken latch, worn contacts), the battery if the Joy-Con no longer lasts, and the SL/SR button that stops responding after a fall. All of that is repaired for far less than a new pair.
On the Switch 2
The new Joy-Con have a redesigned stick, but still with potentiometers. We'll see how they age; replacement modules are arriving.
A tip in the meantime: under Settings › Controllers and Sensors › Calibrate Control Sticks, a recalibration hides the problem for a few weeks. It isn't a repair, but it helps before the appointment.
Also worth reading
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