you may have one of the old..old..or the early version of the receiver.

just make sure you have 6 pen light batteries being applied to the receiver or 7.2v to the receiver.

next just apply the calibration technique posted here.

I seem to have a problem with my mini-x car. I'm not sure
what's wrong. I have fully charged batteries in the
radio and the car. When I start the car slowly,
at half speed, the steering servo starts to twitch and eventually turns the wheel to the right fully (and sometimes it remains locked even if I turn the steering wheel the other way on the
radio.) Sometimes, the car will automatically take
off in high speed even if I'm going slow. Then I
have to turn off the car and turn it on to use again.
But I can't get more then 30 seconds of run time
before the car malfunctions. Please advise if there
is something wrong with the radio or the electronics
on the car.

Thanks.