Yea my shooter does that sometimes too

I had similar issues, maybe 20% of the time. I noticed that the plunger was quite a bit off ball center. I centered it up (side to side and up and down) and have had no problem since. Concerning the strong slings I also was having problems. About every 12 to 15 games I would have to take the glass off and move the left side flasher pole (on top of sling) back on line. About every 25 games or so the ball would jump the left side wire ramp and lodge next to the side wood. I went to the adjustment menu and move the coil pulse power to "soft". I was not really expecting this to work - all reports on pinside said it would not. Anyway, that was about 6 weeks ago and I have not had to adjust flasher pole one time nor has the ball landed next to the wood rail. I can't explain it but there you have it.

I haven't had an issue with plunger on mine but I am having issues with the overpowered slings. I contacted my distributor about it and apparently Stern is aware of the problem and is going to address it in the next update... whenever that is going to be.

The plunge should hit the pinball in the center, just like a pool ball is stroked.

Have seen this on location too. Both issues. Slings on the pro and the premium fire lots of airballs at many different angles. Have had it pop onto both wireforms, back into the shooter lane...you name it.

I had to loosen my plunger on the cabinet and move it around a bit to hit dead center and be consistent. Mine is a premium but same thing in that area.
I cut Stern slack on things like that because I'm a perfectionist.

D

I had to adjust mine to and it was 90% good but after adding the cliffy eject protector it's now 100% weird hey? The protector must give the ball a straight guide on launch.

I had to adjust my plunger as well just like Avengers and Tron. I guess I am getting used to it. The difference with Metallica is you can center it but depth is a little off. The way Stern designed it, does not allow full extension. It was only off by mm so I replaced plunger tip and now seems to plunge ok.

I had this same problem with the Avengers Pro I used to own. I tried everything. The only thing that worked was putting two small washers inside the tip of the plunger (which extends the plunger a little). Alas, I was never able to get the auto kicker to work more than 75%.

I had exactly the opposite problem. After putting in cliffy protector I was getting air balls off the plunger. I think that it actually needs a bit of tape on the bottom half towards the plunger like it has on the top half. I needed to shave mine down to get it to fit properly.

But now I also consistently have the ball ricochet off the rail when plunging.

I had some problems to after Cliffy mounting but readjusted the cliffies a bit and the plunger and now it works 100% like it did prior to installing Cliffy

I also noticed this last night as the game is new - I will try to readjust and report back.. Makes that super skill shot tough

No issues here

I have seen plenty of Williams games with this exact problem, Bally's too.

I had a rather difficult time fitting the Cliffy on the Metallica shooter ramp. I noticed that the top part of the metal protector slightly extended into the ramp area and was scraping against the ball as it was going up the ramp causing slight ball movement to the right. I took it off again, did a little filing and it works fine now.

I had to do the same to mine. In my case the bottom part was lifting away from the playfield which caused the ball to launch into the glass.

I can see now that my plunger is not centered on the shooting lane, being my first pin does anyone have a link or tips on how to line the plunger up properly?

I think what's happening is that the ball sometimes hits the right ramp habitrail on the way out. I can't prove that, it's just a hunch. I'll try a test tonight. The autolaunch seems much more prone to PPS (partial plunge syndrome) than the manual plunger.

I have coil strength set to "soft" and I still have some games abruptly end with the sling launching a ball to the outlane.

Yep same thing here. A fast ball into the right sling is almost guaranteed to airball on my machine. I just pray I get lucky and it lands in the ramp return instead of draining through the left outlane.

I have owned 5 new Pins and have had to adjust the plunger on 4 of them. First thing I do, with a pencil, make a line on the wood next to the metal part. This gives you some idea how much you are actually moving the plunger metal. Unscrew those top 3 screws just a few turns (just loosen them up). Those bottom two (the small ones) you will need to take off. You should be able to move the metal plate quite a bit, especially side to side (not so much up and down). Move the plate in the direction of center ball, tighten the three big screws, lower the pf set a ball in the ramp and see if this is the location you want. When you find the desired location put the bottom two screws in. You might (probably) will have to make new holes for these. Good luck.

Known problem. Is supposed to be solved in an update if it ever comes.

Can't wait that long? Put a 4 to 5 ohm resister on a series with the right slingshot coil. This will soften the slingshot and air balls will be history is my experience.