Motor/ESC problem: Busted Capacitors?

[Origineelreclamebord]

Hi guys, I've got a problem with a Motor/ESC combo that I have. It's a Tamiya TBLE-01 (ESC) + TBLM-01 (Motor). I used it in a vintage race a while back and it worked perfectly. I just put it in another car and the motor gets no drive whatsoever!

What happens is that the ESC does send through the power to the other electronics, but the motor isn't driven.

I've ruled out a problem with the transmitter or receiver: I tried 3 receivers and the servo works fine on all outputs whereas the esc+motor don't.

I checked the connectors (both to receiver and ESC>motor) - they seem to be fine - not corroded and wiggling around the wires doesn't seem to change the connection.

Around the power button there it one wire that is slightly exposed, so I thought that might be the problem. I took the button apart to see that the wires are all still attached well to the small print board and don't touch each other.

I opened the casing of the ESC and - as to be expected - found some sand in there. What did surprise me is that below the three capacitors on the print board, some sand had built up. I tried to brush it away but it was stuck. So I gently scraped it away and found there is some kind of hot glue like substance beneith it.

As the sand really stuck to the goo beneith the capacitors, it it likely that they are busted, or is there another likely culprit to the problems I'm having? The capacitors themselves appear ok - no swelling or corrosion on the top as I'm finding on Google images, but the substance below it doesn't look it should've been there from day one.