Can volume pots fail with age?

My sisters amp is develping a fault where the music comes out really loud even when the vlume is at 7:00 o'clock. It unit delivers 80wpc into 8 ohms so it can be quite dangerous if this fault gets worse.

Its a lovely old Pionneer 1970's unit and it sounds as good as any modern sub £200 amp. Would it be worth getting the volume pot replaced because they are only cheap? How much labour would such a job be?

The amp itself is not in great physical condition but it really does sound very good, although it is very Pioneer in the sense its a bit bright.

 

I've got a similar fault on my wife's MF B1 amp, if you switch it on from cold, its gets really loud out of one speaker and doesn't appear to respond to the control, when its warmed up however its seems fine so we just leave it on. The on on this amp is just 3 soldered joints onto a PCB, if I could see well enough I'd do the job myself, wouldn't mind betting your sister's amp is the same.

 

Yes ...tracks wear out, get dirty genrally fail . look to fit a bourns dual conductive plastic that matches the spec of the one you have.

 

Before any of that give it a squirt of Isoproprynol and a few swift turns, might just be a bit gunky.