2005 e4 - Charge always shows full

GEM Forum
1

I have a 2005 e4 and the charge shows full and never goes down. It loses power after 3 or 4 miles but still shows a full charge. The Car had 200 miles and original batteries when I purchased it. I figured I would have to buy new batteries and I will do that. But I was wondering if anyone would know why the state of charge always shows full. Thanks in advance for your help.

2

Hello,
before buying batteries, check to see that they really are bad. Charge them individually with an appropriate 12 volt charger. This will take hours to do. Then drive the vehicle. if the range is greatly improved, the batteries are not the problem. The 2005 GEM shouls have a Delta Q brand charger. You must use the dealer for service as Delta Q has a marketing agreement with GEM. The factory will test the charger and have it repaired if needed. GEM also sells remanufactured chargers.

Daniel

3

Daniel,

Thanks for the reply. So is the charger controlling the disply? If the batteries turn out to be bad, what would have been causing the display to indicate a full charge even when the batteries were completely drained? I’m hoping it is not a bigger issue. Let me know what you think.

Thanks,

Chris

4

Would a shorted battery make a charger think its fully charged? I had similar issue with a much older charger and a bad battery. So like you I had no distance and it thought it was charged. I think because the battery could not accept a charge. My outcome was new batteries.

5

dapco,
On our 2005 GEM, we have had exactly the opposite problem. The bar display shows full discharge regardless of actual battery condition. When the original Delta Q charger later failed, we replaced it with a Quick Charge Select-a-Charge unit. The new unit has its own percentage of charge scale, so we never repaired the original bar display. I am now curious how the bar display reads the state of charge and will investigate.

Davethe Wave,
In my experience, a shorted cell lowers the overall indicated voltage. This may cause the charger to overcharge the batteries in a vain attempt to reach full voltage. Results may include: very long charge times, time out error code, very warm batteries, and rotten egg smell on flooded batteries. Do a voltage and load test on each battery.

Daniel