I have a 2007 e4 that I bought from a car dealer that was using it for a customer shuttle. I got the car home on a trailer and test drove it on the street. The car was indicating a full charge but at the 2 mile mark the battery indicator would go from 100% down to the red bar and go into turtle mode. I thought it wasn’t charged all the way so I charged it and it did the same thing 2 miles and dump out. I checked the battery voltage at the main B+ and B- and the battery’s were at 70v.I also bought a cheep load tester from harbor freight and they showed good no huge drop when testing. I again charged the battery’s and it was showing 75.5 volts (Battery’s are crown 31dp800 flooded lead acid) and again the same result. I started reading forums about battery’s and the delta-q charger. What I found and by calling around a marine lead acid battery is fully charged at 12.6v (Is that correct?) also my charger was set on algorithm 14 which is for GEL battery’s. So after 3 hours on the phone with a tech guy from Delta-q chargers he helped me get it to algorithm 13. The tech gentleman stated that the car dealer put the wrong type of battery in the car for the the wrong setting on the charger and for doing so may have destroyed the battery’s. I charged the car up again last night and this morning before work they were showing 75.9 volts.
So here is my question I have been seeing on the message board that the battery pack when charged should be above 80v if so that goes against everything I have read about fully charged at 12.6v per battery.
Also is there anything else I should be looking at as far as problems with the cart to make it go only 2 miles?
I will update when I go home to see what the range is with the new algorithm installed on the charger. Also I forgot to mention that the battery’s are 2 years old and have been charged on the wrong setting from new…
Your flooded batteries have been compromised by under charging on the Gel Setting. Gel charging rates are not strong enough to bubble (stir) the fluid which a flooded battery requires. This basically means the upper half of the battery has become sulphated and useless. A set of flooded batteries will lose half its capacity in 6 months if charged on the Gel setting.
A fully charged 12 volt battery is somewhere in the area of 13.8 volts when freshly charged. A 72 volt pack is in the area of 80/84 volts. Your charger will show 90 to 91 volts just prior to shut off.
I have been using 31DCM deep cycle marine batteries from O’rilley auto parts for the last 4 years and install them in all my rebuilds. They are made by East Penn and are IMHO a good as an inexpensive battery as you can buy.
Try this do a charge cycle. When it completes unplug the charger for 15 seconds and plug it in again. Repeat this several times. This stirs the electrolyte and ahs a slim chance of helping a little bit.
Realistically your looking at a new set of batteries. Note it takes 20 to 30 charge cycles to “break in” a set of new batteries.
Thanks for the response, when I plug the charger in you can hear the batterys boiling. when I first bought the cart I checked the batterys and seen that they where low on water insted of adding water I went to autozone and bought battery acid and filled them up with that before I knew the real problem with the charger. hopefully that will bring them back. I will update on the progress when I get home.
Different Keith, similar issue. I just replaced my batteries and was wondering about this “break-in” period. What should I expect after the 20 - 30 charges? Better mileage?
We have the same exact thing going on and can not get it to change to algorithm, we can’t get it into program mode. Any help on how you did that? We have tried everything and am about ready to buy gel batteries if we can’t get it changed.
Hi, I just bought a 2009 Gem E4, and am having a charging issue as well. The car goes about 2 miles and then the turtle indicator comes on, (blinking) and the car almost dies out. I have sealed batteries that I was told were only a couple years old, which I’m beginning to believe is bs. The charge lights on my charger are not on when plugged in, the top red light flashes constantly and the amber light just below it just glows. I’m contemplating replacing the batteries, which is going to be costly but I have no way to troubleshoot this thing. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Try the following: Make sure the sure the batteries are discharged and (turtle is showing), charging cord is disconnected from the GEM for minimum a minute. Then turn the master switch OFF (on the fuses box).
Now the trick.
Turn the master switch ON and count 1001 and turn it OFF (one second),
then torn the master switch ON for 1001,1002,1003,1004 (four seconds). Now get off your set and look under the front driver side front fend and see the charger lights blinking. If do not see RED blinking you got it made, leave it alone and will take all night to charge the batteries, if RED is blinking then you must start all over again.
Timing is very criticalbetween On and OFF . What this does is desulfurizing batteries. If the batteries are old by repeating the process, now and then, you may get few months to a year from those batteries