I would measure voltage at controller. B- and B+ terminals while driving. If voltage dips, car goes into turtle mode. Stays until the next charge cycle.
If voltage stays up and controller is good, all that’s left is throttle and motor. IMO
Throttle voltage is tested on p7. You can test in neutral or with brake on.
Like I and others have said, check the voltage going into the controller while driving. Most likely a battery or connection problem.
Thanks all - I will check again and report back.
Alright - I was able to test the load while under load with the following results.
~76.8V at rest
~70.8V under load
Is ~70V too low?
I’m thinking of pulling the motor and having it rebuilt.
It’s about the only thing I can think of right now.
Could be see which battery is dipping.
70v is right at the edge of turtle.
So would you recommend new batteries of motor rebuild?
Now that you know that the voltage is dropping a bit too much, it’s most likely not the motor. You will need to individually load test each battery to determine if you have one battery that’s dropping voltage excessively or if all of the batteries on the way out.
I’ve already done that. I’m getting 13.3 at rest and 12.2 under load across all batteries.
±.1 volts for each battery.
The math doesn’t support that, so it’s bad cables.
Sum of battery voltages are 73v minimum. So you are losing 3v in connections.
That’s enough that a single bad connection or cable will get warm.
If distributed, not so much. You could shotgun it. Take all the cables off. Clean and replace what’s needed. Everything tight and bright as Rodney says.
It’s difficult to explain how to look for voltage drop. Each suspect connection needs to be metered. Some seem silly, such as testing from the battery terminal to the same cable terminal.
You would expect 0 volts. Rightly so, but if 1 of them reads 1/2v under load, that’s a problem.
If it’s a 2005 or later it’s a good possibility it’s the throttle module.
I have used the Harbor Freight Battery load tester. It’s Analog but seems to give a good load test that is a bit safer that a Brake loading test. I also add a DVM to verify Voltage drop on each.
It sounds like a bad connection like David said. You can use a Thermal Heat gun to read the heat level at each terminal to help pinpoint the bad terminal connection without a possible burn.
Thanks! I’ll see about picking up the load tester as I think that my next best option. So I did the math and I’m losing exactly 2v from the batteries to the controller. I do have an E6 so it’s about a 10 ft run from the batteries to the controller. With that amount of distance, is that a normal voltage drop?
No you should not be losing 2 volts
I think I found the voltage drop! I’m getting 80.6v as it goes into the main contactor behind the dash and 79.2V as it comes out the other side!
I shouldn’t be getting this drop, right?
I’ll start looking for a replacement.
Could be. An easier way to check voltage drop is directly.
Measure from in to out under load.
Sorry for the delay - been busy with COVID and finally got a chance to do more testing. So I’m stuck in turf mode - at rest, I’m at 74.5V at the actuator under the dash. Under power, I’m down to 71.4V. Are those numbers low enough to keep it in turf mode?
I asked a similar question today. Full charge and 2 miles later down 1 bar, then in a little it dropped all the way to 1 bar and Turtle. Load testing each bat and found one at 12.1vdc. I will check my 2 e4 s at the controller and battery and let you know what I see.
Thanks - My voltage was still reading within range at the controller but I’m just moving forward with a battery replacement as it’s probably time. I bought my E6 used and the guy before me didn’t know how old the batteries were. I really hope this fixes my turf mode issues. Am curious to see what your readings are too though.
I have an account with MK Batteries if you need some 8G31 gels. Where are you and I can see if they deliver to your area or if there’s a local pickup for you.
Did you check to see it the drive selector switch is sending the voltage correctly at high?
