Took my E4 out yesterday. Unplugged it, turned on the key and showed 100% full charge. Drove about 1 mile stopped to chat with a buddy and shut off the GEM, still showing 100% full. 15-20 min later turned on the key and it was showing 1 red bar and flashing 1 red bar-full charge repeatedly. The flashing continued all the way home, glad I made it. Left it off charger in case it was hot for a few hours. Last night still did same thing when key was turned on. Put it on charger over night and and it is still doing it this morning.
Grant
the voltage gauge on the dash is blinking in about .5 second intervals. I will take each battery out and test individually. Thank for that tip. I have never seen anyone post abut this flashing, no error codes are showing up on the dash.
You should not have to take the batteries out, you should be able to just touch the positive and negative on each battery and get a volt reading, at least I can do it with my GEM.
I would not count on the stock BDI (Battey display indicator) as a true reflection of what’s going on. A volt meter will tell you the Exact voltage off each battery and that will tell you where you need to go from that point on.
You can leave all your battery’s connected. You simply check the voltage of each battery With a volt meter testing Red to pos and Black to neg. write down the voltage of each battery.
A load test is the true test of each battery but the voltage test may just show you what you need to know.
Most people report they fully charge the car and the BDI says 100% they unplug and drive a way and after only a few mins (from placing a load ) on the battery’s the week battery shows it’s ugly head and the BDI reads very low or turtle mode or -15. This is very common.
10/4, I will get on the batteries this weekend. The bilking thing threw me off. I have never seen it, nor have I seen a thread about this on th eforum… Totally new one for me.
If the batteries are dead, it will be time for the conversion.
Yes what you describe sounds to me like classic 1 or 2 dead battery’s in the chain. This exact scenario is what happend to my buddy he left the house with what he thought was a full charge. He got to the bottom of the hill to turn around and his battery display said -15 (out of juice) when we tested all the battery’s one was dead as a door nail.
All are at 13.02, 13.02, 13.05, 13.05, 13.05, 13.04…Hooked all back up, still flashing. No codes showing up. Think I will drive it around the block a few times to see if I get get it to die and test the batteries again. Otherwise i have to take them all out and run to Auto parts store to have them load tested.
On the dash, the gauge that indicates battery life 1 red 1 yellow and 5-6 green lights,
When all are lite it indicates totally full, lights go out progressively as batteries are used while driving.
Currently they all flash/blink 1 red then full then 1 red then full. This blinking happens rapidly full empty full empty, repeatedly. Tested all batteries as mentioned above.
Deka Dominator Gel batteries After charging a few hours they at 13.02, 13.02, 13.05, 13.05, 13.05, 13.04
After running a few miles… Ran for 30 min in our hills, all 6 are at 12.76.
Put a clip to my meter on pos and neg side of each battery after test drive. Held the brake and pushed throttle. each battery dropped to 12.03/12.06 none were much off of this 12.03/12.06 range.
Am I load testing this correctly? Is there another way to test load w/o taking them in and having them tested?
Car seems to run fine. Last night the blinking/flashing stopped briefly and showed the correct gauge as I would expect to see mostly full charge then it starting again.
But it ran fine and never lost power, stopped or did anything else weird.
Pxx is one of the settings. See if you can reset the soc.
Turn the key on.
Push and release the TRIP/ODOMETER switch until it’s showing the
odometer.
While holding the switch down, turn the RIGHT signal on, then the LEFT
signal, then return the blinker to the center.
Release the TRIP/ODOMETER switch. You should be seeing data (P0105) on
the display now.
Turn the RIGHT signal on, then off repeatedly until the display reads:
SOC (State Of Charge).
Push and release the TRIP/ODOMETER switch. Now it’s remaining capacity in
percent.
You can now raise (or lower, for that matter) the SOC with the blinker
switch.
When you’re happy, Push and release the TRIP/ODOMETER switch. The display
reads: DONE.
Turn the key off.
What is the issue again?