I was charging the car over night (Lithium batteries). The breaker switch was on over night.
When I woke up, a solid alarm was sounding. I turned off the breaker. I noticed the black mat was not “in place” and it rained on top of the T3 controller.
Is it possible water got inside and that’s my problem? If so, how do I rectify? Take apart and dry out?
Found the problem. The rubber mat was rolled back and water entered the controller via the wire harness area. Opened controller, wd40 everything and dried it. After putting back together, no more alarm and the GEM worked, HOWEVER - new problem:
The cart lost it’s top end of 44mph - is very slow to accelerate and top speed is maybe 20mph when it eventually gets there. There is a small ramp (hill) in driveway and the cart can not climb the ramp from a standstill. It requires a rolling start.
It appears that the BRAKE and TEMPERATURE light is illuminated on the dashboard… Maybe there was damage done to the circuit board when it got wet causing this problem.
Check that big 23p plug. It sounds like you might have a bad connection on a few pins.
A temp light wil limit power. Thinking your motor is in overtemp puts your controller into limp mode.
Pull the plug, spray contact cleaner in there, blow it out, skritch in it and out several times and follow it up with a good push until it clicks. See if your problem goes away.
I agree that it’s running in Limp mode. I pulled the 23p plug, cleaned the plugs and pins. Reseated the plug several times - The temp light (and brake) remain illuminated. The motor was upgraded to the Ride4Fun 7.5hp so there is actually no TEMP sensor. I am thinking the water did damage to the controller board.
Using WD40 to remove the water might have helped but then WD40 leaves an oily residue which can be washed off with PCB cleaner. If you’re careful not to get onto the electrolytic capacitors, rubbing alcohol can be used to wash away the WD40. But ya, it’s sounding like part of the circuit board might have been affected. If you can pinpoint the temp sensor pin and then ohm it to the connector solder joint then you might be able to track the circuit traces and see if any surface mount resistors or capacitors look like a joint cracked or the actual part cracked or was damaged.
Q: When was the motor upgraded? Before the “water in controller” issue?
or after?
You are correct that the new motor does not have a temp sensor and you know the two wires in the car side of the harness(formerly plugged into the sensor) need to be tied together, Yes? (of course you knew that).
Motor was upgraded last year before the controller water issue. Had the Gem running at 44mph with tires and gear upgrade. So you are correct, the temp sensor wires are tied together. I doubled check that and rewrapped them to ensure that was not the issue.
To close this conversation - I still have a T3 controller with the Temp light on. I upgraded to a T5 Controller (had to jump pin #13 to ground - accidentally did pin #11 the first time). Upgraded battery cables and motor cables. Took for test run and everything was cool to the touch. Looking forward to that first long drive. Thanks for your help!