Well no. I went inside to get online with u guys. Came back out, reversed it out of the drive. Fine, then changed to forward., it went about 5 feet and then shut off. I switched it off, then on again. No display, and no beeping. 75% charge, and all new batteries.
With a little forgiveness to that shop, they did have to wait for the brake assembly which was back order. But that was only a month as I recall
Out of curiosity what does it take for the display to start working again? Sounds like if you let it sit for a little while then it’ll come back to life again.
Also wondering why you’d have new batteries at 75% charge? Anything but lithium batteries needs to be put on the charger after every use and it sounds like it’s not moving much so it should be at 100%. Recharging after every use is what lead batteries need in order to last long.
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I usually put it on charge after use, even short runs. It will charge to 100%.
I’ve learned something else about this issue. If I get out of the cart and rock it or jolt it, display will come back on and it will move correctly. It has not done it in a couple days.
Another thing I have noticed is it will stall intermittently….25 second, and then back to good……if it doesn’t go back to good, I have to do something…shake or jolt to correct.
I’m still believing there is something loose somewhere.
Was key switch issue mentioned previously?
Know issue.
When you get some time, grab a cold beverage, a few hand tools, a wire toothbrush and dive into/inspect your battery connections. Start at one end and go to the other. Make sure each one is clean and tight. Not only the battery but also the terminal. Look for signs of heat.
Don’t forget about the front two batteries.
If you don’t find anything obvious, pull the top of the dash off and follow the big connections under there.
Report back with your what you find/don’t find.
Appreciate this. Will do and let you know what I find out.
Key point here is that everything starts with a good solid source of power → ie: battery pack. Once this is confirmed, we can move forward. A bad connection is sometimes difficult to find, sometimes really obvious, can be frustrating, and if ignored- dangerous and damaging.
Don’t play the card where you shake the car and it suddenly works so you take it for a ride to test it out. At the least you likely will be pushing/towing it home and your friends will point and laugh at you which only gives you something more to talk about at those expensive therapy sessions. Your test could also go bad. I’ve seen a bad connection on a battery get so hot that it melted the lead post right off the top of the battery (now you need to spend money).
→ Get yourself a meter of reasonable quality so you can do some proper diagnostics. If you ask advice from this group we need some real data (don’t just guess) so we can properly guide you in a direction to get your car rolling. There are some conditions where a volt or two will be the difference of a car working or not.
These cars are complex little bastards. Sometimes it is an easy one step fix, but usually there are multiple points of failure that need to be sorted through.
Pay attention to the suggestions offered as well as any additional questions asked here. Be as accurate as you can when describing what is happening on your end. Come back as soon as you can with results and we can move to the next step. When you take 22 days to respond back with results you tend to lose the attention of most of the people here, but more important, There are several important questions asked in this very thread that have apparently been ignored and skipped.
This is why I feel the need to start back at the beginning.
Thank you. I’m going to follow your advice. Do a some diagnostics and let u know. I will not take it until I figure this out.
Well, I hadn’t moved/used the cart in a week or more. Put it on charge. Got the green light on the dash…
Haven’t explored anything yet. Some other projects more pressing.
Put the key in …turned to on and nothing, no display. Nothing with brake realeased.
It rained pretty hard here while I was away. Will wait a few more for drying out and try again.
Ok, waited a couple days for it to dry out. Looked for a loose a connection at all six batteries. One of them under the seat was loose. Tightened, put it on charge, got the green after a short time. Turned the key, display is on. Drove it around the a whole week, no problem…and then yesterday, after charging…turn the key…nothing. No display, so no go. Damn…
And?
Break out your meter. What is it telling you?
What do they look like?
Did you just tighten them?
Or did you actually pull them off and clean them before tightening them?
Follow the power and locate where it stops.
You said it charged. Did you verify via green light?
Did you also verify all of the batteries were at the same voltage? And after you ran it you should have checked to see what all of the battery voltages were because one battery can make a mess of what you would expect to be happening.
Well I haven’t done that because I found one of the cables up front loose at the battery. I put all new lead acid batteries of the proper type less than two months.
It charged properly as I described in earlier reply. Drove it around for a while week with no issues at all. I did get the green light on dash, and 100% reading at the display.
A day later after I was convinced I found the issue…I put it on charge. Red showed as typical when starting a charge, but it never went yellow, of course no green. I don’t think it was charging correctly from this prior problem or if it is something new.
The cables are clean…like new. The itself only has about 600 miles… if what it displays is correct.
The issue I find curious, I have no display at all. No clicks-nothing when the brake is released.
Now it’s possible a day later, I’ll go out, turn the key and display will light, so then it runs as normal until problem shows again.
I have a good meter so I can check the voltage as they sit. I can’t check after a run if I can’t get to come on.
a loose cable can easily mess up battery charging and that includes getting all batteries to have the same charge and capacity. Because they are all series connected every battery needs to have the same State of Charge(SoC) or else the weakest battery(ies) will deplete and can quickly fail. Yes it is possible to kill 2 month old batteries.
The GEM battery display is only to be trusted if you know all aspects of the system are operating normally. If anything is not right then the ONLY way to get to understand your battery pack and charging system is to look at all batteries individually.
And it would have been a good idea to look at what was going on at each battery to see why it was not moving off of the Red(Bulk charge) phase. Yellow led indicates absorption cycle and green means finished(better chargers it means float charge ~13.8V per battery).
[quote] The cables are clean…like new. The itself only has about 600 miles… if what it displays is correct.
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the loose cable connector should be removed and wire brushed just to be sure there is not burned on oxidation. 200A through a loose cable will quickly heat that connector such that it would literally burn your finger to the touch.
testing the batteries with a DMM has nothing to do with if the vehicle comes on or not. You measure the battery voltages at each battery on the battery terminals.
@Colewinston - Look… You come here looking for advice.
You are given some very important instructions which you glaze over and choose to skip. That is your call.
Then your car dies again and you wonder why?
You might want to go back to the top and try reviewing this thread. I’m pretty sure the advice still stands.
Sir, I really appreciate your advice. Sorry if it seams I’ve overlooked some things. When i found the loose connection, and then it charged quickly to green, I really thought I had fixed the problem. And it did great for a week or more. Then it showed it’s ass again. I will do my best to follow the instructions you’ve given and report back. I am working some other projects that keep me busy so it could be a little bit before that is done. I’m now actually in another area and won’t get back to where the cart is for a couple weeks. I did shut the main switch off and disconnect the batteries.
We know you are trying but also know you are coming with assumptions and beliefs which might not be valid with respects to what is happening. For example, the green light on the dashboard display does not tell you what condition the batteries are in and doesn’t even indicate they are all fully charged. It can be read that way with some reliability WHEN and only when all batteries are in the same operating condition and are in early stages of their life expectancy. And believe us when we say that just because the batteries are 6 month old or something like that, it does not mean they are all working correctly or in the same working condition.
It is also of the utmost importance to know the working status of the batteries before moving on. It’s like a Dr working on a hangnail on a foot when the patient also has an untreated compound fractured arm. Having to juggle 5 different patients at the same time does make it tough on everyone, we get that.