Club Car 36V 2003 Sluggish & Slow

johnb001

I bought a 36 volt 2003 Club Car with either 2005 or 2006 batteries about a month ago. The car totally died the second day I had it and had to take it back to the dealer for service under their 90 day warranty period. They said a switch had gone bad and replaced it. When I got it back it worked satisfactorily again until now.

Putting it on the back of my pickup truck and taking it 40 miles back to the dealer was more than a minor inconvenience. This car is located at a second house near the beach and is only driven occasionally. Now it is Memorial Day weekend about a month later and performance of the car is extremely poor. Acceleration is at a snail's pace and top end is also off the mark. I've been reading that a bad battery could possibly be the culprit and also that it's difficult to identify.

I've checked out water levels in all of the batteries and also cleaned all of the cables. Anyone got any ideas on anything I could do to further troubleshoot short of loading it on my truck again and taking it back to the dealer? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

BGW

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J&M Golf Carts

It could very well be a bad battery. If you do not have a load tester, you can use a standard multi-meter to test each battery. To do this, you will need to remove the seat and have someone drive the cart while you check each individual battery. If you have a bad battery, you will find under a load that it will read weak. Depending on the state of charge of the batteries, you should drop below 5v under a load. If you have a bad one, it will more than likely drop to 2v - 3v under a load.

johnb001

Thanks for the advice. I hadn't thought of doing a load test that way. I've got a multi-meter and will give it a try tomorrow. Other than sluggish and slow it has worked OK today.

scottyb

You can also buy a hydrometer at local auto parts house and check Specific Gravity ...... That will show a weak battery at a stand still