2006 Precedent battery question

atomarchio

Last year, I purchased a used 2006 Club Car Precedent with 2008 batteries.

I forgot to charge the cart for a few days and then went out and played 18 holes yesterday.

At the end of the round, the cart almost stopped completely. In fact, it was moving so slowly I had to ask for help from a neighbor to push it up my driveway.

What surprised me though was that the yellow warning never appeared. Is that normal or does this mean I may have something wrong with the cart?

Does the cart provide any type of warning so I can avoid this again in the future?

Please let me know. Thanks.

BGW

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scubabud

When you were driving it and if the pack was around a 50% discharge or about 48.41 volts it should have started to flash. Have you ever seen it on? It might have been disconnected from the previous owner. A good remedy would be to install either an analog or digital gauge to show your battery pack voltage so this doesn't happen again. That would be the same as your fuel gauge in your car.

You of course need to charge your batteries back to full.
Will they charge since you say they were so weak?
What is the voltage of the entire battery pack right now?

If your charger will not work it most likely will be that the pack voltage is too low for it to turn on, (under 34 volts.) There is a way to bypass the charger long enough to get your pack back to over the 34 volts.

Taken from the Domestic PowerDrive Battery Charger 2005 Service Manual:

The manual states that you can By-Pass the Charger/OBC in order to bring your entire pack back up to a point where it will take a charge normally, and that can be for up to 2 hours. Once your pack is over the 34 volts you can STOP the by-pass and continue on with a normal charge until the charger shuts off on it's own.

Let us know what your situation is and we'll try to help.

atomarchio

The only time the light came on was for a brief moment before I left my house. There were no lights or flashing at any other time.

Then I charged the cart overnight. Attached is a photo the meter on the charger as of this morning. Does this tell me the battery is fully charged again?

I am not sure how to proceed at this point. Really don't want this to happen again. Do you think something is wrong with the cart or the batteries?

If so, what would I purchase to diagnose this?

Please let me know. Thanks.

Attached Images

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scubabud

If the batteries were fully charged the meter wouldn't be reading anything on the gauge, the needle would be in it's rest position on Zero. It does look like it's in it's final stages though. How long has the charger been on? Under 16 hours?

Do you have a voltmeter that you can test the battery pack?

atomarchio

I had it connected from 1pm yesterday until an hour ago. Then I reconnected it again this morning to take the photo.

I've heard of a voltmeter but don't own one. Guess, I should probably go buy one, eh?

Which brand should I buy and how do I connect it to the cart?

scubabud

The charger should never stay on for over 16 hours. It's supposed to shut off within 16 hours. You need to get a voltmeter from either Home Depot, Lowes or Harbor Freight. It has two leads that you'll use to touch on the main negative terminal of battery #4, (the battery on the passenger side/front of your cart,) and the main positive terminal of battery #1, (the battery on the drivers side/front.) A fully charged pack should show around 51 volts. See the picture attached of a quality meter showing 51.3 volts with the meter set in the DC position. That meter is a SPERRY DM-4400A which you can purchase at most home supply stores.

To answer your questions you should first know exactly what your pack voltage is. There can be other things as well that could cause your pack not to charge properly.

Attached Images

DSCN0916.jpg (111.0 KB, 35 views)

atomarchio

Just bought a multimeter. It's showing the voltage at 38.7 volts. Should I plug the charger back into the golf cart and see if I can increase the number?

Any other suggestions that you can provide? How do I determine if there is an issue?

Please let me know. Thanks.

scubabud

Make sure ALL your cables are on tight and clean and that the water level in ALL your batteries are where they should be, at least 1/4 to 1/2 inch above the plates. If everything looks good then plug in your charger and see if it kicks on and the gage shows the needle going to the far right side or near the 15 amp mark. If it does then let it charge. If it doesn't then you'll have to try and bypass the charger to get the batteries up a bit more. Let us know what you find.

atomarchio

The connections all appear to be tight. Can I use water right from the sink?

scubabud

Use distilled water only, every store sells it. Sink water contains minerals that can eventually begin to short out the plates in your batteries.

How low were your batteries... could you see the tops of the plates without water over them?