2004 DS Charger won't turn off

chris1434

We had a serious thunderstorm come thru a few days ago and I am thinking it caused some problem with my charger / cart. The cart stays plugged in all the time (although it may not going forward). The first problem was the charger would not turn on. Following the instructions in the sticky, I reset the OBC and to my delight, the charger kicked on and started charging. I was hoping all was well.

However, the charger ran for nearly 24 hours. I checked the batteries and each one had about 10 volts in them and the charger was still running. I unplugged it because some water was starting to boil out of the batteries. Since the charger seems to be working, I am assuming I should be checking the OBC but not sure where to start.

Should I try resetting the OBC again? Does this sound like an OBC problem (charging but not turning off)? I have started going thru the entire forum and hope to find more info but in the meantime thought I would post and hopefully someone can help or point me to a previous thread.

Thanks in advance.

BGW

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rabbitreborn

If you have already reset the OBC once, chances are that a further reset will not help. Sounds like you are going to need a new OBC (or convert the charger itself to an automatic using a timer board and bypass the OBC completely).

OLD MEC

If you checked battery voltage while charger was running or had just been unplugged you would get false high readings. Wait at least ( 1 ) hour after charging to allow battery pack to balance out.
A Club Car charger will charge either until battery pack is fully charged or continue if you have a battery going bad but at a low amperage? By unhooking charger before its done you have interupted the charger cycle and now you will have to allow it to run its cycle all over again.
For great info on OBC and charger functions go to "SEARCH" and "DR BOB".

Greg Moss

Make sure all the battery's have water in them. If you have just one cell with low water it will not charge correct and the charger will not shut off.

chris1434

Checked the water in the batteries this morning. None were showing plates but I filled them back to full /proper level. Plugged in the charger and will be monitoring with a volt meter. Will post results shortly. Thanks!!

chris1434

Charged for about 2 1/2 hours before wife and kids needed to use it. Voltage was at 58.8 and charger running. Drove it for about 8 miles. Immediately after stopping battery pack was at 49.4. Let it sit for about an hour and it is at 50.0. Put charger back on and will let it charge overnight with hopes of it turning off. Also, I thought more about my assumption that lightning could be involved. Starting to question that because charger was not running and was connected to a GFCI receptacle. Those things are pretty sensitive and it never kicked out so I am thinking the storm may not have anything to do with it. The batteries are old but have been serving me well. The charger has been running and cutting off fine up until the past week.

TahoeDawgZ71

You need to get a voltage reading of the entire pack while on charge, and while the ammeter is at 5 or below.... If you're not at 58.3 or more, the batteries are keeping the charger from turning off because they're not reaching a high enough voltage. If they are at 58.3 or above, change the OBC.... My guess is that the OBC is bad because you've already had to reset it once. Sounds like it may have internal damage.

chris1434

I checked the pack voltage last night before going to bed and it was at 58.2 so I figured it would be well above 58.3 this morning. I did a quick check a day or so ago and it was charging at 58.8. Anyway, I checked this morning and the pack was at 57.7 and still charging. It was interesting that the pack dropped by 1/2 a volt while charging but may explain why the charger isn't cutting off. I checked the voltage of each battery while still charging and they are all over the place. 9.24, 9.37, 9.48, 9.69, 9.91 and 10.02. The interesting part is that the cart runs fine and as I wrote above, ran over 8 miles and still had 50.0 volts in it.

UPDATE - I let them sit for about 45 minutes and the voltages are now (in same order):
When charging 9.24, 9.37, 9.48, 9.69, 9.91, 10.02 Pack 57.7
45 minutes after unplugging 8.38, 8.30, 8.40, 8.47, 8.61, 8.57 Pack 50.7

shadowman

one thing i noticed about a bad OBC on 2000 and newer C.C,s is the only sympton may be the charger not shutting off...................................

TahoeDawgZ71

It should have cut off after it got above 58.3... Bad OBC.... You're probably losing voltage while charging because you're deep frying your batteries.