05 Club Car DS Sluggish

GhostIU

I have a 2005 Club Car DS. The batteries are new as of 2009. Recently, the car has been traveling 5-7 mph slower than usually. At night, the headlights dim almost to nothing when the accelerated is fully engaged. The battery charger says that I have full juice before I take it out.

Before I have a maintenance guy come out, are there any thoughts about what I can check? There is a red cable that is attached to one of the posts on the battery, but it does not go to anything (see picture).

Thanks

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OLD MEC

Have you been maintaining the distilled water level and kept all cable connections tight and clean of corrosion? Do you have a digital amp-volt meter or a single float ( meter available at Harbor Freight for about $4-$6. Hydrometer available at any auto parts store about $5. ) or a single float hydrometer ( NO MULTI FLOAT ANTIFREEZE TESTERS ) with temperature correcting scale? If you own a sparky ( battery powered ) cart you will need one or better yet both to check condition of batterys. Get tester and refer to STICKIES under "State Of Charge Readings" and compare how your reading compare to find out why batterys are not giving you needed power. Both tests should to be accurate, you would be wait at least one hour AFTER unhooking charger. With Digital Meter take total pack voltage ( 50.96 or close ) after charging then do each battery to check for individual condition ( 8.4 volts ) unneeded to unhook just test at battery posts. Record readings and please post numbers so forum can see whats going on and be able to help.
The wire that is cut off is not a factory wire and may have been from some kind of accessory or voltage reducer that has been changed or moved?

GhostIU

Thank you for the information. I have my digital volt meter, and I have found the sticky for battery readings. How do I know if I have a 36 or 48v electric cart?

TahoeDawgZ71

You have a 48 volt Regen cart, as indicated by the Tow/Run switch in the photo.

OLD MEC

Look at your batterys distilled water fill locations on top of batterys
6 volt 3 fill holes, 8 volt 4 fill holes, 12 volt 6 fill holes.
GOOD CATCH TAHOEDAWG I missed the switch in edge of picture

GhostIU

Ok. I have six batteries all with 4 holes...distilled water level is correct.

I tested all 6 batteries and compared it to the state of charge sticky:

#1- 8.40 90%
#2- 8.26 70%
#3- 8.11 50%
#4- 8.38 90%
#5- 8.35 80%
#6- 8.43 100%

Total: 49.93 for 48V 80%

What next? Remember, the batteries are new as of 2009. Is there a charging issue? Could something be grounding the batteries and sucking the juice right away? To have 4/6 batteries with pretty solid charge but two with awful charge, I wonder if you guys have any opinions.

Thanks for any help.

OLD MEC

BASED ON YOUR POSTED READINGS and regardless of age if a battery goes bad there is nothing to do but replace it with same brand. and amp rated battery? Brand, quality, and amp hour rating of batterys can make a difference on life and of course care is most important.
#1-Is your charger a Club Car Power Drive and #2-do you leave charger hooked up until it turns itself off? #3-When did you do voltage tests shown, after charger has turned off and you waited at least one hour for batterys to level off? It may be possible that the really low #3 batterys is not allowing others near by to go to full charge? So I would recommend a load test be done to ALL BATTERYS to check for other batterys conditions. Dont be surprised to find more than one bad battery though, SORRY

GhostIU

#1-Is your charger a Club Car Power Drive

Yes, Club Car Power Drive 2

and #2-do you leave charger hooked up until it turns itself off?

Yes, I leave the charger hooked up when I'm not using it. It stays plugged in

#3-When did you do voltage tests shown, after charger has turned off and you waited at least one hour for batterys to level off?

The golf cart was plugged in for 24 hours. I unplugged it and did the battery tests--probably only waited 15-20 minutes.

It may be possible that the really low #3 batterys is not allowing others near by to go to full charge?

So I would recommend a load test be done to ALL BATTERYS to check for other batterys conditions. Dont be surprised to find more than one bad battery though, SORRY

Do you have any direction on how to do a load test?

OLD MEC

ONE LAST QUESTION have you added large amounts of distilled water to the batterys just before doing #3 test? Just a thought about possible other reasons for low readings? A load test is done with a special battery load tester that most battery or cart shops should have? It has a high resistance that acts like a dead short and a weak battery will not recover the same as a good battery. ( Dont do like one fellow I know and run cart up against a solid wall or tree and load batterys that way? ) Cheap ones are available from places like Harbor Freight company but are not worth the expense unless you have a fleet or cart shop.