Headlights Work When CC IS NOT Going

zx104u2nv

I'm not sure how long this has been happening since I normally don't use the CC at night, but I found out last night that as soon as I pressed the gas on my 48v electric CC Precedent that the lights went dim and then out. As soon as I let off the gas and come to a stop they come back on. It seems like the load of the motor is causing the lights to go out. The cart it self seems to be running fine and fast.
All of my batteries where just replaced this year.
Side note: They are Interstate batteries and they leak all the time and it appears that I now need to clean all the posts and some cables. I'll be doing that today.
Thanks for any help or suggestions.

BGW

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erict

What year is your cart? If your batteries are leaking all the time I would bet they are overfilled. Are these batteries golf cart batteries or just a normal deep cycle battery? It also sounds like your power feed for your lights is being supplied by only one battery and not the whole pack and this will cause them to dim especially if that one battery is weak. I would also charge your batteries up and post your battery voltage for each one.

zx104u2nv

It's an 2006 CC Precedent and they are golf cart batteries. The batteries haven't been filled since I bought them and they are way below the top. It appears that they get too hot while charging and it's vapor/mist that is coming out. I'm not sure how the lights were hooked up since they were already hooked up before I bought the cart and I never had this problem before even with my weak batteries. I'll check the voltage on the batteries and let you know.
thanks


OK, after a full charge from last night 3 of the 4 batteries are 12.9 volts and one is 12.7 volts. The one that is 12.7 volts is the one that the positive wire for the lights are hooked too. I'm about to trace down the negative wire next. Also, the lights seem to be working fine now while the cart is jacked up and the go pedal is applied. The only other thing that I'm wondering is when this occurred last night I was moving my 6x12 (empty) utility trailer to the back of the yard. Maybe, this put a huge strain on the battery or batteries.

Stevec3201

Even one bad battery will cause this "over-charging" and the issue with your lights. Check out those batteries and get the bad one(s) swapped out asap.

erict

Get them filled to the proper level using distilled water. It just may be time for new ones if they where not properly maintained. A load test may show one or more are weak. Also, the lights may work better with the cart jacked up because there is not a true load on the batteries since the cart is not moving under a load.

zx104u2nv

All the batteries are filled to the proper level and fully charged but the lights are still going noticeably dimmer as soon as it accelerates and then get brighter when I let off the pedal. These appear to be the factory lights and I found 1 blue wire that goes to the + lead of 1 battery but I'm not sure where the - lead is at. I was thinking about moving that + lead but if the lights are 48v and I move it somewhere else they might not work at all or if it's 12v and I move it making it more than 12v I could ruin something.
Any thoughts or suggestions???

Stevec3201

Your neg comes from a small black wire off the controller. It is connected to the main harness very close to where the blue (pos) wire connects.

Moving the neg is not gonna help you. I had the same problem when my batteries started to crap out. You need to load test them and find out which battery(ies) is(are) bad. A little dimmimng is to be expected with a load, but your problem sounds much worse. The load test will tell all. When batteries boil to the extent yours are , it's a sign that 1 or more are bad. I would try a different brand of battery next time, or check your warranty.

erict

What would also concern me is the lack of maintenance. You mentioned the batteries were way below the top as far as the water level and this may have really shortened their life

zx104u2nv

Ok there seems to be some confusion. These are BRAND NEW batteries that are only about 3 months old and have plenty of water in them and I haven't had to add any distilled water yet. They were NEVER low and there has NEVER been a lack of maintenance. My other batteries were over 5 yrs old and starting to slow down but were fine. The only reason I got new ones now is because I was getting a deal on these.

zx104u2nv

THANKS!!!! I was wondering about the boiling because I've only seen that a couple of times before in car batteries and they indeed were going bad. This sucks because I knew someone that got me a good deal on the Interstate batteries and was afraid that they weren't going to be as good as the Trojan's or something like them.
Looks like I'll have to take them all out and up to the Interstate dealer to load test them, or put the cart on the trailer and take it up there.