2006 Par Car Summit Goes 12mph max

[dave190212]

Please help! I have a 2006 Summit sm4 and It ran fine a day ago but then today it dropped its speed to 12 mph in fast mode about 1/2 of the correct speed. At one point it went 9 mph which is about half of the slow speed setting. I am getting six flashes from the blue controller but only when I am driving and it decides to quit and wont go anymore. To get it to go I have to switch into neutral then back to drive. The other day when it was going 25 in high and 19 in slow, when i had it in the slow mode it would go for a bit then just die out. I am not sure what it could be but looking for some help. The batteries are less than a year old and charge through the cycle just fine. I just bought this and now all this trouble is concerning me.

[Tech Support]

Speed can go slow for a couple reasons. (It's most often #2)

1: the pot box isn't see 100% of the pedal push so the drive system just isn't being told to go fast.
2: the speed encoder on the motor isn't sending the right signal which could be caused by a loose magnet under the encoder cap, loose connection on the three pin connector, or a faulty encoder (the encoder is the 2-3" black plastic cap looking item on the driver's side of the main motor).
3: battery voltage is low.

A 6 flash on the controller indicates a pot box area concern with either the microswitch or the potentiometer. The pot box is located under the hood on the passenger side.

[dave190212]

Thanks for the reply. A mechanic came by today and checked the speed sensor, the magnets and that black thing on the side of the motor. He said all was good. The pedal seemed to activate whatever switch it was supposed to he said . He told me to call par car to confirm the 6 flash code with my vin number and go ahead and get the potbox or equivalent that they use. I read somewhere that it could be a sevcon accelerator box. I have a call in to par car we will see what they say. I did check the battery voltage they each read 6 volts just sitting there. Let me know if you think I am on the right path. Thanks

[Tech Support]

We didn't uses the sevcon accelerator until 2007 (it's a push rod device). The potbox has a lever on the side of it attached to a cable. You can actually check the pot with a ohmmeter. Unplug the black and white wire, and they should be at about 0 ohms, then go smoothly to about 5K ohms when you press the pedal.

Don't call parcar, because that gets transferred to my extension and I'm better at email than I am on the phone.

[dave190212]

I replaced the potbox with a db-6 curtis unit. I Matched the white to white and black to black on the main wire. I attached the two spade connectors to the outside prongs on the unit. Still the same performance 12 mph max. a mechanic is coming over this evening to try to replace the speed encoder to see if that works. I'll have him check the voltage also but i have doubts about that, seeing the batteries are less than a year old and just sitting there they have 6 volts but i am not sure under load.

[dave190212]

One more thing. It is only giving the 6 flash code when it stalled out while driving 12 mph. At stand still there is no code. Since replacing the pot box I have yet to stall out again. so it could have been faulty anyways? Still having the 12 mph issue though.

[rib33024]

if your batteries are showing 6v there are dead, 6volts is 50% charged, meaning they are dead,check the water levels, a 1/4 inch above the battery plates, distilled water only, then you need to charge them untill the charger turn off by it's self, then let them rest for 12 hours off the charger, then take a pack reading, and then each battery, and if you realy want to find out how good there are, you need to hook the leads of your DMV meter to the battery pack and drive the cart, watch and see what the meter drops to, then hook it to each battery and drive it and see what the volts drop to, on each battery

[dave190212]

So it ended up being the speed encoder on the side of the motor. there were no cracks in it but it just wasn't working. I am back to full speed. It looks like slow mode is about 17 now where it was 19 before and the high speed is 25. Thanks for all your help on the forum. I think it was still good to replace the potbox potentiometer because I have a feeling that was what was making it stall out. who knows. Thanks again.