Emerge battery low then full after cycle of Run/tow

[Brineybods]

Hi
I have a 2011 Tomberlin Emerge after noticing the distance between charging was getting smaller and smaller, I replaced batteries, but it made no appreciable change. During trouble shooting I replace the battery charge indicator but it also made no change. However, I did discover that if after running the battery down to the 80% level, simply disconnecting and reconnecting the charge indicator restored indicated battery charge to 100%. This was the same for both the original charge indicator as well as the replacement indicator. Further trouble shooting also, has shown that a 100% battery indication can be gained by simply toggling the the run/tow switch. I have not been able to find a wiring diagram that shows how the charge indicator is connected. A simple voltage check across the battery yields up to 52 volts at full charge, while a voltage check at the charge indicator yields 47.8 for the same level of charge. Also, if the cart is left unused for several hours the charge indicator will go off scale low.
I have also noticed that often the instrument panel lights go out when initially depressing the gas pedal, but they return almost immediately. I suspect that I have a short associated with the accelerator pedal, but that a guess on my part.

[Splash]

The BDI resets itself when a complete charge cycle is done. When you place it in tow you cut all power off to the the BDI and when you switch it back on it gets a false positive and shows 100%.

You most likely have a soft short from anodic corrosion occurring in your wire harness. Remove the cover of the wire harness from where the accelerator plugs into it and as far back towards the rear of your vehicle and inspect for corroded/broken connection points where several wires are bonded together.

[Skip Hall]

Splash, you sound like a person who is mechanically “in-the-know” with regard to our beloved 2007-2008 Tomberlin E-merge. So, a quick question (which I apologize for if it doesn’t belong here!). Our E-merge has good batteries and a working OEM charger. It’s been pretty well cared for and maintained, although there is no access to professional service due to the scarcity of Tomberlin LSVs in our area. It’s been running fine and in almost daily use for years. However while riding recently, the vehicle unexpectedly stopped responding to the throttle. The cart did NOT lose power otherwise. All lights stayed on. Panel remained lit. Power meter showed full bars (after riding for 20 minutes or so). I checked under the seat and saw no indications of a wiring problem. I switched the run/tow on and off a few times, to see if that would “reset” something, to no avail. So I made my way home, fetched our utility trailer, and towed the cart home. Upon offloading at home, I switched the run/tow back to run, and the cart performed perfectly normally, and has continued to run normally since. However now we lack the confidence to venture very far from our base, in case we end up walking home. Have you ever heard of such behavior, and if so, what was found to be the problem? If not, any thoughts about what I should check, and/or how to go about running any diagnostic exams in the absence of a certified service technician? Thanks for any help you might be able to render.

[Golf cart guy]

Originally Posted by Skip Hall

Splash, you sound like a person who is mechanically “in-the-know” with regard to our beloved 2007-2008 Tomberlin E-merge. So, a quick question (which I apologize for if it doesn’t belong here!). Our E-merge has good batteries and a working OEM charger. It’s been pretty well cared for and maintained, although there is no access to professional service due to the scarcity of Tomberlin LSVs in our area. It’s been running fine and in almost daily use for years. However while riding recently, the vehicle unexpectedly stopped responding to the throttle. The cart did NOT lose power otherwise. All lights stayed on. Panel remained lit. Power meter showed full bars (after riding for 20 minutes or so). I checked under the seat and saw no indications of a wiring problem. I switched the run/tow on and off a few times, to see if that would “reset” something, to no avail. So I made my way home, fetched our utility trailer, and towed the cart home. Upon offloading at home, I switched the run/tow back to run, and the cart performed perfectly normally, and has continued to run normally since. However now we lack the confidence to venture very far from our base, in case we end up walking home. Have you ever heard of such behavior, and if so, what was found to be the problem? If not, any thoughts about what I should check, and/or how to go about running any diagnostic exams in the absence of a certified service technician? Thanks for any help you might be able to render.

Scan tool would help here, but a common issue was the Hall effect sensor would not reset all the way and show a part throttle condition to the controller and this parameter will not let the cart run. Turning the cart off will sometime fix it but usually with time it will fail.

[Jhammer]

I have had the same issue when driving slowly in my case during Halloween riding with my kids from house to house. My belief is that the motor was not receiving sufficient air flow to cool the motor. I shut mine off waited for 10 minutes and it ran fine. I also have a suspicion that it could be the controller overheating, I removed my controller and had it rebuilt, and when I took it out I noticed the controller is mounted to essentially a large heat sink. When I looked on the back of the controller I noticed they had used thermal paste between the controller and the mounting sink.