Cooked a battery

[Land Owner]

Been a while since posting. All has been well. Had a few bouts of "no fire" in the '02 cart. After a good charging though it would run fine.

This past weekend, pulling a piece of rolled up chain link fence across plowed and disc'd fields after planting pea seeds, there was a STRONG sulfur smell. Two hours of pulling later there was an even STRONGER sulfur smell and hissing from the battery. It was also spitting some black-looking gunk onto the fiberglass inside of the engine compartment.

I figured I had "cooked" the battery - but good. First time for me in that.

Took it out, cleaned it up and discovered it HAD NO WATER in it. Filled it with tap water, put it on the charger, and now it is holding a 12.43 volt charge. I don;t have a load tester so putting it back into the cart (this afternoon) and giving it a try is my "load test".

Any reason to suspect that the generator/starter has been damaged by running the battery dry?

Finally hit 100 posts...OK, so it is going to take me a few more to catch some of the 25,000-plus posters. Right!

[Buickguy]

I'm not a cart expert by any means. I do have automotive and motorcycle wrenching experience.

I would think the voltage regulator is bad, allowing the battery to overcharge.

[Dave Box]

Tap water is not going to cut it. The impurities will create a discharge path between the plates. Still the proof of the pudding is in the eating so if it works it works. However is suspect that you have inadvertantly tortured the battery to death. Before you replace it I would recommend that you connect your voltmeter to the battery and go for a ride. You should be seeing ~ 15 volts much over that and you will be boiling your battery and you don't want to do that to a new battery.
Dave

[Land Owner]

Dave...wonderful avatar! Yes I did "torture" that battery and I have a lawn tractor with the SAME battery in it as a backup should this one be really cooked. Good point about the volt meter and Buick's thought about the V-regulator.

Perhaps tap water is the reason that historically I have had failures, periodically, in automotive batteries, topping them off with tap water. Hmmmmm, now I have to retool my thinking and not do that anymore. Get distilled water maybe. Would pond water be any substitute? Probably not. jk...jk.

[Buickguy]

Distilled water is the battery top off fluid of choice.

[Land Owner]

The "test" is complete. The result appears to be a bad voltage regulator. Not having an ability to run the cart AND the volt meter simultaneously, another test was conducted.

1.) The "tortured" battery (I like that term in this context Dave) was charged and the volt meter displayed 12.38 volts, sufficient to start the cart and get it off the trailer.

2.) The cart was run intermittently for ~1/2 hour and continuously for 15 minutes. The battery, by volt meter, now registers 13.24 volts.

Conclusion: a new voltage regulator is needed.
Concurrence?

[Buickguy]

Do you know how to put your Club Car in to "Service Mode"?

There is a little plastic bit inside the engine compartment attached to the shift lever. Its a cam for the micro switches. if you pull it out and turn it then let it go back, the cart is in "Service Mode" and the engine will start and run in neutral.
When you are done testing, be sure to put it back or you'll wonder why it wont start in forward.

[jiminpa]

Before you cooked it, when was the last time you checked the water level? How old is the battery? the old style batteries needed water added from time to time. If your voltage is not too high, I would just keep an eye on it and see what happens. No sense in spending money replacing stuff you don't have to. It should not have hurt any other parts as long as the voltage did not go sky high. Seems to me you have tested that generator & regulator recently...

I agree on the distilled water being best. However, just so you know, I have added tap water to hundreds of batteries over the years without any ill effects. Much of it depends on what is in you water.

[lockman1]

Just for the heck of it, here's the regulator test from the manual:

[Land Owner]

Oh yeah! I forgot about "SERVICE MODE". I should go back and reread my Generator 101 thread. Tonight I will check the regulator against voltmeter in Service Mode.

The battery was "brand new" about 2 months before I bought the cart - last year. So the battery is about a year old. Wal-Mart "Ever Start" brand. I didn't think to check for water in the cells when it went "dead" on the boys about a month ago. I just recharged it without opening the cells and called that "good". I am so used to automotive "maintenance free" batteries that it didn't dawn on me.

Thank you for the regulator testing procedures. I will check that this evening.

Jim: What the heck is that white stuff all over your cart? [jk...jk] It's suds...right?