Low battery light dimly lit, warm batteries...why?

[Wakko47]

Just wanted to give an update: Removed all the batteries from the cart today and used one of those auto-fill bottles to top them all off. It took about a gallon in all six batteries total. I dumped the Flow-Rite (or whatever it's called) and got me some fancy nancy blue caps on the Ebay for a buck a piece. I checked the resistance of the wires, found none. Reinstalled, no light. Plugged it into the Summit just a bit ago, and now it's doing its thing. I suspect the ERIC was boiling over the batteries due to the wrong algorythm, they got low on water and low on voltage.

I ordered some 2 gauge welding cable to make some new wires, so these will be coming back out again soon enough. Ugh.

[Wakko47]

Well, something is still amiss. Pack voltage 51.0, batteries hot, charger timed out. At this point I’m lost.

[Fairtax4me]

How hot? Warm batteries are normal, maybe 10-15° above ambient temp will feel like they’re much warmer but that’s actually fine.
Check the charge history screen of the summit II and see if it set a fault. How long did the charge cycle take?

[CCNorth]

Is the dash light showing green or red?
Almost a gallon of water? Oh my. I know what's been said about the ERIC charger boiling the batteries but it may not be fair to blame that poor charger for the lack of water. 6-8 weeks in south FL this time of the year can cause the batteries to use that much water if using the cart regularly, especially at high speeds. My old batteries required a little water once a month in hot weather. (I haven't run my new batteries enough to know what they will require)
I mention this because I'm not sure there's anything wrong with your ERIC charger. I'm assuming this charging system came with your cart and, if so, the algorithm should not be an issue.
So, you next bought a used Summit charger. You set it to your type of batteries and you still have the same problem.
Think about it. What are the odds that the problem is cause by two bad chargers?? Not likely.
You have a wiring issue, somewhere.
Have you checked your charger plug? Use a ohmmeter and check the positive and negative posts. The reading should be the same or very close to the pack voltage. If it's a lot lower then there is an issue with the connector. Check the wiring and trace it.
In post #7 you mentioned you found a wire connected to one of the positive post of one of the batteries and you disconnected it. You thought it went "to the front" of the cart. What color is it?? Did you reconnect it? Is so, where??
A pic of the battery cables and wiring, charger receptacle, and of the wires in the dash would be very helpful. I think you said you changed out the key switch. Perhaps the wire to the dash battery light, that is wired to the key switch, is an issue.
Just trying to help you troubleshoot this issue. Don't hate me for it. :)

[Wakko47]

I didn't have time yet to get out there and check the wires yet, but will try when SWMBO gets home. I disconnected the charger last night and just now the batteries were still hot. With the charger connected they're HOT, now they're more than warm. There's definitely something drawing on them. The red wire in question goes under the floorboards, so I suspect it's for the aftermarket 12v recepticle on the dash, but that's an easy check. I do have a spare (new) charging recepticle here, so it wouldn't be a hard swap, but I'll check the continuity and voltage.

If I jump the pack to isolate it from the cart, will the Summit run? Pack voltage was just 50.8, down from 51 something last night, and each battery was 8.3 exactly. Not sure how that's possible. Sorry for the lighting, didn't have time to bring the cart outside for better pics but can do so later.

[Wakko47]

50.3 at the pack now, 50.3 at the charging plug, so down half a volt since late this morning, and it is in TOW mode. I disconnected the blue and black plugs (charging leads?) to see if it has an effect. Both are corroded a bit, so they'll get cleaned up or replaced. The blade terminal seems small for a 10 gauge wire, no?

[Wakko47]

With those two wires unplugged, batteries are still a little warm, and they've lost 2 tenths of a volt collectively.

Something in the cart itself is drawing power. The cart runs/drives fine, but I'm hesitant to charge it for obvious reasons. I'm thinking of modifying the spare charge recepticle with alligator clips so I can bypass the cart electronics and try charging independently. I'm not sure how though, either.

[CCNorth]

Originally Posted by Wakko47

With those two wires unplugged, batteries are still a little warm, and they've lost 2 tenths of a volt collectively.

Something in the cart itself is drawing power. The cart runs/drives fine, but I'm hesitant to charge it for obvious reasons. I'm thinking of modifying the spare charge recepticle with alligator clips so I can bypass the cart electronics and try charging independently. I'm not sure how though, either.

Sorry that I'm the only one responding to you.
Did those battery cables come with the cart? I don't like the looks of those lugs, or the cables for that matter. They appear very cheap and not copper lugs. Compare those lugs to the one of the red cable on the Battery #1 positive. See the difference?
As I said before, I would not do anything else to those batteries before upgrading the cables. You said you ordered new cable wire. Hope it's high quality copper and not copper clad aluminum. New lugs should be correct size and copper.

[Wakko47]

Yeah, I was hoping for more input. Those are the cables that came with the cart. New lugs are tinned copper, 2gauge welding wire. I ordered solder slugs too, no crimping. I really don’t think that’s the problem though.

[CCNorth]

Bump..... Wish I could help him, but I can't.