2003 Club Car DS IQ 48v Charging

[bbflo]

I'm new to electric carts, bought my first one a few days ago, came with brand new POWERTRON P8000 batteries and what I'm thinking is the original PowerDrive charger.

I plugged it in lastnight for the first time, worked fine, and then when the meter on the charger got into the 5-10 amp range it would turn off for 30 seconds, turn back on for 1 minute, and kept repeating.

Is that normal?

[Tigg-N-Taz]

Not sure about it but sounds like it maybe the obc. Search the threads for a obc reset process. It may help

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[NoleFan4Ever]

Turning off to sense the charge is normal, but not back on for a minute and repeating itself.

Try placing the cart in Tow, then disconnecting the main pack negative cable for a half hour and then hooking it back up and placing it back to Run. This will reset the OBC, which controls the charge.

[bbflo]

Thanks!

I put the cart in "tow", disconnected the main negative for about an hour, hooked it back up, turned it back to "run" ..

Plugged in the charger, it waits about 1 minute, turns on for about 3 seconds, the needle shakes around and buzzes, then turns off for another minute, and repeats.

The question now is, is it the charger or the OBC?

[Fairtax4me]

Check the pins in the charge receptacle for any corrosion and frayed wiring on the back. Tug on each wire lightly and if any of them break or you can see fraying or green corrosion on them near where they go into the back of the receptacle, the receptacle will need to be replaced. Also make sure your main positive charge lead (Red wire) is connected to the main pack positive and is clean and free of corrosion. A bad connection at the positive lead can cause some charging issues.

You can also test the charger itself by bypassing the OBC temporarily.
Jumper the black wire and the grey wire from the charge receptacle to the main pack negative and see if the charger still behaves the same.
If it still has erratic reading on the ammeter then open the charger and check all the wire connections for any loose terminals, corrosion, or burning that wold cause a poor connection.

[TahoeDawgZ71]

Is the charger relay "clicking" when the charger turns off? Or is the ammeter simply dropping to zero without an audible click from the charger? If the relay is actually clicking off, it indicates that this is a command from the OBC telling it to shut down. Although this is not normal behavior, it will help pinpoint the issue. If the charger is simply dropping to zero without an audible relay click, it may indicate a short in either the charger circuit breaker or the charger relay.

[bbflo]

I checked and cleaned the pins for the charging port, the wires, plug, fuse, etc. and everything looks good. I took the cover off the charger and cleaned the connections in there, it looks OK as well.

Here's a couple videos:

This video (0:21) I plug it in, wait, this happens, seems pretty normal:
https: //1drv.ms/v/s!AsJz7hNDZzeGgwZ9Cv_0DmNY36aQ

This video (1:21) is about 1 minute later:
https: //1drv.ms/v/s!AsJz7hNDZzeGgwe2uqe_c2XUrIkt

( I'm too new of a member and can't post links, so will have to remove space after "https:" )

[Abrnth3]

You may also want to check the fluid level in each cell of your batteries. One or more may be low and this will signal an error in your OBC.

[NoleFan4Ever]

Originally Posted by Abrnth3

You may also want to check the fluid level in each cell of your batteries. One or more may, be low and this will signal an error in your OBC.

Not quite.... The sense wire is there to sense the voltage/charge, if the levels get low the OBC will continue to charge and could actually damage the cells.....

[TahoeDawgZ71]

Look behind your charger port in your cart. There's a little yellow rubber fuse holder there. Pull the fuse holder apart, leaving the fuse in place. You can remove it just to inspect it and make sure it's not corroded or anything, but put it back in after you do this. Don't put the fuse holder back together though. Put the fuse in the end that runs to the charger port on the cart, leaving the end that runs to the OBC hanging free. Get a small jumper wire with an alligator clip on both ends. Clip one end of the jumper wire to the exposed metal end of the fuse you just re-installed. Clip the other end of the jumper wire to the MAIN negative battery terminal. This is the terminal that has the main negative wire connected to it that runs through the hole in the OBC. It's important that you connect to THIS terminal, and not another negative. Make sure your charger is plugged into the wall and into the cart when you do this. As soon as you make the connection to the negative terminal the charger should click on. Let us know if the charger stays on or if it's still doing the same thing. If it's staying on, you've got a bad OBC. If it's still doing the same thing, you have something else going on.