Dead 2015 2Five is fixed

[BobBoyce]

I figured I might as well post this because the info might help someone.

I had looked into buying a new 2Five for a few months but in NC, only licensed auto dealers can sell new NEVs. Those dealers are not close to me.

I was griping to a rep from E-Z-Go about this and the fact that there was a serious lack of local parts support for golf cart owners in this area. He told me that just because there are bigger dealers, that does not mean that they are good. He told me about a dealership that was unable to fix a 2015 2Five, and that they had to give the owner a new one. This intrigued me, so I asked for the dealer location and phone number. I called about the 2Five and was told that they had followed the troubleshooting procedures and were stuck with it. I made a deal with them for a great price.

So last month I drove 600 miles to buy that dead 2015 2Five. I bought it cheap, and trailered it back. I bought a handheld programmer and cable for the Curtis 4 pin, service manuals and parts manuals for both the 2Five and the RXV that I already had. Once I had the handset and manuals, I set about trying to diagnose the issue. The error messages were EM Brake Driver On, Motor Encoder Failure, and EM Brake Driver Open.

I ordered a new controller, and while waiting for it to arrive, I set about tracing out the harness connections. What I found was, someone had opened the wire loom, cut the tape on the wires, and cut/bonded both the orange +5V wires and the black & green/black negative wires from the motor encoder and motor temperature sensor to the orange +5V and black negative wires of the throttle and brake encoders. Tracing these out using voltage levels on the pinouts would show normal, since at DC they are the same. But during POST, the controller turns these lines on in a specific order, looking for proper responses. This was the only problems that I had found.

Looking through the manual, I seen that the pre-2013 2Five had used the Danaher controller, and on the Danaher controller, those wires are bonded, exactly as had been done to this 2015. I figured that whomever had worked on this at the dealership, had looked at the wrong wiring diagram and became confused. I repaired the harness connections, put everything back together, and turned on the key. The EM Brake Driver On was still found, but all other errors were now gone. I cleared the history and tested repeatedly. I checked every harness wire for continuity, and everything checked out good. I contacted E-Z-Go and they put me in touch with an engineer. After explaining everything found and done up to this point, his opinion was that the main wiring harness needed to be replaced. He gave me the part number to order, so I contacted E-Z-Go parts to place the order. They told me that it was a dealer part only, so I contacted my local dealer and was told that it was an invalid part number. E-Z-Go parts recommended that I contact another dealer, McTron, and order through them. Same response, invalid part number. I called E-Z-Go parts back, told them I was being told it was an invalid part number. They agreed to sell me the part directly, so I paid for it and it was shipped out.

The controller I had ordered had arrived, so I set it aside until I had the harness issue resolved. When the harness arrived, it had a 2010 date code and was for a cart with the Danaher controller. I called and complained, they apologized, and agreed to send me the correct harness, but it would take a few days longer because they had to get permission to pull a new one from the assembly line parts system. A week later the new harness arrived, with a 2016 date code and a Curtiss connector. Before installing it, I checked continuity and for crossed connections. Wire for wire, it checked out exactly like the harness I had fixed. I installed the harness, reconnected everything just to test it, and turned on the key. The EM Brake On error was still there, and no other errors were found. I contacted E-Z-Go, asked for the engineer, and explained what error I was getting. He finally agreed that the new controller must be bad, and to send it back for warranty replacement. I told him I had bought a new controller already, but was waiting to make sure that the harness was right before trying it. I swapped out the controller, and all is well. The 2Five is working as it should be!

To make a long story even longer, I contacted the dealer I had bought it from to let them know what the problem was. I was told that the original customer complaint was the rabbit/turtle switch did nothing, it stayed in turtle mode, so they replaced the controller with a factory new one. Because of the new error messages, their technician tried to fix it by altering the harness. They never suspected that a new controller could be defective right from the start. I sent that controller back to E-Z-Go, and they will replace it under warranty. I had an issue with a new RXV controller as well, I'll get into that in another thread.

Bob

[Golfcartmangreen]

i have a 2015 RXV that is giving me a EM BRAKE DRIVER ON code any suggestions?