battery drain

[didjidude]

Hi all,
I've got a G2 that starts fine as long as I drive it every day, If it sits for a couple of days the battery, that is less than a year old, goes dead. I do turn off the ignition when I put her up for the night. The only accessories I have are a fuel gauge and winch both of which are connected to the ignition,and headlights that are independent of the ignition. Any ideas about the battery drain?

[LimitedEdition]

If the battery is good then you must have something still drawing down the battery. With everything turned off as for storage try removing the + battery cable and look for a spark, indicating a power draw. Start disconnecting components from the electrical system until you no longer see a spark when removing or reconnecting the battery cable. This is a simple method, but it just might work, good luck.
Robert

[Olman]

Easy way to see if it is the battery is to disconnect the negative cable when you park it. If after a couple of days of sitting reconnect. If it fires up your battery is good. If not you know the your next move----

[didjidude]

Thanks for the replies, I charged the battery again, disconnected the positive cable and no spark, tried it several times with the same result. Then I pulled out my trusty harbor freight battery load tester, clamped it on and it showed good, put the load on it and after 5 seconds and it read bad, so I guess it's my battery. It's a Costco battery that is marked 4/14, it replaced another Costco battery that lasted about the same amount of time. Costco usually sells quality stuff so I'm wondering if there might be something wrong with the cart that causes the batteries to go bad. I don't want to have to replace the battery every 8 month. Any clues as to what might be happening?

[cgtech]

Voltage regulator problem causing battery overcharging will drastically reduce battery life. With the engine running, check the charging voltage. Yamahas charge a little high (i think they did this to keep the battery topped-off with many short "hole to hole" trips expected on a golf course). It should not be over 15v, even on a yamaha. G1 and G2 and maybe a few others have a regulator you can open and adjust (the little screw is very sensitive, a small change can make a big difference in voltage).

[sho305]

If you have something that overcharges you have to add water to the battery often. I've not had this issue with any yamaha even left with the key on. I do tend to check the battery every season at least once for water level as I do on all small engine equipment that tends to not have as nice a charging system as a car does. With a 500+ cca car battery I tend to get 5 or more years on a gas yamaha, in fact I ran 5yr old truck batteries for 3-4 years before they went dead in the cart. They were supplied from work vehicles a friend had.

The G9 and newer have a solid state VR, the G2 have the adjustable ones they look like a square metal can on the rear fenderwell the cover unbolts. Generators never make much power at low rpm they always charge more at higher rpm so your driving can change how they charge.

A car will charge around 13.5v but up to 14.5v only in very cold weather, a battery needs that to work the best.

[didjidude]

I put a multimeter on the battery terminals, put the cart in neutral and started it up , even at a slow idle I was getting 17.8 volts up to 18.3 at top speed. Is this too much juice from the regulator? Could this be killing my battery?

[cgtech]

Way too much. This is whats killing your batteries.

[didjidude]

Thank you CGTECH, I'll try adjusting it tomorrow.

p.s. I'll study for the Ohms Law quiz