Batteries or something else?

[HCDC]

Hello all,
New here..we have a 2018 Club Car Onward that we stretched last year. We have been experiencing some issues with what we were initially assuming to be the batteries. My husband takes full responsibility for overfilling and sometimes under filling our FLA's. We can currently drive around for roughly 5-7 miles and then our battery meter is flashing. When we first start driving, there is plenty of power and then as the battery drains (according to the gauge) we start losing oomph. What is really strange is that 5 out of the 6 batteries are showing 8.4V on the voltmeter, one is showing 8.1V. The main battery cables are registering at roughly 54V. When we plug in cart (battery meter flashing), it takes about 3 hours and then it shows as fully charged. It is not taking a long time to charge which seems to be inconsistent with dying batteries (along with the voltage testing). This weekend, I cleaned all terminals and we added an epsom salt/distilled water mix which helped gain us roughly 5 minutes to a battery bar. We live in a community where golf carts are life and especially right now, this is our entertainment. We are ready to purchase new batteries, but I question whether or not something else could be the culprit. Anyone have any advice?

[Mooncarter]

Hello HCDC. to BGW.

5 batteries at 8.4 and 1 at 8.1 = 50.1 volts. This indicates they are only charging to 80%.

I suspect you have at least one bad battery. I also suspect these readings were taken immediately after charging?

[HCDC]

We definitely have one dead cell in one battery. We observed this when all others were bubbling while charging aside from this one cell. The part that is the most confusing is that those readings were taken when the battery meter was flashing telling us the batteries were dead.

[Mooncarter]

Dead or bad?

[Mooncarter]

OK. I assume you meant the meter on the cart.

[Mooncarter]

Were the readings taken while charging? Were they taken immediately after charging? Were they taken the next day after not using the cart? Or were they taken after using the cart and the cart meter showed dead?

[HCDC]

One battery cell is either bad or dead.
The readings were taken after a ride when the cart's battery meter showed the batteries as dead. After going for a ride this evening, we lost one "bar" of battery and all were still reading 8.4V aside from the one that showed around 6.2V.

[Mooncarter]

Ok. I don't have much faith in those meters but that's another story.

This is what I would do. See if you can find a good used battery exactly like the 5 others (age etc. if possible. If not, get a new one exactly like the others (not optimal but may make the pack last a while. How long? No way of knowing for certain) and install that. Give the batteries a full charge after that and see what happens.

If others have thoughts please chime in.

[HCDC]

What do you make of the cart charger charging so quickly? We are just about to pull the trigger on T-875's, but we wanted to be sure there wasn't some other issue that was affecting the batteries.

[Dragracer_Art]

Originally Posted by HCDC

What do you make of the cart charger charging so quickly? We are just about to pull the trigger on T-875's, but we wanted to be sure there wasn't some other issue that was affecting the batteries.

The charger is cutting off quickly because the other 5 batteries are probably still good and well charged.
The short time the charger is running, it's only charging up the one bad battery... which quickly falls off enough to drag down the overall pack voltage when running the cart.

It's generally recommended to replace all batteries at the same time... but if it were my cart and the batteries were fairly new... I wouldn't be afraid of swapping out the bad battery with one new one.
If that doesn't cure the problem... go buy the other 5.

It's only money. You'll make more.