Battery light

[weekone]

i have an 09 Precedent with 4 12V. batteries. They are 15 months old and have been replaced under warranty one time already. (interstate's were installed) The course i play is reasonably hilly but nothing extreme. On the last 3 holes when pulling the hills the battery light will come on for approx 5 seconds then go off.

A voltage meter shows the batteries at 50.8 volts when charged and after driving home they show 48.6 volts.

A hydrometer shows 4 of the cells to be on the low side of the white when checked.

My question is, is it the batteries or the battery light?

[Speedchaser]

When you are done your pack is around 50%, definitely time to charge. The light probably goes on going uphill because the pack drops to the point that the obc detects charging is necessary. It is due to weak bats and that is the nature of the 12 volt bat system.

Next time you switch bats go to 8 volts, your bucket probably is already equiped for them and if not you can modify it.

[LJ12530]

I have the same cart as you. I did the following test about a year ago. Copy of the post I made then is below the //////'s. Several months ago I noted that the battery light was doing exactly what you are experiencing. The battery light started coming on intermittently more frequently. I replaced the batteries in Nov. The only real test of batteries is a load test. You can either purchase a resistive load battery tester or just drive the cart. The latter is cheaper but does give you one deep discharge that takes a bit of life out of the batteries.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

I thought I'd start a new thread in case someone wants to see some actual measured battery data. I wanted to make sure I had a battery problem before paying for a service/warranty visit from the dealer.

Here's the info:
ambient temp : 63
battery voltage fully charged : 50.4
individual cells : 12.6/12.6/12.5/12.5 ( per the book this is approx 90% of full capacity )

I drove the cart with pedal to the metal to see how long it would take for the amber dash light to illuminate steadily. I never thought it would take so long!

The light came on steadily after 1:40 of full throttle on fairly level roads.

After waiting for about 5 minutes I measured the voltages.
battery voltage : 46.2
individual cells : 11.6/11.7/11.6/11.7 ( approx 25 % of full capacity )

According to Trojan's specs a new T-1275 battery should be able to deliver the following ( not sure at what temp these numbers apply )
102 minutes at 56 amps
280 minutes at 25 amps

The motor in the Club Car is 3.1 hp which equates to 2.3 Kw.
48V x 48A = 2.3 Kw. The fact that the numbers are the same is a coincidence.

When you interpolate between the 102 and 280 minute ratings ( although it is not linear in an actual battery ) you get 130 minutes (2:10) at 48 amps.

Club Car says that when the light come on steady you should have about 30 minutes of battery life remaining until it is fully discharged. The 1:40 that I actually got plus :30 is 2:10.

The battery light came on when there was 25% capacity remaining which is actually what the book says.

So much for my original theory that I had a bad battery. I was amazed that the actual numbers came out virtually identical to the predictions, and that the battery light came on with 25% capacity remaining.