2004 Precedent Troubleshooting

[erogers]

My wanna be yuppie self purchased a used 2004 Precedent to get my lazy kids to and from our vacation home's community pool. The cart was immaculate and hardly ever used, (garaged and not used for 10 +years). I purchased 4 brand new Trojan 12v batteries off recommendations from this site (thank you). Once installed the cart ran in limp mode for a while. Then miraculously, ran normally for a day, I even clocked 21 mph on the Waze iPhone app. Next day back to limp mode and me back to reading posts from you kind folks. After numerous threads I decided to replace the Speed Sensor. Initially it didn't work and still ran in limp mode. Then miraculously again, this time after wiggling all the wire connections, the cart ran normally for a couple of days. At this time my dumb *** thought it OK to transport the cart to my far away vacation home. After transport the cart ran like a champ around the community with no issues so I plugged her in and gave her a nice dry rub down to remove any dust. Following morning after unplugging her I got no response from the Go pedal other than a couple of clicking noises (I'm guessing the solenoid). After farting around with turning it off and on, switching the Run/tow, plugging the charger in and out, all of this in multiple orders, she finally moved but was back in limp mode. This morning she is back to clicking when depressing the Go pedal. I've tried the procedure to reset the OBC but got the same result of the click. Nearest CC dealer is 2.5 hours away so I decided I'd join this forum because I'm obviously in over my head and have read multiple posts trying to find a solution. Any advice for next steps to try?

[jjance]

Have you read any responses about checking for a bad MCOR. The first one is to pump the GO pedal about 20-30 times and see if that makes any difference. The second one is to jumper out the microswitch in the MCOR. Another thing, get yourself a digital voltmeter. You can get one cheap at Harbor Freight or Lowes. For all you know you might have dead batteries. Which brings up the next question. How does your charger act when you are charging the batteries. Of course it could be the speed sensor if you ordered a el Cheapo off E-Bay

[Golf cart guy]

Hes pressing the pedal and hearing the solenoid click, so we know micro in MCOR is working.
Because it is intermittent and age of the cart, Id lean towards one motor brush that is slightly stuck, due to the term "limp mode" which there is non on that car. Motor is simple to pull and inspect on that car

[jjance]

Golf cart guy I thought of that possibility also but I left that option included because he stated "(I'm guessing the solenoid)". In reality he could be hearing the MCOR microswitch click.

[greg-g]

Originally Posted by Golf cart guy

Hes pressing the pedal and hearing the solenoid click, so we know micro in MCOR is working.
Because it is intermittent and age of the cart, Id lean towards one motor brush that is slightly stuck, due to the term "limp mode" which there is non on that car. Motor is simple to pull and inspect on that car

There Sure is a limp mode! or half speed mode, overheated controller, bad speed sensor and I think there are other things that will cause it to go to half speed.
Welded solenoid i'm still thinking

[Golf cart guy]

Originally Posted by greg-g

There Sure is a limp mode! or half speed mode, overheated controller, bad speed sensor and I think there are other things that will cause it to go to half speed.
Welded solenoid i'm still thinking

That's not considered limp home mode, like on a EZGO RXV or a Tomberlin A/C drive cart- Those are part failures- big difference

[Sergio]

Given the combination of symptoms: limp mode and not running sometimes, plus the long period of inactivity, I would also suspect a bad/sticking Solenoid as the source of the problem.

[erogers]

Thank you all for the responses.
JJANCE - I've read Multiple threads about the MCOR and will test it in 2 weeks when I'm back over with the cart. I'll bring a voltmeter with me this time as I've learned my lesson about being prepared. That batteries however, were fully charged and brand new. The charger when inserted, clicks on, goes all the way to 15 and slowly goes down and hovers at 3 or 4 for a while and then it will usually be at 0 after a long period. The speed sensor was a cheapo off amazon but I don't think that is the issue because I put the old one back in when the cart was working and it performed fine. It was my way of troubleshooting to see if I really needed a new one.
Since I have almost 2 weeks I wanted to ask the forum if purchasing an IDQM would be a good idea given my inability to narrow the cause of my issue? I'm on the fence because all it would do after spending a couple hundred bucks is to tell me I need to spend a couple hundred more bucks. My shopping list for fixes at this point are, new OBC, New MCOR, New Controller, New Solenoid and maybe a new Motor.
GOLFCARTGUY - I hear two clicks when pressing the Go pedal. First one is in the vicinity of the gas pedal, second seems to be coming from under the seat where all the goods are. For a slightly stuck motor, once I remove it, what then? Do I manually spin it to get it unstuck? Replace the brushes? The motor? I read a post from someone yesterday experiencing a similar issue and TAHOEDAWG271 said it was a bad motor.

[TahoeDawgZ71]

Your intermittent limp mode issue sounds to me like a bad speed sensor. The intermittent operation with a solenoid click, could potentially be a motor issue but I'd hate to tell you to buy a motor without knowing for sure. With your foot on the pedal, try and push the car to get the motor to roll. Often, if there is a bad spot on the motor it may buck and jerk a little if it can get somewhat of a decent connection. If there is any response out of the cart at all when you roll it, the motor needs to be either repaired or replaced. However, if I had a factory motor that needed a speed sensor and internal work, I'd just go ahead and replace it with a good quality aftermarket motor.

[erogers]

Thank you TahoeDawg. Your expertise is much needed, and very well documented on this forum.
One last bit of troubleshooting that might help direct me to the culprit. When I first got my new batteries and the cart still didn't pass the speed sensor test I would still be able to get up to a pretty good speed if I very slowly pressed down on the Go pedal. I could maintain this speed for a long time if I only kept a very steady foot on the pedal and didn't get overzealous. If I got too crazy and pressed my foot too fast the cart would lurch into what I call limp mode (8mph max). Other than that if I was going at a good clip and I removed my foot from the pedal I would coast with no self braking. Does this sound like a speed sensor? This is kind of leading me down the MCOR route.