Cart Slows Then Stops After 10-15 Minutes of Driving

Bubba_Batuka

Bubba_Batuka

New Member
My 2008 Club Car Precedent drives great at the beginning, but after 10-15 minutes of driving it slows, then stops. Cart has had this problem for years.

*Batteries fully charged, tires full, 250 lb passenger, driving on uneven grass at half throttle
*Batteries reading 9v, 9v, 8v, 8v, 9v, 9v at start; 8, 8, 7, 7, 8, 8 after it dies
* Replaced batteries, battery cables, potentiometer, and solenoid
* Motor warm but not hot, controller hot but not burning hot. Not noticing any hot wiring.

Thoughts?
 
Do you have any 12volt accessories connected to those two low batteries by any chance? And as HotRodCarts says, we need better readings of the batteries to two decimal places with a digital meter. Your first readings were probably taken just after taking the cart off charge and giving incorrect readings. you need to let the batteries rest for a number of hours to get actual battery condition readings plus you will need to load test them. Are the batteries all the same age, brand and type? How long ago did you replace the batteries.
Many questions I know, but dont worry, There will likely be more but we will find out what the problem is once you answer a few!

Maybe a photo of your entire battery pack will help too.

My guess so far is accessories drawing off only two batteries and those two have failed. If so, the cure would be to install a voltage reducer to use the whole pack to power the accessories and maybe new batteries too.
 
Sitting for a while and then working is probably due to the low batteries drawing a charge from the good ones and balancing out a little bit.
 
cartmaster said:
Do you have any 12volt accessories connected to those two low batteries by any chance?
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no
cartmaster said:
And as HotRodCarts says, we need better readings of the batteries to two decimal places with a digital meter. Your first readings were probably taken just after taking the cart off charge and giving incorrect readings. you need to let the batteries rest for a number of hour to get actual battery condition readings plus you will need to load test them.
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Batteries in order from main red cable: 8.40 8.39 7.85 7.87 8.38 8.39. Cables disconnected for testing, after sitting all night w/o recharge after cart stopping.
How to load test them?
cartmaster said:
Are the batteries all the same age, brand and type? How long ago did you replace the batteries.
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Batteries are Crown deep cycle CR-165. All replaced, simultaneously, less than a year ago (but problem existed before new batteries). Water is good in all.
cartmaster said:
Many questions i know, but dont worry, There will likely be more but we will find out what the problem is once you answer a few!

Maybe a photo of your entire battery pack will help too.

My guess so far is accessories drawing off only two batteries and those two have failed. If so, the cure would be to install a voltage reducer to use the whole pack to power the accessories and maybe new batteries too.
Click to expand...
The only wires attached besides the battery cables are a red and a blue. Blue leads to wiring harness and an inline fuse (good) and red is corroded and disconnected.
 

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Those battery readings are way off that's probably where the problem is. Your batteries are ranging between 90% and 30% based on static charge alone.
StateOfChargePercentages.jpg


Without having a load tester just put the multimeter across the whole pack or individual batteries then hit the pedal from a stop and see what the voltage drops to.

That blue wire looks like the bucket harness input which should be either on 48v going to a voltage reducer or powered by a reducer. It's hooked up across 2 batteries meaning you're running your 12v circuit on 16v. Adding a reducer would be a good idea or just disconnect the wire if you don't have any 12v accessories
 
Will test the load shortly. Believe the red and blue wires were attached to batteries 1&5 respectively. Red wire comes from charging plug port. Blue wire is in harness that comes from F/R switch, so maybe that's the voltage limiter for Reverse?
 
Golf Cart Wizard said:
Wait how are the batteries getting fully charged if the charge wire isn't even connected?
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No idea. Gonna reattach, recharge, and see what happens. It must've broken off yesterday when I was fidgeting with the battery compartment. I'll try recharging w/o reconnecting just to eliminate that a possibility.
Stay tuned....lol
 
Something is very wrong here. If those extra wires are connected to batteries 1 and 5, there is something drawing current. That's maybe why two batteries are pretty much dead. I don't understand how the batteries are charging either if those wires or at least one is from the charge receptacle? We need better information regarding where those wires actually go? You say no accessories, but what about lights? And why are batteries disconnected. We need to see the whole pack connected as it usually is when the cart is operational and know where all the wires and cables go. Why do I get the feeling the cart is not running on a full pack?
 
cartmaster said:
Something is very wrong here. If those extra wires are connected to batteries 1 and 5, there is something drawing current.
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Red wire is confirmed to be from charging port. Tested charging w/o it connected (didn't work) so repaired and reconnected, now charging. Must've knocked it loose yesterday.
Blue wire has now been disconnected, though it had a burned out in-line fuse anyway.
cartmaster said:
That's maybe why two batteries are pretty much dead. I don't understand how the batteries are charging either if those wires or at least one is from the charge receptacle? We need better information regarding where those wires actually go? You say no accessories, but what about lights? And why are batteries disconnected.
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Batteries were disconnected to test voltage on each. Now reconnected.
cartmaster said:
We need to see the whole pack connected as it usually is when the cart is operational and know where all the wires and cables go. Why do I get the feeling the cart is not running on a full pack?
Click to expand...
Cart's not running on a full pack, or owner? 🤣
See pic of complete array (taken before removal of blue wire. Cart operates normally w/o it attached)
 

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With the middle batteries never fully charging, I'm leaning towards a charger/OBC problem. Considering getting an onboard charger to eliminate both potentialities as well as rotating batteries.
At what total voltage would a cart stop rolling, and/or would two batteries being 1-1.5V lower than the others be enough to cause it?
 
Then give me a thought! The batteries are less than a year old, maybe 50 hours. I charge them fully and batteries 3&4 are like 1-1.5V less than batteries 1,2,5,&6.
See pix for batts and wiring. Why else would the middle batteries be lower voltage than the outers?
 
If all the cables are good and the connections are clean and tight my guess is the two center batteries a weak and failing. If you don't think the 2 center batteries are the problem move them to another spot and put 2 with higher voltage readings in the center. See if the voltage on the 2 that are in the center now goes up and if the two you move to the center go down in voltage after a few charge cycles.
 
Have you load tested each individual battery yet? We need to see the results of these tests. As already stated by myself and others. Either the two middle batteries are bad with maybe a dead cell in each, or those two batteries have been supplying power to something else at some point and need balancing with a few back to back full charges. but I think it's too late for that. Also as already suggested. Maybe swap those batteries with no 1&2 to see if the voltage readings move with them. If so those two batteries are your problem. Also, as already asked and not answered, where is the negative charging wire connected? Without answering questions, we can't really help you.
 
cartmaster said:
Have you load tested each individual battery yet?
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not yet
cartmaster said:
We need to see the results of these tests. As already stated by myself and others. Either the two middle batteries are bad with maybe a dead cell in each, or those two batteries have been supplying power to something else at some point and need balancing with a few back to back full charges. but I think it's too late for that.
Click to expand...
possible that lighting was wired to middle batteries at one point
cartmaster said:
Also as already suggested. Maybe swap those batteries with no 1&2 to see if the voltage readings move with them. If so those two batteries are your problem.
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swapped batteries 3&4 with batteries 1&6. After full charge and sitting overnight, batteries 2-5 are at 8.47-8.49v. Batteries 1&6 (former middle batteries) are at 8.02. Guessing they're bad?
cartmaster said:
Also, as already asked and not answered, where is the negative charging wire connected? Without answering questions, we can't really help you.
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There is no dedicated negative charging cable. Following the three wires from the charging port, the red wire goes to battery 1, the black wire goes to a bus with the main negative battery cable (attached to battery 6), the gray wire goes to the OBC
 
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