Club Car Precedent Gas Golf Cart Won't Start

clubcar55

New Member
Hello,

I purchased this 2013 Club Car Precedent gas golf cart a few months back and it has ran fine but suddenly the golf cart won't start. Yesterday morning, it simply wouldn't start. I'm not familiar with working on these at all but would like to see if anyone can help me get started trying to troubleshoot.

The only change that I know of is right before we rode it home the last time it ran, we stopped at the gas station to top it off and I put 91 Octane gas in it thinking it would be good for it. Maybe in return I got old gas?
 

Nubs

Cartaholic - V.I.P.
My first guess would be you may have gotten a shot of water when you topped off the tank, does it have spark at the spark plug when its spinning over?
 

Nubs

Cartaholic - V.I.P.
Well if it was me, i would pull the gas tank and drain it out. the water sits tight on the bottom so sucking out out does not work the best, I would also pull the float bowl off the carb and clean it out. once the tank is back in with different fuel i would pull the gas line off at the carb and spin the engine over a bit to get the new fuel through the fuel pump, stall the line and see if it starts:twocents::hattip:
 

clubcar55

New Member
Nubs,

The only part I really understood about doing was pulling the tank and draining it out. I pulled the tank and drained it. I then put the tank back in, re-connected the hoses that were connected to it, and filled with fresh gas. It is still doing the same thing. One thing I noticed is that the fuel filter(?) was full of gas before I pulled the hose from it. It doesn't seem to be re-filling with fuel now. Does that take time? Should I just crank it for a while?
 

Nubs

Cartaholic - V.I.P.
remove the fuel line from the carburetor and run the starter and see if the gas is pumping out, many times the filter will look empty and still deliver fuel. it may take a minute.
Also check the filter, make sure you can blow air through it.
 

clubcar55

New Member
Nubs, I checked the filter and can blow air through it. It seems clean. I then removed the fuel line from the carburetor as you suggested and ran the starter. Seems to be plenty of gas coming through there.
 

Nubs

Cartaholic - V.I.P.
Well if there is/was water in the system it will also be in the float bowl on the carb, there may be a drain on the bowl or you'll need to remove it and pour out what's in it.
 

clubcar55

New Member
Do you have a link to instructions on doing that? This gas currently flowing through it doesn't "flush" it out somehow?
 

Nubs

Cartaholic - V.I.P.
No, try to squirt a little gas in the carb and see if it starts. if it does you may be able keep it going until it sucks the water out, it may not be a water problem but you won't know t'il you check the whole system. I think youtube will have something about removing bowls:dazed::hattip:
 

clubcar55

New Member
I got the carb removed and sprayed it down with carb cleaner the best I could. (I had no idea what I was doing)
Once I put everything back together, i'm left with the same exact problem. I'm going to have someone more experienced take a look at it and will post an update here when I know more.
 

clubcar55

New Member
Just wanted to post an update on this...
I took the cart over to a small engines guy. He says that it has "low compression".

He has now removed the cylinder head and this is the last message he sent me. "Your cylinder head is at the machine shop and when I find out something I will get your parts in and get it back together... Thanks"

Hoping this doesn't get crazy expensive but it doesn't sound good. Is this normal for a cart this age?
 

clubcar55

New Member
He talked like he has worked on a few of them in the past and owns a couple as well. May not mean anything, but I sure hope that he knows his stuff as well. He has now updated me again. He stated that the cylinder head didn't need much work as far as the machine shop goes. He is now saying that the piston rings likely need replaced. Sounds like that's the next step. I'll keep you all updated.
 

Nubs

Cartaholic - V.I.P.
A 5 yr old cart engine that needs rings is sure not common, must have lived a hard life. The compression numbers can change a lot by how the test is implemented, [throttle butterfly needs to be held all the way open by hand] oil added to the cylinder during the test would show weather or not the rings are bad. Sounds like he is stabbing in the dark in my opinion.

Hope it works out with not costing you a pile of money:twocents::hattip:
 

clubcar55

New Member
I'm hoping that posting status updates here could help someone in the future... So the guy that had put it back together and his thoughts were that the piston rings need to be replaced. It took a very long time to do this little amount of work so far and it wasn't sounding promising so I went and picked it up. I'm $110 dollars in. That's $50 for the machine shop and $60 for his labor.

I hauled the golf cart to another shop now and passed along the info. I will keep the post updated.
 
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