Club Car Precedent Golf Cart Battery Light Comes On

tommyoz

New Member
I am brand new to this forum and need some help. I bought a used 06 Club Car Precedent IQ golf cart last May. It has 08 batteries and they (all 4 ) boil over when I charge it. I put the cart in tow mode in December and last week the cart was completely dead. I charged each battery with a car charger to get enough charge in them that the cart charger would work. They charged until the charger shut off but now, on the course, my battery charge indicator light comes on every time I stop. It goes off when I accelerate. Also when I got home from the course the battery light came on and went off about every 20 seconds or so until I plugged the charger in. Is this a battery problem or a computer problem. The guy I bought the cart from has been very little help.

Any assistance would be welcome.
 

dougmcp

New Member
Precedents have some common problems, the indicator light flashing off and on which is an OBC issue and a poor battery life expectancy of 2-4 years.

Boiling batteries is indicative of 3 things:
1) They are too full, only fill them to 1/4" above the plates after charging.
2) One or more of the batteries are bad. Post up the individual voltage readings of the batteries after a charge and rest for a few hours.
3) The charger is overcharging the batteries. It should not exceed 64v at the end of the charge cycle.
 

tommyoz

New Member
Thanks for replying.
I took the cart to play 9 holes today and when I got back and plugged it in the charger wouldn't come on. It clicks once when I plug it in like always but then no hum and the needle does not move.
I think I did overwater the batteries and did remove some water. Now if I can get the charger to work I'll check voltages.
What should I try to get the charger to work? I pushed the reset button already.
 

dougmcp

New Member
Check and post the voltages now, the readings may tell us lots.
You can use a 12v charger on each battery if the batteries are too low for the charger to come on.
 

tommyoz

New Member
Well, the saga continues.
I got home from work and the breaker in the garage was tripped so I reset it and plugged the cart in. The charger clicked and hummed but the needle never moved. I unplugged the cart and let it sit for about 10 minutes and tried again.
The charger clicked and hummed a little louder and then a puff of black smoke streamed from the reset button and nothing.

What now? I'm waiting for the place I bought it from to call back. Until then I guess I am dead in the water.
 
I agree with Doug. I had a charger go into overload and trip the internal breaker due to to a battery starting to short out. The output needle became unstable so I now view that that has important info.
 

tommyoz

New Member
I don't see how this can be right, but I measured 11.6, 11.8, 11.7 and 11.6. This is after a full charge, playing 9 holes, then sitting for about 48 hours in tow mode. The charger is not working at all so I guess I have to repair that too. I live about an hour away from anywhere that I might get parts so I guess I can't do anything till the weekend.
The guy I bought it from still hasn't returned my call. So much for customer service.

The internal breaker didn't trip. Something burned up. I heard a crackling sound and saw a puff of black smoke as big as a bowling ball.
 

dougmcp

New Member
Put a 12v charger on each battery and charge them up one at a time. No need to disconnect anything. You can use the cart this way until you get the charger fixed.
 

tommyoz

New Member
So what do the voltages tell us? That the batteries appear to be ok. Are you still thinking there is a short to cause the charger meltdown or do I need the charger working to get a good set of voltages? I thought the voltages were high.
 

dougmcp

New Member
Your batteries are between 10% and 20% charged (nearly dead).
They should be around 12.7v or more.
I don't see a short here, just no charging going on.
Don't leave these in a discharged state or they will sulfate and go bad.
Charge them individually with a 12v charger and get them back up.
For your future reference, batteries should be charged right after use, not the next day.
 
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