'99 DS, Lacking Oomph
 

All -

First, congrats on an awesome forum! This isn't a forum that I previously knew existed until I started looking (for a solution the following problem), but man ... what a cool group of dudes. I can only hope to contribute to this awesomeness going forward.

My issue is that I have a '99 Club Car DS, purchased about a year ago that has relatively new batteries (Oct 2012, as labeled) but still just is having general sluggishness. It's just losing its spunk. The kind of sluggishness that hasn't left me stranded, but rather certainly wondering "am I going to make it home?". It still persists, but any uphill climb is clearly very taxing to this thing.

I just did a voltage test across the batteries, which - if you believe my cheap ebay-purchased battery gauge - is on the low-side at approximately 1/3 of a full charge. Keeping that in mind, at idle (doing absolutely nothing) it shows a voltage of 46.7V. With the rear up on jacks and full throttle (not a real load) it reads 46.0V. Under a real load (going up a hill in my neighborhood) it drops to 43.7V. Doesn't seem like a huge drop, but still somewhat significant.

As mentioned, these batteries are not old (~20 months), which seems to rule out the easy-albeit-expensive-fix (new batteries). I have not dug in any deeper yet, as I'm not sure where to go from here. Is there anything else that I can check out, that might be indicative of what this cart's issue is?

It is currently charging, just plugged it in. I will repeat the same load/no-load test once it's fully charged, although I'm not sure that it will reveal anything new (a 3V drop under load seems like nothing).

Thanks for any help!

Brett

Re: '99 DS, Lacking Oomph
 

first read !!!! >>> http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/elect...ller-well.html

next you need to charge cart till charger shuts off .. then in 12hrs take pack voltage reading and post results
then take each battery voltage and post results
off the top of my head i guess you have a cell bad in one or more of your batteries

oh please post number of batteries when asking for help

Re: '99 DS, Lacking Oomph
 

Your voltages are low for charged batteries. Don't ever run the cart with the wheels off the ground! You can very easily destroy the motor.

Re: '99 DS, Lacking Oomph
 

[QUOTE=crash test dummy;1038558]first read !!!!Catastrophic motor failure link
[QUOTE]

Thanks for that. But it's not the issue - I ran it maybe 2-3 seconds on jack stands while I measured the (non-) load voltage. Drove it afterwards, with the same result as before. Additionally, the issue that caused me to post has been growing for a long time (well before I did this test).

It's a 48V system, 8x6V batteries.

If I had to guess, a motor issue is a very, very long shot - is that correct? It seems like, in the world of electric drive, batteries are far more often the culprit as compared to a motor.

Re: '99 DS, Lacking Oomph
 

The batteries were ~1/3 full charge. See previous post regarding running on jack stands.

Re: '99 DS, Lacking Oomph
 

:shock: never seen that ... anyway post each battery volts after charge and rest :thumbup:

Re: '99 DS, Lacking Oomph
 

This sounds like a resent post where the left sol was failing. The cart is trying to run pulling voltage through the resistor coil of the left sol.

Re: '99 DS, Lacking Oomph
 

Oops, had that backwards in my post ... 6 x 8V batteries.

It's charging this morning, and I'll measure each individual battery tonight.

Re: '99 DS, Lacking Oomph
 

Hmm. I couldn't find this thread, but I also probably am not using the right search terms.

Re: '99 DS, Lacking Oomph
 

This is the thread he is referring to probably: http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/elect...ot-spring.html
Read the whole thing noting posts #8 and #9 in particular.