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Discussions Question and Answer Forums Electric Scooter, Bike, and Go Kart Repair Forum

Losing battery power while riding

I bought my Tao Tao E 501 about 3 months ago. My power meter was showing battery life declining after only riding for 6 miles. I opened the battery compartment and noticed a hex head bolt melted to the terminal of two batteries. The had was melted to the positive terminal and the other end to the negative terminal of the battery next to it. I had to use channel locks to pry the bolt off. The one battery looked pretty damaged so I replaced it with a battery from my other scooter. All battery readings are above 12 and 13 volts. But when I fully change the bike then ride it the meter stays at the full level until about 6 miles then the power just drains and I can barely make it to my destination. Is there a way to test the controller, circuit breaker, or DC converter to know if I have to replace one or all of them. Also, can someone explain how a bolt could sit against two separate terminals, melt to them and not create some kind of smoke or disabling the bike in some way. This is very baffling to me. Thank you for any help I can get.
That was supposed to be ATE 501 electric scooter

Since the bike runs the controller, circuit breaker, and DC converter have to be working so they should not need to be tested. When the battery power meter level declines that indicates that the Voltage of the battery pack has significantly dropped. Since the battery pack Voltage is dropping at around 6 miles it sounds like the battery pack has lost some of its capacity and in order for the scooter to have a longer range it would need to be replaced.


Bolts can weld themselves to battery terminals from the high amount of current that the batteries produce. When this happens a little bit of smoke will be created but not a lot. If a positive terminal from one battery contacts a negative terminal of another battery the two batteries combine into a higher Voltage battery pack. Since the batteries were already in a battery pack configuration when the terminals welded together it must not have changed the Voltage of the battery pack at all, or not enough to disable the bike.

It seems to me that at least 1 more battery is bad. remember that battery can measure 12 volts but the life is also measured in Amps. if the battery discharges quick then the life is gone. If you bought the scooter new then batteries should be under warranty. if you bought it used then  I would replace all 4

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