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Electric Scooter Troubleshooting Guide >Motor Does Not Run > Battery Pack Has Been Charged In The Last 3 Months

TaoTao 50cc Scooter Owners Manual. Can be done at a local scooter shop i've been riding a scooter for about 3 year now had the same problem with my tao tao atm 50. 170 Bartor Road Unit 1, North York ON, M9M 2W6; Tel: 416-748-6686; Email: hello@taomotor.ca.

When was the last time the battery pack was recharged?

Sep 01, 2020 It’s perfect if you want to do away with gas altogether (the TaoTao ATE-501 Automatic 500 Watt Street Legal Electric Scooter is fully electric). Eco warriors would be happy with this scooter too! The TaoTao ATE-501 Automatic 500 Watt Street Legal Electric Scooter, however, is a road bike NOT a trail bike. It is meant for roads.

Make Sure The Power Switch Is On

Determine that the key switch or power switch is in the on position.

Check The Fuse Or Circuit Breaker

If the scooters uses a fuse, look at the inside of the fuse to see if it is burned-out. The fuse may need to be removed from the scooter and held up to a source of light to determine if it is burned-out or not. For scooters that use a circuit breaker, push-on or flip the circuit breaker to see if it will reset.

Try Pushing The Scooter To Start

Electric scooters with single speed throttles sometimes need to be pushed forward in order to run. Stand on the scooter with one foot and push it forward with your other foot while fully engaging the throttle. Once the scooter reaches walking speed and the throttle is engaged the scooter should run until the throttle is released or the brake is used.

Try Charging The Battery Pack for 8 Hours

Electric scooters that have not been charged for over 3 months will have partially discharged battery packs which may not provide enough power to run the scooter. Try charging the battery pack for 8 hours and then see if that helps.

Inspect By Sight, Touch, And Smell

Remove the footplate or wiring cover and look for any burned or melted wires, wire connectors, or electrical components. Also look for loose, disconnected, or damaged wires or wire connectors. Pull and push on all of the individual wires and wire connectors to make sure they are not loose or disconnected. Get your nose close to the speed controller and motor and smell them. Any components that look burned or melted, or that smell like burned plastic are almost always defective and should be replaced. Motors that smell burned should be replaced to prevent damage to the speed controller.

Test The Fuse Or Circuit Breaker

(Tool Needed: Multimeter) Sometimes fuses burn-out in a place where you can't see it, and sometimes circuit breakers will mechanically reset but they are worn-out and still will not work. Checking the continuity of the fuse or circuit breaker with a multimeter is the best way to determine if they are working or not.

Test The Brake Lever Switch

(Tool Needed: Jumper Wire)The brake lever switch informs the speed controller to turn the motor off when the brakes are applied. Most scooters have normally open brake switches, however, some scooters have normally closed brake switches. To test for a faulty normally open brake switch, disconnect the brake lever wire connector from the speed controller and then see if the scooter runs. If the scooter run when the brake lever switch is disconnected from the speed controller then the brake lever switch is a normally open type which is faulty. To test for a faulty normally closed brake lever switch, disconnect the brake lever wire connector from the speed controller and bridge the two terminals together in the controller's connector that the brake switch is unplugged from. If the scooter runs when the controller's brake switch connector terminals are bridged together then the brake switch is a normally closed type which is faulty.

Test The Key Switch Or Power Switch

(No Tools Needed) Test the key switch or power switch for proper mechanical operation by moving it from the off position to the on position several times. The switch should snap into both positions. If the switch feels loose, or if it does not have a positive snap-action feel to it when switched between the on and off position then it may be defective.

(Tool Needed: Multimeter) Sometimes the key switch or power switch will feel good and have a positive snap-action feel to it when switched between the on and off positions but it will still be defective. Testing the continuity of the key switch or power switch with a multimeter is the best way to determine if it is working or not.

Test The Battery Charger

(No Tools Needed) Plug the battery charger into the wall and look for one or more illuminated indicator lights. If an indicator light is not illuminated or blinks on and off when the charger is plugged into the wall then the battery charger is defective.

(Tool Needed: Multimeter) If you have a multimeter you can test the battery chargers output Voltage. Its Voltage should be a few Volts above the battery chargers rated Voltage (24V, 36V, 48V, etc.). If the battery chargers output Voltage is zero, or if it is below the battery chargers rated Voltage then the battery charger is defective.

Test The Battery Charger Port

(No Tools Needed) If the battery charger is plugged into the wall, unplug it. Plug the battery charger into the battery charger port on the scooter and look for an illuminated indicator light on the battery charger. If an indicator light on the battery charger illuminates when the charger is plugged into the scooter then the wiring and wiring connectors going to the charger port are good and the charger port itself is good.

(Tool Needed: Multimeter) If you have a multimeter the battery charger ports Voltage can be tested. The Voltage level present at the charging port should be the same as at the battery pack.

Test The Battery Pack On A Scooter That Runs

Visit our Battery Pack Load Testing Guide.

Test The Battery Pack On A Scooter That Does Not Run

(Tool Needed: Load Tester) If the scooter is not running, a load test can be performed on its batteries by removing the battery pack from the scooter and taking the individual batteries out. The individual batteries can then be tested with a automotive battery load tester. Most entry level automotive battery load testers place a 100 Amp load on the battery which is too high so an adjustable carbon pile battery load tester is required and should be adjusted to place a 30 Amp load on the batteries.

Test The Voltage Of The Battery Pack

(Tool Needed: Multimeter) If you have a multimeter the battery packs Voltage can be tested to determine its condition.A good battery packs Voltage will be above its rated Voltage level even if it has been fully discharged and allows to sit a few minutes, or if it has been in storage. If a battery packs Voltage does not bounce back to above its rated Voltage level within a few minutes after being discharged that points towards a defective or worn-out battery pack. When a battery pack has been fully charged and its Voltage is below its rated Voltage level that also points towards a defective or worn-out battery pack. Good scooter battery packs will bounce back to above their rated Voltage level within a few minutes after the scooter has been driven.

Test The Throttle

(Tool Needed: Multimeter) Visit our Throttle Testing Guide page.

Inspect The Speed Controller

Look for any burned or melted wires or wire connectors on the speed controller. If any wires are burned or melted then the speed controller may be defective.
Smell the speed controller for any burned plastic smells. If the speed controller smells burned then it is almost always defective.
If the speed controller has no burned or melted wires and it does not smell burnt then it still could be defective. Test all of the other components of the electrical system around the speed controller and use the process of elimination to detect if the speed controller is working or not.

Speed controllers are too complex to easily test. Using inspection and the process of elimination is the best way to determine if a speed controller is working or not. If all of the other components of the electrical system test good but the scooter does not operate that indicates a defective speed controller.

Inspect The Motor

Look for any burned or melted wires or wire connectors attached to the motor. Burned or melted wires or wire connectors indicate overheating of the motor which may cause the plastic insulation to melt off the motors electromagnetic copper wire windings.

Smell the motor for any burned plastic smells. If the motor smells burned that indicates that its coils have been overheated. Motors with overheated coils should always be replaced to prevent damage to the speed controller.

If the insulation melts off the copper windings they will short circuit and cause the motor to not run or to run slowly. Short circuited motor windings can also burn-out the speed controller by giving it too much resistance which makes it work too hard and overheat.

Taotao 500w electric scooter battery or charging issues

The charger should not overheat from being plugged in for too long. The only reason that a battery charger would overheat if plugged in for a long period of time is if it was malfunctioning.

The battery charger's output Voltage can be tested with a multimeter set to DC Volts to see if it is working or not. Here is the polarity of the TaoTao ATE-501 scooter's battery charger output plug.

Taotao Electric Scooter Battery

The TaoTao ATE-501 battery charger should have around 56 Volts at its output plug when it is plugged into the wall. If it has zero Volts then it is faulty.

If the battery charger has the correct output Voltage then the next step I would take is to physically inspect the batteries in the battery pack to make sure that they have not swollen or melted. If they have then they should not be used any longer and be replaced.

If the battery charger has the correct output Voltage then after inspecting the batteries and if they look good the next step I would take is to perform a more comprehensive test on the charger and battery pack. To perform this test the charger should be plugged into the scooter and then plugged into the wall. Then the Voltage of the battery pack can be tested with a multimeter to see if it slowly increases while the battery pack is being charged. You will need access to the battery pack terminals in order to perform this test. If the battery pack Voltage does not slowly increase while it is being charged then the charger could be malfunctioning or the batteries could not be accepting a charge due old age or internal damage.

If the battery charger simply failed and stopped working then the batteries may not have received a full charge which is causing them to be half charged. However if the battery charger is working and the batteries are only half way charged then that could be caused by a faulty battery charger port or faulty wiring between the charger port and the controller, or it could be from the batteries being old or worn out. The comprehensive battery charger test described above will help to determine if power from the charger is reaching the batteries and if they are accepting a charge.

The batteries could also be load tested to see if they are in good shape or worn out. Here is a link to our electric scooter battery load testing guide: http://www.electricscooterparts.com/loadtest

Please let us know if you have any questions.

Great to hear that you finally got the batteries out of the frame. Sometimes when the batteries are swollen removing them from the scooter can be virtually impossible.

TaoTao electric scooters are built on the same platform as most other Chinese-made electric scooters are though, so the process of removing the rear wheel would be almost identical to that of any other similar street legal type of electric scooter.

I found a video showing how to remove the rear wheel of a GIO electric scooter which should provide most of the information that you are looking for. Here it is.

Taotao Ate 501 Scooter

Please let us know if you have any questions.

Taotao Electric Scooter Manual Portable