So you are there excited to get outside and try out your newly-found hobby; riding an electric scooter.
The electric scooter turns on but won’t go an extra step.
What follows next? Calling the manufacturer and letting them know that they have sold to you a faulty ride? Well, that is too far from it.
In my more than 3 years of electric scooter ownership, I have encountered this scenario a couple of times and through my handiness, was able to devise different ways into how an electric scooter will go after starting well.
Below are great ways to troubleshoot your electric scooter from this problem and you will keep on going hassle-free.
Table Of Contents
Electric Scooter Starts Well but Won’t Go: Reasons and Fixes
Below, we are going to give you the reasons why your electric scooter will turn on properly but won’t go an inch.
We are also happy to share with you the fixes we used to solve it.
1. Disconnected brake switch
A cut wire from the brake or if it has been disconnected will cause the electric scooter fail to go.
Most electric scooters will have the application of the brakes closing the braking switch under the deck since they have the electric switch function.
However, there are other models such as the Razor E100 where after you press the brake lever on the left side, it will end up opening the brake switch.
The opening of the braking switch will mean that the motor gets disabled by the controller.
When the brake switch is open, then your electric scooter will turn on but won’t go.
You will need to reconnect it to get going.
How to fix a disconnected brake switch
You can open the deck and tightly fix the brake switch.
If you try the brake once more and it still disconnects completely leading to your electric scooter not going, then it’s the high time you bypass the faulty brake lever.
- Disconnect the brake switch so that you can have two controllers apart (you can hold the brake lever and see the switch that moves to be sure you are indeed disconnecting the right switch)
- Get a piece of a paper clip
- Insert the paper clip on the two holes of the connector coming out of the controller (this helps you to make a connection between the two terminals of that connector).
If the scooter goes after making a connection between the connectors, then it means that the brake switch may be faulty.
As such, you will need to replace it.
2. It requires jumpstarting
Since most of the stress in electric scooters comes in while starting, you can troubleshoot your electric scooter that doesn’t go by jumpstarting it.
How to jumpstart your electric scooter
If your electric scooter has turned on well but doesn’t go, then you can jumpstart it by kick-starting it.
Some single-motor electric scooters won’t spin the motor unless you kick start them to reach a speed of up to 3 miles per hour.
3. Faulty throttle
If your electric scooter throttle is faulty, then it means that it won’t go.
There are also moments when your throttle isn’t necessarily faulty, but it has a dead zone which makes it fail to respond to the command you input.
The problem when the throttle has a dead zone or it’s completely faulty is that it cannot signal the battery to release more power so that the motor can accelerate.
In that case, the scooter fails to go since the motor isn’t spinning.
How to fix a faulty throttle
If you find that your electric scooter throttle is faulty or has a dead zone, then the best way to go about fixing the problem is to replace it altogether.
If your electric scooter is under warranty, you may get in touch with the seller for a replacement to be sent to you.
If not, then buy a throttle of your choice (trigger, thumb, or twist) and replace it.
The problem with repairing a faulty throttle is that the problem may keep on re-appearing and inconvenience you big time while you are riding.
4. Low power
An electric scooter battery is the priciest component in your PEV.
As such, you will need to keep on checking it and ensure that it’s in stellar form.
It sometimes happens that your Display may show that your battery is full but that could not be the case.
It may be showing that you have sufficient juice, but then that power could just be enough for switching your electric scooter on but not spinning the motor.
If the 3 steps above don’t seem to help, then you may need to check whether you are getting sufficient power.
How to solve the low power
As an electric scooter owner, we hope that you have a multimeter.
If not, we highly recommend that you own one and the Klein Tools MM600 seems to be the perfect box for you.
Using an Allen wrench, remove the deck cover of your electric scooter and any other screws that may be holding the battery compartment in place.
After that, turn on the multimeter and attach the right wires to the battery terminals and wait for the voltage amount to display on the multimeter.
Depending on the manufacturer’s full battery voltage of your electric scooter, then you will be in a position to conclude whether you have the right amount of power.
If the power seems low and to have hit the cut-off voltage, then that is the reason why your electric scooter turned on but didn’t go.
Charge your battery and we recommend that you stick to the multimeter voltage readings as the correct as opposed to what the display shows.
5. Faulty/loose electrical components
An electric scooter absolutely has an array of electrical components.
However, when one of even the most little components gets loose or faulty, then the scooter could turn on well but fail to go.
Most of the affected parts are the wires or connectors from the controller to the throttle, motor, or even the battery.
How to fix
You will need to be at the check out if any fried cables in your scooter.
Also, if some wires have disconnected, you will need to join them before anticipating your electric scooter going any more.
In Summary: My Electric Scooter Turns on But Won’t Go
If your electric scooter turns on but doesn’t go, then you can solve the problem by:
- Kickstarting it
- Connecting the brake switch properly
- Ensuring that all the wires and cables are tightly connected to the appropriate connections
- Checking that the throttle indeed works
- Ensuring that you have sufficient power in your battery to get the scooter going.