Generally, electric scooters have little maintenance.
However, it happens sometimes that no matter how properly you maintain your ride, issues arise.
One of the common electric scooter problems most owners face is their ride shutting off.
This is why the question of why does my electric scooter keep turning off is so common nowadays.
In our blog post today, we will look at why an electric scooter turns off for no apparent reason and what you can do to fix those problems.
4 Reasons an Electric Scooter Might Turn Off
Now let’s discover the top 4 reasons why an electric scooter keeps turning off without any reason.
- Insufficient Battery Voltage
- Broken Solder Joint Around the Battery
- Dead Battery Cells
- Overheated Motor
1. Insufficient Battery Voltage
One of the leading reasons why an electric scooter shuts off while riding is that there is insufficient voltage.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that the battery could be damaged, but it could be something to do with the scooter struggling to haul your weight.
When you are heavy and mostly near the weight limit of an electric scooter, it means that the motor needs more voltage to run.
Due to safety mechanisms in most modern electric scooters, they turn off at any point where the battery has to consistently provide high voltage to the motor.
Again, if the battery is old, it tends to keep losing volts, hence doesn’t provide the motor with a sufficient amount of voltage to keep it running optimally.
Due to the safety mode of such a scooter, you will realize going for more miles is impossible.
The same case applies to when accelerating or climbing steep hills.
Such actions tend to compromise the battery more, which makes the safety mechanism of shutting off while riding a necessity for the scooter’s longevity and health.
While your electric scooter battery can have many Amps, the volts play a vital role in how the motor works and entirely how and when the safety mechanism to shut off the scooter kicks in.
How to Fix Insufficient Voltage
When the battery is compromised such that it can’t provide sufficient voltage to the motor to keep it running, then you can replace it with a new one or connect another in a parallel arrangement to have more voltage.
That way, there will be little chance of having the scooter turning off on you.
Also, you can sell that specific model to someone with a lower weight than you or to one who doesn’t pass on any rough terrain.
After that, upgrade to a more advanced scooter battery-wise.
2. Broken Solder Joint Around the Battery
My Mercane Widewheel electric scooter ran perfectly for a year until one day, I noticed that the acceleration was weak.
After about 5 miles of riding, the scooter showed an empty battery warning on the Display and it shut off.
The days before, I averagely hit a top range of 22 miles riding at the fastest mode.
Definitely, something was amiss.
I pushed the scooter for a few minutes and upon switching it on once more, it started just fine as if nothing had a problem.
I rode home and avoided my group ride for that weekend.
Since I was out of warranty after having done modifications on my scooter, I decided to get my hands dirty, opened the deck, and started looking into what might have caused the problem.
Upon close inspection, I noticed the solder joint around the battery.
With such a joint, it means that there is a random disconnection of power, which eventually leads to electrical resistance.
That is why there are incomprehensible writings on the Display as the scooter starts to shut off on its own.
How to Fix a Broken Solder Joint Around the Battery
With a broken solder joint around the battery, there is definitely a power cut out, which means the scooter will switch on well sometimes, but then keep on shutting off after a few miles of riding at a fast speed.
If your e-scooter keeps turning off, open the deck and look keenly at all the solder joints on wires that connect the battery to the controller.
If you identify any broken solder joint, fix it properly and you will have avoided the turning off problem.
3. Dead Battery Cells
Averagely, an electric scooter battery can go for 500 charging cycles before the deterioration of holding a charge kicks in.
This, however, depends on the condition of the cells used in manufacturing the battery.
When there are dead cells in the battery, the charging cycles may not even reach 500 before the scooter starts turning off without any reason.
Again, a cell or several may be discharged leading to them being lower than the others.
In such a scenario, addressing the issue of an electric scooter turns off while riding may mean a replacement being done.
How to Fix Dead Battery Cells
It takes technical know-how to know which battery cells are in poor health.
Unless you have an electrical engineering background, this process may not be easy, and as such, you may need to take your e-scooter to your nearest repair center for addressing.
Either way, when your electric scooter shuts off while riding due to dead battery cells, the best choice you have at that point is to have the dead cells replaced.
Compatibility must be ensured for the cells to function properly.
If the battery is old and is close to reaching 500 charging cycles, you may as well opt to replace all the cells with new ones for compatibility purposes (newer cells may strain to work with old ones since they will be doing most of the donkey work).
4. Overheated Motor
Most modern electric scooters have a safety mechanism where once the motor heats up, the scooter just shuts off.
If you keep your electric scooter in a hot place, then chances are high that the heat in the motor will make riding a problem.
You may actually ride that scooter for a couple of minutes and before you even realize it, battle a turned-off ride.
Again, if you ride in the fastest mode for long, there are higher chances of having the motor overheating.
Unless it cools, you can rest assured that you won’t go anywhere as this safety feature helps to prevent damage to the motor.
How to Fix an Overheated Motor
Always keep your electric scooter under shade when it’s hot.
Again, it’s important to note that you shouldn’t ride the whole day at full throttle since most of the electric components will keep on overheating.
When your e-scooter shuts off due to overheating, it’s crucial that you let it cool down at first before proceeding with riding.
When it cools, switching on once more is fast, which is why a little patience goes a long way towards you preventing your scooter from developing any further problems owing to a damaged motor.
In Summary: Why Does My E-Scooter Keep Turning Off?
There are 4 main reasons why your electric scooter keeps turning off while you are riding.
These are:
- Insufficient voltage
- Broken solder joint around the battery and the controller
- Dead battery cells
- Overheated motor.
