Modern Vespa

That is about twice the normal life of a scooter battery. Thank it for a job well done and replace it.

your over due for a new battery. replace it. doubt very much there anything wrong with the charging system. easy to check though. with the battery installed take a voltage reading across the battery terminals with the scoot running on the center stand. at idle you should be around 13 volts at 2000-2500 rpm you should see 14 volts.

In which case it owes you nothing - replace it.

However, for checking the charging:
What you need to know about batteries.

Does no-one read the Wiki?

New battery - that'll get it firing right up!

Hi everyone! I replaced the battery and everything seemed fine, except....

I had the scoot on the center stand and the tilt lock was on too. One day after not riding for about a week, I started it while on the center stand and got the dreaded horn beeping. The scoot started and the beeping kept up, so I shut it off, pulled it off the center stand, and tried again. No beeps. I read the posts in the forum about not using both the center stand and tilt lock (oops!) - but that's how it was stored from October to May and didn't beep when it was first started in May...

Anyway, I usually let it stay on tilt lock instead of using the center stand, and if more than 3-4 days go by between starts, it will do that horn beeping again. It hasn't done any beeping while I'm riding (I try to ride in to work a couple days a week), but I don't use the tilt lock while riding. It starts right up with no warning lights on, and once it's started the beeping stops. It doesn't feel spongy. So I've been starting it every day, letting it run a bit and that seems to stop the beeping. I sometimes start it and get off to do other things - could that be messing with the system?

It's also not on a trickle charger anymore - think it could still be battery/electrical related?

I found the posts on the hydraulic fluid and bad tilt lock switches, fluid leaking in reverse, etc. Think that's it? There's no dealer locally and a small motorcycle shop does repairs on scoots too, but one mechanic said he has never worked on one of these but was willing to try, and I wanted to give him a "greatest hits" list of things to check. They've worked on Burgmans and other 2 wheeled scooters, just not the MP3. I might be able to convince my brother to help me check the fluid, but we're both rookies!

Also, anyone ever heard of a side stand for the MP3 400?

Thanks!

A side-stand for the Piaggio MP3 series of bikes does not exist since it obviously has two systems in place (the center-stand and the tilt-lock) that would make a side-stand redundant. I know of folks that almost exclusively use one method or the other (or both) to park their bikes and I don't think that this is causing your problem. It might be a battery issue and putting it on a trickle charger might solve this issue. Additionally, it seems that, anecdotally, the MP3's seem to suffer from faulty voltage regulator issues which restrict the battery from getting a full charge while the bike is running, so you might have that checked. Addtionally, it could be an issue with the tilt-lock system (either low hydraulic fluid or bad seals, pump, etc.). There could be something wrong with your switch (corrosion or sticking of the tilt-lock control is relatively common). Someone on this forum more technical than I am will probably weigh in on this issue with better information.

I would recommend that if you want better responses to this inquiry that you start a new thread on your tilt-lock honking issue (with an appropriately worded title) vice at the bottom of this thread about riding downhill.

Hi cummingsjc! You're right - this should be its own topic and I just started a new thread! I'll start by putting it back on the trickle charger and see if that helps. Thank you for your suggestions!

Good suggestion and I see you've started another so I will lock this one to avoid confusion.