Modern Vespa

Howdy-

Mike from Maryland here - long time user of the forums but this is my first post. I have a Vespa LX150 that has been into three separate local dealerships and they can't diagnose exactly what's wrong. Hoping there's a Vespa whisperer on here who can help me figure out what's going on.

The scooter is a 2009 LX150. I bought it with about 19K miles on it from a local dealer. Its original owner bought it through the dealership and used it for daily commuting for years. It's got a nice dent on the leg shield and was scratched along one side panel. The dealer also told me the engine was replaced as the original owner cracked the case when he ran off a curb or something. The engine was used but has fewer miles than the scoot itself - about 12K. The scoot only came with a single blue key. I've cloned it at ScooterWest so I have 2 duplicates. More on those presently.

Symtoms:

1. The scooter won't start when it has been rained on hard. More specifically, when the scoot has outside during a really hard rain, the immobilizer won't recognize the key. The anti-lock lights on the console do that double flash and then hold red pattern that indicates the chip can't be detected. If I wait until the scooter dries thoroughly, this problem is resolved. Additionally, if I open up the front and disconnect the antennae from the CDI, blow out the connection and fiddle with it a bit, the problem is also resolved. I've tried sealing all the connections with electrical tape, using diuretic grease on the connections and even using a silicon gel to seat the seam at the top of the leg shield but they haven't prevented the problem. Only keeping the scoot under a cover during hard rains has prevented the problem from happening.

2. Won't re-start and sometimes stalls when the engine is hot. After starting and riding the scoot, if I stop and try to re-start it (after running an errand or something quick) it won't start again. It will recognize the key and turn over, but not catch. Sometimes this happens after a 20-30 minute ride when the engine has heated, but it has also happened after a 30 second ride to a gas station a block away. Once the bike stalled out on me during a ride, about 30 minutes in. In all cases, waiting 15-20 minutes solves the problem and it starts up and runs again.

3. When trying to start the bike yesterday after not riding it for a few weeks, I was able to get the engine to turn over and catch pretty easily. But the bike wouldn't rev or run, sputtering angrily when I twisted the throttle. I found a thread here about a similar problem and someone indicated they through it was a problem with the immobilizer, which was preventing the scoot from turning above 2000 RPMs. When this happened, I was using one of the cloned keys. I tried the original key and the bike started and ran fine.

4. Well, almost fine. When this happened and the scoot did run, the speedometer stopped working. All the other instrumentation worked, as did all the lights and signals.

Now it could well be that I have a boatload of different problems, but I'm wondering if there might be some central culprit responsible for all of this. I don't want to just shotgun parts at the thing, though of course that's my last resort. When the bike does run, it's a delight. So I'd really like to make it more reliable. Any thoughts?

Hi Mike,

I'm useless for the electrical problems, but the speedometer is a mechanical component so shouldn't have any bearing on the rest. I'm guessing it's the least of your problems...pulling the cable and inspecting is likely to turn up a break......

Now on to the bigger problems.

Thanks fledermaus. I guess that moves to the bottom of the to do list, pending my ability to get the rest sorted.

Check your kill switch. Rain can get in there and it might be causing it not to start. How old is the battery? Also my LX went thru a period when it heated up, it wouldn't want to start. Culprit was the auto choke (i have a '07 LX). The speedo cab;e might of come disconnected. I'd also check to see that your spark plug is good and is seated well. That should get you started. Does the flashing code go off when you start the scooter? BTW i have almost 36,000 miles on my LX. Sounds like you don't have any dealers who know what their doing. Good luck

Yeah, at least 2 different issues. 3 shops, what have they tried so far?

Thanks Judy. I'll research the auto choke and look into the kill switch. I'm not much of a home mechanic yet but I suppose I'll need to learn.

Bluecloud, a couple of the shops were able to replicate the failure to start after rain issue by leaving the scoot out in the rain, and "solved" the problem by installing a new antenna. That got it to start, but I learned afterwards it wasn't the new antenna as much as disconnecting and reconnecting the old, or otherwise fidgeting. Nobody has been able to replicate the failure to re-start after warmup because it doesn't happen all the time and shop staff doesn't have the time or incentive to do extended hard rides. So I'm not sure much of anything can be ruled out yet.

I realize I can address each problem individually and plan to try that, but was wondering if the catalog symptoms might all point in the same place - maybe a CDI problem or something else.

Still have EVAP?