Modern Vespa

I read a lot of information here about the recurring 500s oil blowback to the air filter resulting in piston breaking.
Many people have had this problem and im having it myself.
I wanted to ask if anyone has contacted the piaggio company and have recived official word from them?
From what i understand im facing at least a week without my 500 having it serviced on sunday till good knows when. The aggregated damage in lose of time and money for all users could be thousands of dollars.
I love my mp3 but I think piaggio should take responsibilty and before i turn to them i want to know if anybody already did?

Goodluck with that

I have a friend with a 2016 MP3/500 Sport ABS that is working with the Dealer and the Piaggio Representative right now on his issue, his bike is under Warranty. In his scenario, the oil in the Air Box does not look to offset the Oil missing from the Oil Reservoir. It's going somewhere?

I feel the "Oil Blow" is something we have to Manage on our own.
That does not mean their is a Piston/Ring problem (although this was a common issue with the older MP3 400/500 Bikes), it was just probably a bad design.

If you look at my post I started yesterday with "Oil Blow" in Subject Line. This is to discuss "Master Engine" Owners to discuss their Oil Level vs Oil found in the Air Filter.

One concern I have, if you are someone who brings your bike to a Dealer for Service, and they put the recommended 1700cc in your bike. You can assume you will have some in the Air Filter if you ride the bike on the Interstate Highway. It is foolish to assume you would not, this bike performs very well on the Highway.


Keith,
Marietta, GA

Take it from someone who already blew one piston. After my dealer fixed it I got ZERO oil blow-by. It took another 15,000-16,000 miles to rear its nasty little head again.

I just dropped it off at the dealer today, since I can not see how I throwing both oil and gas into my airbox. With a cracked piston I was throwing 350CC of oil in a 40 mile commute. Now I am throwing an oil/gas mix equaling to about 2-3 TBSP on that same 40 mile round highway trip.

I will report back what they find so that can help other who come across this problem.

BTW: I do not push the scoot. I ride 90% highway at 65-70 mph.

I would disagree that it's a bad design. Pistons and rings are well understood and the manufacturing of them as well. What we have is likely a sourcing problem - whoever makes the pistons is doing a shit job and the QC isn't there to catch it IMHO. The problem is the failure rate isn't high enough to get Piaggios attention and insufficient to present as a defacto issue to invoke lemon laws. From photos I've seen it appears the piston is cast, then machined to do the lands and oil holes (on oil ring). Cast pistons can have a myriad of issues of it isn't done properly.

Did Malossi come up with a replacement like it has done for other bikes?
Just curious...
So if you go through a re-build, you have to put back the OEM which could become problematic again similar to mvtroiano.

I was happy to learn from my dealer that my Warranty is actually 2 years.
I originally thought it was only 1 year. So I have another year to observe if I have any issues. So far, Oil Level is stable on the stick, and Air Box is glossy, but no heavy oil presence.

Keith,
Marietta, GA

On mine, the cylinder and piston, the water pump and bearings were redone by my dealer Piaggio while I was only 5000 kms (3107 miles) ...

I have very serious doubts about the progress of manufacturing at Piaggio !!

Since, like Keith, I put less oil than the recommendation and for now everything is good ...

It now has 14,000 kms (8,700 miles)

Do you French have the custom of knocking on wood lest the evil spirits hear your good fortune?
I said the same thing and at 12,500 miles I got the issue. Note that I didn't lose power I just started losing oil like crazy. I rigged up a long tube with baffles and such to try and precipitate the oil back into the crankcase and not go into the air box. It was mostly successful but there was still enough oil to be of concern on trips. Really a mess.

Every morning my friend...

with fingers crossed !!

Do a google search for Scooter Oil Catch Can.
Oil loss from the breather is a common problem in single cylinder motors that are run at high rpms most of the time.

Honestly, I had no oil problem after my engine was rebuilt. It took about 15,000 miles before oil started showing up only because my piston ring started to split at that time.

Is there a difference between oil loss at high rpm and massive oil blowing to the air filter?

yes

And that is?

a one cylinder engine will allways spray a fine mist in to the breatherpipe thats connected to the airbox when your reedvalve and/or piston rings are gone then it will blow oil in to the breatherpipe