Modern Vespa

Good afternoon Vespa lovers,

I had a really weird problem yesterday that made me think it might be the fuel pump. I'll tell u what happened but a bit of basic info first:

- Vespa was in the garage and was not started/driven for a year
- didn't do the annual service yet (oil, filter. spark plug...)
- there was approx. 1L fuel in the tank
- battery was hooked on the charger the whole time

Vespa started without a problem. First I went to the gas station to fill up the tank. Then, when I was driving towards my destination (after approx. 35min of driving) throttle stopped working (in a sense that when I wanted to accelerate it was just like I didn't give it any throttle). So it felt like gas is not coming anymore to the engine and eventually Vespa stopped. I wanted to restart it a couple of times but it was useless. After approx. 30min i tried again to start it - it worked immediately and I was able to get to my destination (approx. 5km further from where this happened) without a single problem.

So it feels like when the engine was super hot (although the temperature was normal according to panel) fuel stopped flowing (broken fuel pump?). And when it cooled down a little bit - it was ready to go again. I was searching for the symptoms and really smells like a defective fuel pump. Or there was maybe something in the gas tank? Or spark plug? The exact same thing happened the next day on a longer ride (short rides are ok).

Did someone else have similar experiences? This Vespa is y. 2008 and I know there was a serial problem on some of them, but still waiting from a Piaggio to come back to me with an answer if this is fuel pump or not.

Any advice, suggestion, sharing experience is welcome

Thank you

There was a recall on 250 + 300 ( I believe) Vespas for fuel pumps failing when they got hot. Your dealer can tell if yours is included by running your VIN.

Thank you for your input. I contacted my dealer and I'm waiting their input.

You may or may not have a bad fuel pump. Typically what happens when there is a fuel pump failure is no start after a short stop at high ambient temperature. If you turn on the key and hear the pump humming it's probably not the problem. If you don't hear anything it definatly is a bad pump. Your dealer will be able to tell if yours is covered by the recall and if the pump has been replaced or not.

oh no, that's exactly the case! I forgot to mention that there was no "buzzing" sound when i turn the key

Oh well... Thanks for the info, now I'm 100% that it's a pump.

Thanks guys for your help!

just got a confirmation from Piaggio dealer that my vespa indeed has a faulty pump and they will replace it for free.

Hope this post will be useful to someone else as well.

Thanks again.

Is it possible to check this on a site somewhere?

Any Piaggio dealer can look it up.