Modern Vespa

I was riding my vespa, and suddenly lost power and stalled. It wouldnt restart, but would turn over... battery good, fuel pump working. Yellow engine light on. When I looked into the engine area, there was cracking in the pipe that goes from the reservoir to the engine. The clear bubble below the dipstick was empty.

Obviously it is out of oil.

I will try to fill with oil and restart, and get it to my mechanic.

My question is, how would I know if the engine has seized? There we no unusual sounds or smoke when the stall happened.

Also, is that the right strategy to get it to the shop, or should I arrange a truck.

Amazing the things you learn about your bike AFTER stuff goes wrong.

Lastly is it easy to replace that cracked oil line?

There isn't any 'oil line' in a GTS.

And what is this 'bubble below the dipstick'?

Lets start at the beginning.

What happens when you turn the key ON, before trying to start. What flashes and with what timing do you get from your code LED?

Do you hear the fuel pump prime as you turn the key 'ON'?

Does your CEL go out a couple of seconds after turning the key 'ON'?

Let's start with just those for the moment...

Key in turn to start position.

Display does normal things. Red CEL on then turns off. The fuel pump does the whirr sound then turns off (i have had a blown fuel pump twice so it sounds normal). All other lights on display turn off. Engage brake and press start... turns over but does not fire. Yellow warning led turns on. No abnormal sounds.

The bubble I am referring to is the clear plastic half sphere below the black plastic screw (I thought was dipstick) where you add oil.

If you look at the picture, there is a thick line running that is noticeably oily, where the rest is just dusty, there are many cracks in it. That is what I was referring to.

The "clear bubble" is to catch air filter oil and crankcase blow-by oil if the air filter gets saturated. The bubbles have to be drained occasionally.

The oily hose in your engine bay is the crankcase breather pipe. It relieves pressure by venting combustion blow-by into the air filter housing.

Unscrew the dipstick and check your oil level. While you're at it, check your coolant level and brake fluid levels.

You should probably download an owner's manual (if you don't have one) from the Manuals Wiki section of Modern Vespa. Then, familiarize yourself with the basic functions of your scooter.

Then you can provide more troubleshooting clues for everyone to work on.

Very helpful. Thank you. Will do as you suggest.

Historically, the clear bubble has had oil in it.

Is a cracked crank case breather pipe something I should worry about? Assume so.

I highly recommend taking it to a dealer.

your knowledge of servicing basic stuff is poor and maintaining properly serviced equipment is also poor. the clear plastic bubbles are you FIRST indicator of need ing to service the air filter.

You don't even know how to check oil level by using the dip stick. This is another basic item.

Time for a proper service from a dealer.

I agree with OAD, you would be best getting a motorcycle mechanic (Vespa if possible) to take a look at it.

I think it would also help if you gave the whole engine bay area a bit of a wash. No high pressure hosing, just a light spray with a garden hose and apply a degreaser before you do it.

You'll be amazed how it will clean up and it will make the mechanics life a whole lot easier.

And read your owners manual!

The only point I would make is that the crankcase breather hose is likely to let in moisture or even quite a bit of water if you start washing the engine down. It looks badly cracked. In fact, most mechanics like the bike to be untouched when diagnosing a problem as they can see for themselves where water, oil or fuel might be leaking. So DON'T WASH THE ENGINE! The cracked crankcase breather hose messes up the closed loop system controlling how the bike runs. It can even cause the bike to stall.

Do check your engine oil though and the coolant level. Check these often unless you want to wreck your motor. Good luck and I hope this is something easy to fix. Please let us all know how you get on.

Welcome to the forum! Sorry you got shit on in your first post! Everyone here is really very helpful and well-meaning.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to have a dealer check things out here. It'll cost a couple hundred, but should be fast and will surely get your bike running again properly.

On the other hand, if you're keen to fix it yourself and have an attitude to learn, then there are lots of experts here who will help you through it. Everyone has to start somewhere. But this would be a process of troubleshooting, reporting back, repeat.

It depends on your circumstances, I guess - interest level, budget, time willing to have the bike off the road, etc.

Have you ever checked the oil before? Has the bike ever been dealer serviced? Are you the original owner? If not, how long have you had it?

Yeah - I seem like a bit of a barney, but actually am not. I get it serviced regularly, usually ahead of the season. Have learned a lot over the years with the breaking of some of the poor quality parts that come with the bike... some stuff I fix and some stuff I dont dare to. The issue with where I live is there isnt any vespa support infrastructure. I have a good mechanic BUT i need to get the bike to him. Anyways, thank you all for the responses. And yes, I have all my manuals LOL

The valve cover breather hose leaking would not cause a stall. It's purpose is to carry fumes and regulate pressure off the valve train. Before EPA the valve cover on engines would have a cap with a filter, and the fumes were just expelled into the atmosphere. The tube just routes the fumes back into the airbox and precipitated oil is collected in the clear bulb off the bottom of the airbox.
In any case a competent mechanic needs to look it over for the cause of stalling.

Art

I don't want to dump on you, but you do need to read the manuals, they do no good if you don't. The dipstick above the bubble is the one for the gear oil for the final drive. It is not where you add engine oil.

The oil filler and dipstick is near the front of the case. There is a procedure to checking (and adding) oil. It's in the book which you have.

Sorry to break it to you but if you have run the engine with no oil or little oil your engine is toast.

I don't think you have run out of oil at all - you just have a bike that won't start.

It turns over, and you can hear the fuel pump. Good, that eliminates loads of other things that might prevent starting.

The first thing to check now is the spark plug and its cap. Spark plugs do die (usually a cracked insulator) and the caps are known to come adrift - and in older bikes actually need replacing as the little spring clip that grips the spark plug corrodes and loses its 'spring'.

So using a 19mm open-ended wrench, prise off the spark plug cap. Then using the tools provided (in the glovebox hidden behind a black square plastic cap if you didn't know) undo and remove the spark plug.

Now put the cap back on the spark plug or put the cap on your new spare - that everybody should keep handy. Check the cap snaps back on firmly, and is quite hard to pull off. If it pulls off very easily - replace it, they are cheap enough.

Holding the plug with some insulated pliers against a bit of clean engine metal, turn the engine over. You should see a strong blue spark. If so, put that spark plug (hopefully your handy spare one) back in the engine and try again to start. Report back either way.