Modern Vespa

I've had issues starting my ET4 for a few years now. I'm not sure exactly what the issue is, but after reading through a lot of the threads here with similar problems, I've tried a bunch of things myself and also a local repair shop has done a bunch of things. Things have gotten better but issues still persist.

Here is a video I took this afternoon of it not starting: https://youtu.be/pL8DhUqJW4E

Apologize for the crappy actual video -- hard to hold the phone while needing both hands to start the scooter. Anyway, I figured it's the audio that's important.

So it just sounds like it doesn't have enough amperage to turn the scooter over. In this case, I tried a few times and it never turned over. Sometimes, it will fail the first try or two, and then it'll start; or it will sometimes start the first time. When it doesn't start at all, like this time, I can stick it on the tender, and then with a fully charged battery, it will start again. Of course this is okay if it happens at home but otherwise I'm stranded.

The battery is less than a year old, and even when it was brand new, it would still happen. I always tried to take the scoot out at least once a week just so it got run, so it's not like it was sitting around for a month or anything like that.

Things I have done: The evap has been disconnected, as that seemed to be the cause of a lot of issues and is the first recommendation of everyone here.

Things the tech did a couple months ago: Replaced spark plug, cleaned carb, replaced fuel line.

Another issue it had was that sometimes it would stall (or want to stall) if I gave it a sudden, full throttle of gas. This seemed to happen more often in the winter, and I haven't noticed this issue recently so it might have gotten fixed with what the tech did, or maybe it's just not surfacing in the warm weather.

Anyway, if anyone recognizes this problem, would love to know how to fix it once and for all. My ET4 is getting old but it's still my favorite of all my rides so would love to get it back in shape.

Just because a battery is new doesn’t mean it’s any good.

Buy or borrow a multimeter. Test battery.

Also, how miles you got?

Ok, i'll get a multimeter and test it. (I've had the same issue with three different new batteries now so it'd be quite a coincidence... but I guess not impossible. And I really should have a multimeter, anyway.)

Bike has 9200 miles.