Modern Vespa

Just purchased this scooter recently. It sat for 5yrs in someone's garage, so right off the bat the battery was dead. Getting the battery replaced. Previous problem with this scooter was a CDI replacement, and according to the seller, it's possible that is also what it will need because that's how it felt like for them before they stored it.

Once the battery is in I'm going to investigate further but of all the searching I did online I can get a CDI anywhere from 150 to 250 oem. apparently the oem comes with 2keys or I can get an aftermarket one that gets rid of the immobilizer. For the life of me, I can't find where the cdi is on this bike, where are they?

I'm not fully convinced it's the cdi but what are some of the symptoms of the issue being the cdi?

this bike sat for 5yrs, so before I even start it up I'm going to change the oil, pump out any old fuel and refuel it, will look into changing the gear oil, what are other maintenance things I can do to this scooter as a diy-er? I can flush the coolant but honestly would rather let a shop work on that.

edit: just put the battery in, the scooter isn't recognizing that the killswitch is disengaged, no cranking over of the motor, just dead silence. what could be the issue there? will I need a new killswitch?

I have a 2007 BV 250 with a quasar engine and carburetor. You have a previous generation engine in your 200 but also carbureted.

Mine was manufactured in 2006 and I think 2008 and newer were all fuel injected.

There are lots of maintenance issues that need to be kept up with that could be what previous owner was experiencing but it could very well be the CDI as they were known for issues.

Here is a scooterwest video on the Vespa GT 200 which has the same engine as your BV 200. At about 9;40 Robot mentions the CDI box.

Youtube is a good place to start to try to find how to take it apart to get to it.

And another one for the carburetor work it will need after sitting. Again same carburetor and engine in the BV 200 if I am not mistaken.

thank you, I've been youtubing since I got it yesterday, however since it's an older scooter a lot of what I'm finding is for either the bv250 or vespa 200. I know the engine is similar but the location of some things differ based on the cosmetic configuration. can't find the actual location of this cdi box.

There is a link to various shop manuals in the wiki section of this site. I see a few that should work for your bike:

https://manuals.wotmeworry.org.uk/Beverley/

You could cut the wires going to the kill switch and splice them together.

The CDI is behind the front plastics.

https://youtube.com/shorts/cggdEmo9b9o?si=hJ0IMZIKP1am21Z8
so I changed out the cdi box, apparently that wasn't the issue but swapped it out anyway. the link above, in the video is the sound the bike makes when I connect the battery, does anyone recognize what this sound could be?

excuse the instgram-y video, was hiding the serial number on the cdi box. the sound plays twice in the video but I put two separate clips together, it just makes this sound once when the battery gets connected. it also did the same and sound with the original cdi box.

thanks, with your post and another that had the picture, I found my CDI.

By sound alone it seems like it might be a shorted relay. The relays are mostly also behind the front plastic, I think a set of 3 of them. If you can home in on that noise it would help a lot.

AF1Racing.com has the parts blow-ups for all sorts of Piaggios, and they can help you find things.

This will take you to the BV200 2003-2006, page 11 is the electrical system.

https://www.af1racing.com/store/ProdImages/st3/581.pdf

These thoughts are potentially worth what you paid for them - nothing.

I had one. They are persnickety. There are a few electrical and electronic ideas Piaggio tried on that model and then dropped. The speedometer is one of them. There isn't a cable. So if there are issues, be prepared to hunt them down, because there are things about the BV200 that aren't shared with other models.
take out the canister under the seat, and you will have a lot of storage.
Send it to BMW, they are in the market for good evaporative canisters.