Modern Vespa

Out for a run this evening with my wife to get some ice real at the coast. Trip there no bother. Trip back started fine, then stopped for fuel.

Filled up, started the engine, tried to pull away, the ASR seems to have failed the self check and it wouldn't let the bike accelerate away. The revs maxed at pulling away speed.

Thought it might be a flat tyre, checked, both ok. Pushed the ASR button to turn off the ASR system and bike worked fine. On the way home from the petrol station I tried pushing the ASR button and the orange engine light came on. But bike still worked fine.

Got the master yet and tried to reset the ASR system. It wouldn't reset, but know it's a bit hit and miss and only tried a couple of times. Put bike back in the garage and will have another go at a reset in the morning.

In the meantime, does anyone have any other suggestions for things to check/try?

adjust tire pressures and then recalibrate the ASR (in that order). instructions in the manual, master key not needed.

Tyre pressure is fine, but it's not resetting itself with the recallibration process, tried multiple times.

I'd welcome other advice on what to try.

Had the exhaust off and checked the sensors and wires. They seem to pass a visual check, so I'm a bit stumped what to do next.

I've tested the battery, and it seems fine. Put the tender on it and it quickly went into maintain mode, and when running the bike gives a ready of c.14v.

All advice welcome.

I had a problem like this on my GTS 300: visually the cables and sensors were ok, but it was the rear ABS sensor that was faulty.

How did you find out what was at fault? Did it tell you when running dianostics?

if it's the sensors then both the abs and asr will complain. if only the asr complains and not the abs then the sensors are fine.

Great to know. It is both.

Many thanks.

Have you checked the distance between the sensor and the sensor ring ? Maybe this is now too large, after you removed the wheel for a new tire ?

I am yet to do that. From reading up on it I understand the distance needed is 1-1.85mm. Which isn't really something you can check with the eye, a ruler or even some verniers. So I'm assuming people use spacers for it? I have been meaning to ask this on here, so I'll ask it here: How do you measure it?

After I had the wheel off and back on again everything worked fine. It all just stopped working the other evening. As mentioned above before it died on me I did go over a particularly nasty speed bump, so it's possible this has knocked something out of whack. But, you'd have thought if so it would stop there and then, not wait until it's next turned off then on again.

So, while I'm a bit convinced the speedbump has something to do with it, it might also be a complete red herring.

Im still finding my way around all this stuff!

feeler gauge ?

And the ABS/ASR might run a self check at start, so will only fail after a power cycle ?

Feeler gauge, that's it. I used to use them on sparkplugs many years ago. It seems to me to be the logical way to check, so I've just found them Amazon and ordered them.

And ya, it tries to run the self-check, but fails. And attempts to recalibrate it also fail.

Update, put here for anyone searching for this...

The bike got parked up about a week ago, and I put the battery tender on it. This morning went to the post office on it and it was working fine, rode for the few miles, no lights. Ha ha! I think, it was some gremlin.

Came out the PO and the lights came back on when I started it.

My instinct now it's the battery. After being on the tender for a few days the battery just built up enough amps, but after a few miles it dropped low again.

I've got the battery on my battery repairer now, might sort it. If not, it's off to Halfords for a new battery. I will update this thread once it's resolved, or not.

More likely it's your charging system that's poorly. Riding even just a mile or two should get the battery volts and capacity up enough to re-start even the next day. If the charging system is bad, then the battery will have been affected as well. So when you have a good, fully charged battery to hand, check out the charging system. Get a multimeter if you don't have one already - the cheap ones are fine for working on the scooter.

Measure the voltage on the battery when off, at idle, and when revving. For a lead-acid battery you should have 12.6V or more, at least 13V, at least 14V but less than 15V.

The nice thing about the BV is that with the mode button you can cycle through ODO, trip distance, temp and also battery voltage…

As mentioned way up there the volts were ready as fine. But it doesn't report amps.

After the experience with the battery yesterday I bought a new one and charged it over night. Also, a mechanic came out to sort the threaded bolt (other thread) and he hooked it up to his diagnostics. Error codes said low battery and front abs sensor fault.

He said it's likely the volts are ok but amps are low. He also said the front sensor fault could be a result of the battery fault. No way to tell.

Anyway, this morning installed new battery and no fault lights; the ASR self-check system performed fine and warning light went out.

Now, Jim might be correct, and this might all be down to a faulty charging system, although the dashboard readings say otherwise. Or, it could just be an old failing battery. But for now at least, a new battery seems to have worked. I'll give it a few days and see what happens.

I seem to recall that low voltage or dying battery sometimes cause ABS/ASR warnings. I can't remember where that info comes from and it could be absolute rubbish. It's definitely a classic Mercedes thing though.

Glad you found that out. Did your guy helicoil your stripped thread?

He did. Sorted the helicoil and did the diagnostic stuff. Nice bloke, would defo recommend.

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