Modern Vespa

So I go out today to run errands on my scoot. Get to errand location #1, with a list to go and go to restart my scoot upon wanting to leave and no go... It turned over and over etc, nothing. This happened before, I assumed it was me running out of fuel because it started about 20 minutes after I put a gallon in the tank. I called my local dealer and the Vespa technician came out to meet me with a box of tools. He is a great guy for helping. He checked over everything, fuses, hoses, etc. Found out my fuel pump is kaput with only 325 miles. So I called Vespa's roadside assistance and started that process. The wonderful Vespa mechanic stayed with me the whole time until the towing was close to coming, about 2 hours. I am rather disappointed the pump died. That is a week of no riding on a brand new scoot. I was planning on putting some miles on my scoot... *sad face*

That gets me to roadside assistance.... Between initial call and truck showing up was 2 hours. I talked to the truck driver and he came from 25 miles away because he said most companies do not want to pick up motorcycles. Anywho, it was past business hours so I had them tow the scoot back to my house. I sat on my scoot as he pushed it onto the tilting bed, I put on the breaks and he flattened out the bed then we rolled it to the back of the cab and he strapped it down. Needless to say watching him strap down my scooter was rather nerve wracking PLUS the giant oil slick it was sitting in on the center of the back of the truck bed. I started having cold sweats upon realizing I had to get it back off the truck with this guys help and then a repeat tomorrow. Well it worked out okay. The towing was $40 out of pocket for this one tow, and $100 covered by the Vespa roadside stuff.

5 hours of downtime in a business parking lot, one broken new scooter and one disappointed owner.. eh, shit happens. Back in the cage until my put put gets fixed.

what lousy luck, great for the mechanic to come and look things over, hope all goes well

Thanks. Now it is just hurry up and wait for the part to get in.

Tough break! Sounds like all the recent GTSs are time bombs with that defective batch of fuel pumps.

Just curious... was that attentive tech from Vespa of Annapolis? If so, I may have to change my opinion of them somewhat.

He is from Chesapeake Cycles in Annapolis behind Baltimore Coffee across from the Mall. They have all been super great to me.

I hope for your sake your dealer has a fuel pump in stock. My new GTS250ie with 488 miles died on the Blue Ridge Parkway July 24th. Vespa roadside assistance took about 2.5 hrs to get a pick up truck to me to take it to the dealer in the neighboring town where I bought it (that was covered completely). On Monday the 26th we started in with "it started right up" can't get it to repeat the problem" Vespa tech says could be fuel pump, could be antenna for security system. Tells dealer ok to replace fuel pump and suggests he keep fuel pumps on hand (which had not been doing. Giant clue from tech rep) We have now ordered fuel pump - I thought I understood that it was in stock in the warehouse in the US - this week I find it is being shipped from Italy - and they are on holiday for the month of August. It may be on a boat on the way over, or, maybe not. In the meantime, summer scooting weather is slipping away and I am not getting to practice before the rally in the Smokies or a planned road trip to Florida in October.

I don't really have anyone to blame in all this - dealer says he was unfamiliar with fuel pump problems but will be ready with one in stock for the next customer. It is a little hard for me to believe that Vespa has not issued a bulletin to dealers about this, though ---seems like we hear it a LOT on the MV boards.

Didn't mean to hijack your thread.....thanks for allowing me to rant. And I really DO hope you get your scooter back ASAP.

Yup, we've heard of way too many. And no recalls..

Maybe Piaggio spent their recall budget when they had to replace every motor in their new RSV V4 superbike.

Yeah, that's the place (Vespa calls them Vespa of Annapolis). Hmm, maybe they do have some competence in their service department. I've never been able to get past the blasé, why-should-I-care, service manager.

Every time I've been in there (even shopping for a new scooter) I've left pulling out my hair.

The technician said that they will order the part tomorrow morning and it should be a week. He said the actual part installation should be really fast, but getting the part is a week. I have to say I am rather glad it decided to kick the bucket in a parking lot of Rite Aid. I was able to get refreshments and wasn't out in the boonies. I chalk it up to working out the kinks of my scoot. My scoot is super kinky...

Maybe my service is better due to being a female. You could try a dress and wig and see how it goes? Just messin.

I am absolutely grateful it happened early and near home - not out on a long road trip! Just wish the part got here sooner.......If yours comes in a week I'm going to get your guy to get one for me, too!

With my beard, I'd look like a Hogette, and I doubt that would help!

Don't mean to sound sexist, but I suspect you're right.

Good luck with the pump; hope they do indeed have it in stock at a warehouse and don't have to get one from Italy.

My new LXV150ie (that I ordered from MotoStrada instead of Chesapeake Cycles... I showed 'em!) is supposed to be arriving in about 10 days. Woot!

Have a few in the puppy bucket just in case.. LOL Before going out for a ride, check tire pressure, check fluids, check lights, 2 extra fuel pumps... check!

Riding in the cage wont be too bad.. it is a Mini S after all... Sacrifices must be made.

That blows. However, that area has always been hot and humid when I visited in the summer, except up in the mountains of course. I would think your good riding seasons would be fall and spring, and maybe some in winter. I know summer is the worst time to ride here, unless you like to slip off your scoot from all of the sweat.

I thought that I had a problem with my fuel pump on my GTS. It would cut out when I was going down the road and then start up again when I stopped. After posting the problem here I was told it may be as simple as the cut off switch was bad. Try turning on and off the cut off switch several times and then try and start the engine again. You may be surprised as I was. I did order a spare fuel pump though from Scooterwest.......

I have to wonder about the fuel pumps. When I was shopping for scoots, I joined MV, several Aprilia forums, AF1, and a Kymco group or two. This was the summer of 2008. According to several forums I read daily, Piaggio's Aprilia and Scarabeo products were having a huge number of failures with the fuel pumps. More specifically, it was found that a small section of tubing/hose that was part of the fuel pump had two issues. First, the hose was made with a material the did not react well to the amount of ethanol in American gas. The hoses deformed or lost their ability to seal within the pump body. The second was the pumps used spring clamps for this hose. The spring clamps would loose thier ability to seal the hose to the pump body and the pump would not pump the gas to the correct pressures required to make the bike run correctly.

Many pumps were replaced but soon they found if you replaced the tubing with a gas/ethanol compliant hose and used hose clamps, the problems went away. I wonder is this is a similar problem.

Please note: I am not a mechanic and there may be others here that have more/better information than I have.

I wonder. It would seem though with a problem like this, a prolonged period of time or older pump would be more likely to fail? I have only filled my tank 3-4 times ever. Sounds like they need to find a new manufacturer to make their pumps.

FROGGIE that sucks Personally i think piaggio should top outsourcing more of their parts. You can see as the years go by and more parts that aren't made in Italy the more problems we have. Huge difference in my '03 LT and my '07 LX and their basically the same bike except for the body. LT much more reliable scooter. Quality control guys better be paying more attention Good luck

Thanks. Hopefully they replace the pump and no more issues for a LONG while. I just want a good span WITHOUT going to the shop.

Froggie,

In the case of the 'beo issue, having gas in the tank was all it took to cause the problem. in the US, the gas is different than most other places in the world and we have more ethanol in our fuels.

There were ski boats that were built with internal fiberglass fuel tanks that when you filled them with the reformulated gas, the entire back end of the boat (tank and surrounding structure) just melted away and failed due to the reaction between the gas, the fiberglass and the other plastics.

As to manufacturing the parts... I don't believe any of the vehicle manufacturers in the world actually make their own fuel pump. They define the specifications and/or design the pump proper and pump makers bid on the business and supply the pumps as a unit to the manufacturer (which may or may not the vehicle manufacturer).

As I understand it, the Piaggio Fly is manufactured by Zongshen in mainland China to Piaggio's specifications.

Hopefully the new pump can stand the US gas. I just want to ride and feel the wind in my hair... be free as a ...... oh ... wait....

TECH i notice a big difference between my LT and LX and i shouldn't. Just saying there needs to be more quality control. Gas gauge works perfect on the LT but now they don't seem to work on most of the models. As the years go by more things seem to be going wrong when they shouldn't. I know it keeps the cost down but it's depressing. Oh and it's not just paiggio. Other stuff as well.

Well my scooter started first turnover. Guess I will be riding it to the dealer today vs. tow. Stay tuned.....

a 1200 mile trip from Waco, TX to Minneapolis. Got to Kansas City and fuel pump blew out, found a great dealer, Renos in KC and they ordered a pump right away, Sat PM had to wait till Thurs to get back on road, by then I screwed my time and headed home. I think a wire in pet carrier frayed and blew the fuse and the pump. Got back to Waco and had it checked for short.....found it and all is happy till next years I do it again.

I feel your pain. My fuel pump went out also. Two weeks to get the part. (267.99) Three hours labor. Worth every penny. Riding every day now and loving it.

I can sympathize with your fuel pump problems, hope yours comes out okay.

My 2010 GTS300 has over 10K miles on her, and never a problem. (Of course, I could be jinxing myself right now the day before a rally by saying that) I bought her last July.

So perhaps it applies to a specific production run later in the year where the QC was not as diligent.

I just had a similar problem and am going through repairs now. Both my fuel pump and injector failed on my 1 y o GTV 250ie. It is out of warranty so no help from Vespa. My mechanic found a replacement for $300 and is charging slightly less to install. The problem is the replacements are the exact same parts, so destined to fail again. Good luck to all with this prblem. Any advice??

I would contact Piaggio and ask them to goodwill warranty replace it as it is a known failure. Include a link to email threads such as this that shows many others having failures.

I would also report this to nhtsa as a safety defect. The number of failures that I am seeing in ridiculous.

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/

I saw this thread & thought...'That's got to be about a 300'.

I would contact Piaggio and ask them to goodwill warranty replace it as it is a known failure. Include a link to email threads such as this that shows many others having failures.

I would also report this to nhtsa as a safety defect. The number of failures that I am seeing in ridiculous.

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/[/quote]

I have just done both of those today. With so many complaints of the same problem, I find it hard to believe Piaggio would not come up with some kind of a fix.

Good for you. Mfgs don't do anything until they are made to, no matter who they are.

Haha! Why yes.. a brand new 300 GTS super. Looking on the bright side, the warrantee covered it BUT I so want to ride today! 80-85 degrees partly cloudy and the scoot is in the shop. Sigh. I would place money it will be 95-100 when I go to pick it up...

i just got mine, GTS 250ie last week so i might have to prepare for this to happen sooner or later

2006-2008 seem unaffected. If yours is a 2009, then...

This issue is actually preventing me from buying a 2009+ bike. Until I see that Piaggio fixes the issue at the core/performs the needed safety recall, I'm not a customer.
They are well aware of the issue, so this shows how much they care about the safety of their customers.

Just so people know it's not only Piaggio that is doing this, Yamaha's Zuma 125 is also having fuel pump failures. And also no recall. The only upside with them is that they have changed the fuel pump for a re-designed unit so when yours fails, the next one will be good.

Actually fuel injected vehicles generally are very sensitive to operation of the fuel pump. You could make a list several pages long of vehicle manufacturers that have had trouble with high pressure fuel pumps on injected gasoline and diesel engines. From what I'ver heard, it is most likely to happen sooner if you have a defective pump. Plenty of folks are running around with 250s that show no signs of giving the owner any problem after many miles of operation. Like most any other problem, this one shows up on a small number of scooters - but you read about a high proportion of the failures.

I've never had any FI issues with any other bike/car or truck.

The High Pressure Fuel Pumps that you mention are a new thing for Direct Injection motors, which is a very different design than what scoots use.

Those are notorious for failure in BMW cars, so much so that I would avoid one of their turbo models (where they are used) until they have addressed the issue. Currently BMW has just extended the warranty on them, but many people still are having repeated failures as the pump itself has not been changed.

The pumps that Vespa uses have been used forever in 'regular' FI applications. It seems that the problem is they changed their supplier to save pennies, as earlier model FI Vespas do not seem to be affected.

Well, that is exactly the problem with small sample sizes. I have a scooter in the garage with a Quasar 250 engine that was built in 2009. No problem with the fuel pump. No problem with anything actually. Does my experience prove more - or less - than yours?

I've put hundreds of thousands of miles on my bikes with FI, no issues.
I also have NEVER read any issues of pump failures in the Ducatis, Hondas, Suzukis that I have owned.

But I have read countless of failures in FI Vespas, from model year 2009-2010.

Just look at all the threads on this site, including the NHTSA recall one.

A sample of one does not prove anything- I agree. Which is why it is helpful to research the issue to see if it does exist. And you will see that it does. This site proves it.

And here is a thread started by a Vespa dealer on this site!!!:
Should we talk GTS Fuel Pump, for reals?

It's worth checking the HT lead while you are at it.
They fall off quite often as mine did.
Kinky huh ? Lets not go anywhere that word eh ? Just walk away. Nothing to see here.

Bill X