Modern Vespa

Grab a cup of coffee, this may take a minute to digest. Thanks in advance. My ET4 has 259 miles on it but it has been in storage for 18 months. I lost the keys in transit here and just replaced the ECU and keys. I programmed the ECU per the instructions on this site. The immobiliser light is flashing as it always did before - slow and steady.

Now the problem. It will only idle - any attempt to give it gas and it dies. It would seem to be a choke problem but it gets warm after idling and still has the issue so I don't the choke is the problem. I replaced the gas with fresh 93 octane Exxon. Is it possible the ECU is not working properly? The old ECU will not even fire. I'm fearful the jets are plugged. I would take it to the dealer but I don't own a truck and transporting it would be a royal pain in the petut. Any ideas? Thanks!!

pull the vent hose off the carb and see if its better

Thanks a lot - I'll research how to do that. I used to be a Porsche/Audi tech but that was in a much simpler time about 30 years ago

What *exactly* does the LED do when you switch the ignition on, before starting it? (Duration and number of flashes.) The symptoms are of an unprogrammed ECU.

If the vent hose is the clear one, I pulled it off and it made no difference at all

said the blind man. I was looking at the flashing with the key off. When I turn on the key there is a long pulse which would indicate ecu not programmed like you are saying. The parts came from 2 sources but they were both sealed. I have gone through the programming process several times. I read on here where the entire process should be done in less than 10 seconds so I was conscious of that. The instructions in the manual say turn off after the led lights - do they mean light steady?

The one time I did re-programming it took quite a few goes to get the timing right. Got there in the end.

I could have paid $75 more and got a programmed pair - cheapskate that I am, I chose the inferior method..... Blast!

Aloha and welcome to the forum. I've learned the hard way on buying cheap Good luck

but these are Vespa parts and not cheap at all. I just didn't pay $75 for them to program because it looked straight forward - not to mention I have programmed computers for 30 years. Of course they were not Italian computers, but I digress

I didn't mean cheap in the parts sense but forking out the money to have them "paired". When i got my rear rack i paid more for the vespa one because it's an easy install. Could of gone with another brand that was cheaper but fitting it is a little trickier and with my luck i'd end up paying more in the end, after i screwed up the install.

is your battery oke??? it doesn't run without a proper battery / idle yes running no /
is there a proper air filter ? the "constant vacuum carburator" doesn't work without a air filter / idle yes / run no
maybe..

It had been in storage for 18 months and would not take a charge. When I turn on the key I get one long led pulse which, according to the shop manual, indicates cdi not programmed. Why do they over complicated this stuff? There are easier ways to secure a vehicle.

even though it a new battery did you fully charge it prior to install?

thanks anyway

I am mailing them the keys and CDI I bought from them and they are going to see what is wrong and program them for me if it needs it. Thanks to everybody. I will post a photo when I get time. It is a beautiful black and palomino ET4 with touring kit and luggage racks front and back with mini windshield.

So I sent my new cdi and keys to scooterwest. They determined the new cdi they had sold me was defective and programmed my keys to another one. Now when I turn on the key there is a slight pause, followed by almost a one second solid red led and then the led goes out. this is different than before where there was a 2 second solid red.

According to the wiki the red key should be a long red followed by 1 short pulse(since I have one blue key programmed) - it does not do this. Both keys act the same. I don't know if this is problem. Could somebody with an et4 please verify this?

The motor will start but any attempt to give gas kills the engine. The manual says it will rev to 2000 regardless of cdi - but it doesn't. You can almost count the rpm's it is so slow - nowhere near 2000. What else could be wrong? I've charged the battery again as somebody else kindly suggested. it seems to be fuel related because if I hold the throttle wide open while it is cranking and then release, the engine will rev higher. could the spark plug be fouled? I will look at that next after I figure out where it is.

As usual, any help is appreciated. There is no vespa shop where I am. oh, they sell them - in addition to bmw's but it took all week to get a return call from the parts dept and then he said he would have to order everything - didn't even stock a cdi. Come to think of it I never see vespa's around here - plenty of honda's though.

You've not indicated if you've done this, so clean the carb and put a new spark plug in - and ensure any gas in the tank and the lines is fresh.

That's progress! I manually primed the carb with gasoline and now it will run but cuts off at idle. I drove it 2 miles hoping it would work out but it still won't idle. There was no sludge in the carb - the bike only has 260 miles on it. I did notice a black vacuum line coming from the lower left of the carb that isn't connected to anything. Is this a vent that is open to atmosphere or could I possibly have unplugged it from the other end by mistake? I couldn't find this hose in the workshop manual.