Hello everybody 'Lurgs' here welcome to my channel I'm here to save you time and money and today my
Piaggio Vespa GTS will not start. Now the battery looks like it's got a good charge on it but I'll
show you what I did to try and fix it and then ultimately how I got it running again! Right
let's get cracking, this is my Piaggio Vespa GTS300 here and this is a modern Vespa, now don't
be put off by this video if you haven't got a GTS model this should be the same procedure no matter
what Vespa you have so please carry on watching because it could be relevant to your problem,
this is a modern Vespa so it's got electric start it's got no kickstart and it's fuel injected
now the immobilizer light is on the dashboard so we've got power
the first thing to check is the kill switch make sure this hasn't accidentally been put
into the kill position this will kill the engine and it means you won't be able to start it
now incredibly on the GTS model when you lift the seat sometimes this can actually knock the switch
and activate it so make sure you definitely check that switch and before I turn the ignition on I've
already hooked up a multimeter to the battery and you can see here I've got 12.75 volts where
it's just sitting there doing nothing now that's actually pretty good pretty normal
what I'll do now is just turn the ignition on but not start it up and if I just pull the brake
lever that obviously puts on the brake light at the back and already we've got a massive drop
it's down by over two volts now that shouldn't happen with a really good quality battery
now what I'm going to do is actually try and start it which is the issue it won't even start
ready go and there we go it's dropped right down to 3 volts it literally hasn't got any power at
all to do anything now I don't know whether this is a dodgy battery it could be a dodgy
fuse or maybe the alternator's not charging so the first thing I'm going to do is check all the fuses
now on the Vespa GTS 300 the fuses are inside the glove box here so just pull this cover off
and then what you need is just a pair of long nose pliers and you can just check each of these
one by one it's always worth checking fuses first because that could be a nice simple fix
now this one's in good condition not broken at all I'm going to test all of these but
obviously I'm not going to show it but just make sure that you test all the fuses on your Vespa
I tested all of those fuses and none of those were blown let's put the cover back on whilst
I'm doing that there's a link above now where I review and ride the Vespa GTS 300 now what I'm
going to do is I'm going to take a donor battery and I'm going to attempt a jump start so I've put
the crocodile clips on the relevant terminals and I'm going to try and jump start my Vespa
now hopefully this will prove whether it's the battery or not
right let's give it a go
fabulous so I've actually got it running so that's a good indication that's a good sign
but oddly I've got this injection warning light engine warning light up on the dashboard
permanently which is a bit of a worry that could mean that the alternator is not charging the
battery now if I take one of the crocodile clips off that's charging it the Vespa actually just
stalls, now this is really odd because normally if you jump start it you can then take the crocodile
clips off and it'll carry on running and carry on charging up the battery now either I've got
a massive fault somewhere or this battery is just so bad that it can't even hold a charge to keep
it running this battery is about 7 years old so it's pretty much at the end of its lifespan so
I'm just going to remove it and I've decided to buy a brand new one you may have to pre-order
the battery because they do need to charge it up for you, here to pick up my new battery
and you've got the sticker on the front saying it's filled and charged
now what I'm going to do first is just make sure it's absolutely identical to the one that I took
out just so there's no problems with fitting it in that's the old one and here's the new one
absolutely identical fabulous right
let's get it fitted and there's a link above now about the things that I hate about my Vespa GTS
300 first of all we need to put the battery tray in this just sits at the bottom of the
chassis now on the brand new battery you just need to put the locking nuts in first
one on either side so that when you screw the nuts down it goes in nice and tight
if you forget to put those in it's not going to work
let's just put the other side in
right now we can get this into the Vespa make sure it goes the right way round
it should sit nice and easily inside that plastic tray and then not move at all
might take a bit of a wiggle
there we go fabulous
right now we need to get the terminals on I'm gonna put the positive one on first
make sure that the other terminal the negative terminal is wrapped up in a rag and not touching
any part of the chassis otherwise you're going to start having electric
shock problems and you might blow some fuses
that one's nice and tight let's get the negative one on
don't hesitate with this just put it on nice and firmly and then just get it screwed down
whilst I'm doing that there's a link above now about the things that I love
about my Vespa GTS 300 just to balance out the hate and love argument it's definitely
worth watching those two videos if you're thinking about buying one second hand
right those are nice and tight
so we've got the immobilizer light flashing which is a good start
Oh the anticipation I'm just gonna have a quick
cup of tea first and then let's see if it fires up...
right here we go come on please I'm hoping it was a dud battery
right
FABULOUS absolutely fantastic and we've got no warning light in the dashboard anymore which
was the injection engine fault light and it's running like a dream I'm very happy about that
and there's a link above now about the dashboard lights meaning on this Vespa GTS, batteries don't
last forever but I don't use my Vespa that much so if you just leave it sitting around the battery is
going to drain ideally you want to take it for a run at least once a week or at least start it up
if not then stick it on a trickle charger one which won't over charge it I've got my multimeter
on here again it's saying 14 volts which means that the battery is charging so we haven't got a
problem with the alternator and it was always the battery all along which is absolutely great news,
now if it was the alternator that would be showing about 12 volts and it would mean that your battery
is not charging but this has been a great result for me I was thinking oh no I really don't want
have to get into all the electronics and checking the alternator let's just put this cover back on
then I think we'll go for a little ride I'm just checking my mirrors here and talking of mirrors
there's a link above now about how to tighten the mirrors and adjust them on this Vespa,
out on the road this Vespa GTS 300 is absolutely fantastic twist and go technology is absolutely
brilliant and it's a really nice punchy engine, if this hasn't fixed your issue then you can try the
master key if you've still got the master key in case it's an immobilizer problem,
it's also worth checking the spark plug and the HT lead and make sure there's plenty of fuel in
the tank, I really hope that this video managed to help you out with your Vespa today and safe
riding to everybody out there. If you found that video useful please subscribe by pressing this
button down here so you don't miss more videos on how to save your time and money there's also
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can select those now thank you for visiting my channel everyone I really really appreciate it.