Hot wired??

[carly_jane]

Hi everyone! This is my first post to the forum (I'm a lurker...) and unfortunately it's not a good one. I think last night someone tried to steal my scooter and now it's not starting. I have an 08 Buddy 125. I keep Buddy behind a fence, with a cover and a disc lock (I know, I need a cable lock).

Last night my roommate noticed that the cover was discarded and the gate was open. I assumed the disc lock stopped the robbery and didn't notice anything else suspicious. This morning the scooter did not start. Didn't roll over or anything. I'm guessing the thieves tried to hot wire it and now I'm having electrical issues. I could be way off.

Should I bring the scooter into a shop or is there anything I can check beforehand? Would anything stand out if I took off the front cover?

Thank you for the help!

[synaps3]

Have you tried the kickstarter?

It's starting to get cold, so your battery might be starting to flake out on you.

If no fairings were missing, then they probably didn't get in and try to hotwire it. You have to take off the front cover to mess with the wiring to do that. Can you tell if any of the wires to the controls are cut?

Oh, and for a sanity check, make sure the kill switch is set to run! I've cussed for an hour at a bike before realizing the kill switch was in the off position.

[Lostmycage]

If there's no damage to the plastics and the ignition doesn't look like it's been mangled, then you should be OK.

When you put the key in and turn it on, do any of the functions work (signals, brake lights, etc)?

On the right side of the scooter near the back and under the plastic, do you see any dangling leads? (Don't reattach if you do, just answer the question).

[ed85379]

I highly doubt that after a failed attempt to hot-wire, a thief would be considerate enough to replace the front cover, and screw all three screws back in, so if that hasn't been budged, then no hot-wire took place.

As a prior poster said, check the kill-switch, if it worked perfectly fine before. Of course, make sure the battery is still in place and hooked up too.

[carly_jane]

Just went back to check on the scooter (I'm at work, it's a 10 minute walk) and tied it off with a cable lock.

I noticed that the cover was slightly out of place. There were two wires inside, near the ignition, (excuse my terrible vocabulary, I really am a novice at anything mechanical) that were unplugged. Looks like an outlet and a 4-prong plug. Perhaps the starter? I took a picture, not great quality...

I was unable to get it plugged back in without removing the cover and had to get back to work. Hoping this fixes the issue. Fingers crossed!

Thanks for all the responses and help, I really appreciate it.

[Lostmycage]

By cover, are you referring to a cover for your scooter or the plastic panel that covers the front. You're not being very clear. Assuming that someone took the horncast (the plastic shell over the front of the scooter), then someone tried to hotwire it. It seems as if that is the case if you can look in there and see that connection.

From the pic, it looks like there's a connector that's unplugged. That one should be fine to reconnect, if there was a hotwire attempt. It's one of those locking connectors, so those rarely disconnect on their own, unless not fully connected from the factory or service.

[synaps3]

That looks like the main line connecting the handlebar switches to the rest of the plugs. Reconnect it and see if it'll start. The ignition plugs have a different cover -- the cover for them is black and opaque.

[Lil Buddy]

If it's a 4 prong connector and contains an orange wire, red wire w/ white stripe, blue wire w/ black stripe and a solid black wire, it is indeed connected to the ignition.

Without getting into detail, if someone unplugged it they probably tried to hotwire it.

There is a very slim chance that the connector was not fully plugged in and it worked its way loose. But its a very slim chance.