Another fuel leak! In need of moral support...

monkeykat · Post by **monkeykat** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 2:58 pm

2 weeks ago, I had my carb needle and float replaced. Rode it for a few days before it sat in my garage for a week because I was commuting by bike. When I got home one evening, I thought I smelled gasoline, so I put a paper bag under the scooter. That night, I was dreaming that I was at a scooter repair shop, and the shop smelled like gasoline--and then I woke up and smelled gasoline. I thought I was having olfactory hallucinations! I got up (3:30am), went to my garage, and sure enough--a hefty puddle of gas was on the floor. I rolled it out into the street, opened all my windows and turned on my fans, and went back to bed.

I tried to see if it leaks while running, but it seems variable. Sometimes it's just a drip, sometimes there's a puddle. Yes, petcock was off (not looking for an explanation at this point).

These are my questions:

1) Is this safe to ride to the scooter shop (25 minute ride) or should I have it towed? (I saw a post on StellaSpeed that some guy's bike caught fire after a fuel leak!)

2) Will this get better? My plan was to someday have a vintage and learn how to fix it, but I bought a new bike because I didn't want to think about learning how to fix it right away--I wanted some time. Yet I feel like after the 2 gas leaks, the oil leak, and general shoddiness...well, I'm feeling a little disheartened! I love riding and I love shifting--none of those are the issues!

desmolicious · Post by **desmolicious** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 8:24 pm

Sorry to hear all this.

You also had an oil leak? My 4T leaked too.

lempira · Post by **lempira** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 12:02 am

I've been lurking around here for a while and decided to throw my 2 cents into the mix. I own a p200 and a 4t stella. honestly, the stella's quality control is...terrible. I have 200 miles on it, the headlight isn't sealed properly and lets water in, the fuel gauge stopped working the first day, tail bulb went out. I replaced the junk grips. you may say these are 'minor' things or it's under warranty but that's not the point. a lot of people are having a lot of problems with the stella and had I known about these quality issues before I never would've bought one. my p200 is by far a better built machine and it's 30 years old.

reading your story here is going to give me something else to look forward too. I hope it works out for you. again, it's 'under warranty' so no worries right?

ftr I'm not trolling, just stating my frustration.

monkeykat · Post by **monkeykat** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 2:31 am

The warranty is pretty awesome--I just got a whole new carburetor today! Hopefully that'll fix it for some time. Although, I got lectured twice about not leaving the petcock on, and seriously, I haven't done that! Of course, they didn't believe me.

Anyway...I just had to get out some frustration. I hope I didn't come across too negative. I still think it's a great looking scooter and (of course) the concept is great.

desmo: after the first service I had an oil filter gasket leak (I think that was the gasket they said was leaking).

Thanks for your input, lempira. When I was buying the Stella, the shop owner was suggesting a P200 for about 1/2 the price...if I had known! But who knows, maybe that would have had its own set of issues, and then I would be kicking myself for not buying the Stella.

Either way, it has still been a good enough experience that I know I'll always have some type of scooter.

desmolicious · Post by **desmolicious** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 8:32 pm

Glad to see they are taking care of it.
The oil leak you had sounds like mechanic's error, not the scoot's fault.