Maintenance for a Buddy that's been off the road.

[swillscooter]

I can be a little long winded when asking a question, 'cause I don't want to be the guy who asks for help but doesn't give enough background. Consider yourself warned, this could be a long post.

I have a 2008 Buddy 125 that I did not ride at all last year. It's got just shy of 4000 miles on it. At the end of the summer before last, I was riding home WOT and the scoot seemed to sputter a little and then started to lose power. It then stalled and I got it restarted, but it stalled again. Not knowing what was up and being only a mile from home, I walked it home.

When I took a look the next day, I saw oil all over the back of the scoot which led me to check the oil drain plug and, yup, it was loose. Not fallen out, but really loose. So, I was bleeding oil for who knows how long (though there was none on my garage floor, so it must have been just on that ride.) I didn't want to just top it back off with oil and take it out, since I don't know what kind of damage I may have done WOT with little to no oil - certainly so little oil that it caused the engine to stop! Unfortunately, my local dealer closed and I can't find a mechanic that will work on my guy. So, there it sat last summer and I just figured "I'll get to that sometime." Well, without me riding, my wife isn't really riding either so we have two Buddys just sitting there and it's kind of a piss or get off the pot situation - either fix 'em or get rid of 'em. I don't want to get rid of them.

I am NO mechanic, but I cleaned the carb up on mine and topped off the oil, and drained and replaced the fuel. It seemed to be running really rough, so I took another look at the carb and the carburetor diaphragm is out of it's seating. So I cleaned my wife's carb (...that sounds odd...) and put it in my Buddy - still running rough. It sounds like its about to stall out and it also sounds a little "airy". Kind of like something isn't sealed or something? I have no clue.

So I'm getting a carrier for the back of the SUV and we're going to shuffle off to the Buffalo Scooter Company for some service. I just don't know where to start! I don't want to just go in and say "Buddy broke. You fix." Also, it hasn't seen any regular service since probably 2500 miles.

--Any ideas on what could be wrong with my scooter, or at least what to ask about?

-- Since the scoot has not seen regular maintenance, are there things outside of the standard oil change that I should ask to have done?

-- Anyone have experience with the Buffalo Scooter Company, specifically their service folks? (not that I have a lot of options!)

Thanks for your help!!!

[ericalm]

If you ran the engine in your Buddy without oil and it died, you could be in dire shape. I wouldn't try to run it anymore without taking it to a mechanic. They may have to pull the engine apart, check the piston, cylinder, crankshaft and head. Something may have gotten damaged. Trying to run the engine, even with oil now, will only cause more damage if that's the case.

It could be something else—clogged air filter, fuel filter, etc.—but it's hard to know without eliminating a lot of other possibilities. Given the history, I'd say start there.

(The mechanic might decide that if any damage was done due to no oil, it's been done, so might as well try to run the engine. But I'd leave that to them to decide!)

The big issues when a scooter sits for a long time are carb/valves/jets getting gunned up, gas going bad, condensation in the gas tank, damage to tires from sitting in one place while under inflated, battery dying.

[swillscooter]

Well, not what I was hoping to hear but what's done is done. When you mention damage that could have been done, this would have been caused by excess heat, right? So like potential mini-fractures? Ouch. Still got to get it fixed, though. No reason to have a big orange paperweight!

[Robbie]

To the OP.......
You indicate you topped off the oil.
I interpet this as it was quite low on oil but had not lost all of the oil.

So, about how much did you have to add to restore it to the full mark?
Although not recommended, a 4 stroke engine will tolerate low oil levels, even at WOT.

Since you have run it, but it runs poorly, are you hearing any unusual mechanical noises?
Oil starvation usually wipes out the connecting rod bearing first, so a rather strong mechanical 'rap' at each crankshaft revolution would be audible.

IMO, if the engine did not lose all of its oil, it may be OK.

Also, put the cleaned carburetor back on your wifes machine and see how it runs........if it runs just as poorly on her machine, the carb, obviously, still has a obstruction somewhere.

I'll watch for your response,
Rob

[swillscooter]

Looks like I have a weekend project! Thanks for the feedback, and I'll let you know the outcome!

***EDIT***

Sorry, forgot to answer your questions....

I added about 70ml of oil to get back to full.

No obvious mechanical noises that I noticed. Certainly not a loud rap. Just that sort of "airy" sound like a "phhhht" with each revolution.

[easy]

might be a blown head gasket or a loose spark plug

[swillscooter]

Well, it was neither of those. The dealer ended up giving it a thorough tune up including carb clean, plug, belt, fuel filter, and oil(s) changes and filter. And, what the heck, while the scoot was in anyway we threw in a Prima pipe and a rejet.

The dealer said that the carb was all kinds of cruddy and that was the real issue. He didn't see any damage from the low oil situation but said to ride the hell out of it this week and bring it back in if I noticed any issues. Can't wait to get home!

[Tocsik]

"ride the hell out of it" is always good advice.