The 'Red Key'

[bigdog]

It looks like I may have made an expensive mistake. It was not until I used the link on here for the workshop manual on my GTS250IE. That I discovered the absence of a Red key with my Vespa may be a problem. What are my options ?

1) Contact the previous owner via their address on the V5 and hope the Red key is tucked away safely in their sock drawer. Fingers crossed.

If no joy what then ? Being new to scooters I was not aware of the importance of this key. Advice gratefully accepted :-)

[Robjack]

Eh up bigdog. Not a clue to be honest, but a quick search unearthed this:

FAQ: Do I Need The Red Key?

Short Answer: Yes.

Long Answer:
If you're buying a used modern Vespa scooter, it is imperative that you get both keys: the blue key and the red (sometimes called "brown") key. The absence of the red key is a major problem, and you should consider walking away from any sale where the red key isn't presented up-front.

The red key is the master key for any Vespa or Piaggio scooter outfitted with an immobilizer. The red key is used to program the scooter to recognize and accept the blue key(s), each of which has their own RFID code. Without the red key, you generally can't add additional keys, and if you ever lose your blue key, you'll be completely unable to start the bike ever again without replacing some fairly expensive parts.

Lost Red Key
We'd prefer that people never, ever buy a scooter without the red key, but if it's truly lost, there are a couple of options:

Replacement ECS
The ECS (Engine Control System) can be replaced, along with the ignition lockset. The cost of this replacement will be somewhere around £300 for parts, not including labour. The new ECS will come with a new red key with a new physical cut (thus requiring a new ignition lockset). Once the new ECS has been installed, the scooter can be programmed to recognize newly-cut blue keys.

Cloned Blue Key
If the blue key is still available, it can be cloned so that the new key carries the same RFID code as the existing blue key. This means that the scooter will be unable to distinguish between the keys, and so both will work. This is considerably less expensive than replacing the ECS, although there's an outside chance that the ECS might "forget" the ID of the blue key at some point, rendering both original and cloned blue keys useless. The chances of this are slight, but still cause for concern.


So if I was you, I'd go knocking on that previous owners door or guard it very carefully.

Hope this helps.

[bigdog]

Bloody hell!!!!

[nic83px]

theres a specialist lock company called keyfax 0161 339 7500. they do coded keys for all car types so may be of help if you ring em to see if they could help but as from experience with cars having the same system the above advice is spot on, the red key can roll the code stored to activate the scoots brains if it forgets the blue key

[bigdog]

Thanks. Forgot about 'Keyfax'. Used them years ago and they are not far from where I work. Will call in and see what they can do