On April 5, 2022, Piaggio Group Americas issued a safety recall for all 2020 and 2021 Piaggio MP3 500 HPEs due to an issue with the braking system that could result in excessive play in the brake levers and less efficient braking after the bike sits for long periods of time. Brakes that don’t work as efficiently as expected could cause a safety issue for both riders and property.
Approximately 27 bikes are affected, which represents 100 percent of the population for both model years combined. Affected MP3 500 HPEs were produced between July 10, 2020 and December 18, 2020, and have non-sequential VINs between ZAPTA10X5L5000143 and ZAPTA10XXM5000172. If you're thinking this sounds familiar, it's because there was a very similar recall for some 2019 and 2020 Piaggio MP3 500s in September, 2020.
Within the affected range of MP3 500 HPEs, Piaggio’s investigation of the problem revealed a non-conformity in zinc plating surface treatment in the brake hose terminal fittings. Because of this, a chemical reaction could occur between those metal surfaces and the brake fluid, which could, in turn, create bubbles in the lines that cause excessive brake lever or pedal travel to actuate either the front or rear brakes.
Piaggio will remedy this concern with a complete brake system flush. During this recall service, authorized Piaggio technicians will apply a dehydrogenation treatment throughout the brake system. Authorized Piaggio dealers will perform this recall service free of charge for the owners of all affected bikes.
Bikes that have been produced since the end of the production window identified in this recall already have the dehydrogenation treatment applied that will be used to perform this recall service. Therefore, those bikes are not affected by this safety recall issue. Warranty claims on some of the affected bikes helped Piaggio to investigate and identify the problem in order to initiate this recall.
Piaggio plans to notify its authorized dealer network on or about April 11, 2022. Additionally, the company plans to send customer notification letters to owners of affected vehicles by April 18, 2022. Piaggio’s number for this recall is PP2ZZQ2201. Owners may contact Piaggio customer service at 1-212-380-4400. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s campaign number for this recall is 22V-217. Owners may also contact the NHTSA Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY 1-800-424-9153) or go to www.nhtsa.gov.
