I'm thinking about going down the remap route to give my A500 a bit extra! It looks like that the gearbox rating won't take a great deal more torque (even the moderate gains of the pricey SS kit push it to the limit)

What options to uprate the gearbox are there available? all comments welcome!!

Could fit a six speed Punto box from the Punto Abarth like the Abarth 500 Assetto Corse's have (200 BHP) but it wouldn't be cheap. Even the SS kit exceeds the power rating of the current box, mines already been replaced with only 135 BHP so it's risky to add more horsies. At least with the SS kit, Abarth will replace it if it goes wrong under warranty.

thanks DF, ive read about your woes on the af! ther're the main reason ive asked the question, seems ridiculous that the ss kit exceeds the rating of the gearbox, its a shame as the engine could give a lot more. I have read that the c 510 box comes in diff versions (pardon the pun) anyway someone from fiat/abarth can give an answer? last thing i want to do is chip and exhaust the car to 180-200hp only to find when you put it into gear it goes pop!

DraigFlag87 said:

Could fit a six speed Punto box from the Punto Abarth like the Abarth 500 Assetto Corse's have (200 BHP) but it wouldn't be cheap. Even the SS kit exceeds the power rating of the current box, mines already been replaced with only 135 BHP so it's risky to add more horsies. At least with the SS kit, Abarth will replace it if it goes wrong under warranty.

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I would just point out that you don't know if the box failed because of the power going through it, being incorrectly assembled, installed or whatever so you don't know for sure.

If you put the box in from the AGP do you lose steering lock? That would be a killer IMHO.

alberto said:

thanks DF, ive read about your woes on the af! ther're the main reason ive asked the question, seems ridiculous that the ss kit exceeds the rating of the gearbox, its a shame as the engine could give a lot more. I have read that the c 510 box comes in diff versions (pardon the pun) anyway someone from fiat/abarth can give an answer? last thing i want to do is chip and exhaust the car to 180-200hp only to find when you put it into gear it goes pop!

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i would have a read in the punto part of this forum because from what ive read to gain more than what the ss kit gives you are looking at a different turbo and other engine mod's to go with it, a simle remap will not provide that sort of power.( as is the case with the punto's ss kit) the 500's kit basically takes the engine to the std level of the punto.

i'll take a lookat the punto section, I think that 306 is ight, the punto box restricts the lock, what about working on the existing gearbox, is someone here putting in a quaife diff for a 500?

alberto said:

i'll take a lookat the punto section, I think that 306 is ight, the punto box restricts the lock, what about working on the existing gearbox, is someone here putting in a quaife diff for a 500?

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Yes, Jnoiles has put a Quaife diff in his 1.4 box from the group buy that NigelR32 did. Don't know if there are any diffs going spare from that. Whether or not the diff is the weak link in the box is another thing though

yes and me not knowing the oily end of a spanner from a clutch cable ain'yt going to find out! any expieriences of extra power thru this box? and what was the quaife put in for? sounds good tho

alberto said:

yes and me not knowing the oily end of a spanner from a clutch cable ain'yt going to find out! any expieriences of extra power thru this box? and what was the quaife put in for? sounds good tho

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This should help you understand the advantages of a Quaife diff

http://www.quaife.co.uk/What-is-a-Quaife-ATB-differential

cheer 4 the link 306, not sure a diff will help the weakness in the box though, although.... most of these chipping places say the upgrades are reversible and not traceable, playing devils advocate here:devil: if the box went bang should be covered by warranty??

alberto said:

cheer 4 the link 306, not sure a diff will help the weakness in the box though, although.... most of these chipping places say the upgrades are reversible and not traceable, playing devils advocate here:devil: if the box went bang should be covered by warranty??

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I'd be lying if I gave you a definite answer. Of course your dealer would say "we'll find out" and the tuner would say "No you won't"

tricky one! howmuch to replace the box if it did all go wrong??

alberto said:

yes and me not knowing the oily end of a spanner from a clutch cable ain'yt going to find out! any expieriences of extra power thru this box? and what was the quaife put in for? sounds good tho

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I put the Quaife diff in mine to stop the inside wheel spinning around tight corners and get some of the understeer under control. And it's proving very good at that.

I've been told that the standard gearboxes are fine for more power and that its the standard diffs that are prone to failure when you put more than the factory spec torque through them. But looking at the diff that came out of my gearbox at 30k miles it was none the worse for wear. And that was 30k miles, half a dozen full day open pit track sessions and a few days at Nurburgring so I guess it varies.

cheers j, maybe this is all a conspiracy to get us to go the SS route, so at least we have the semblance of a waranty!

306maxi said:

I would just point out that you don't know if the box failed because of the power going through it, being incorrectly assembled, installed or whatever so you don't know for sure.

If you put the box in from the AGP do you lose steering lock? That would be a killer IMHO.

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True, i'm pretty sure it was just a faulty box obviously this box can take up to 160 BHP, but you can imagine i would be wary of extra horsies after the trouble i've had. Think the standard box is from an Alfa 147 iirc, and i think you'd loose a little steering lock with a 6th gear but it's so bad on the A500 anyway, you probably wouldn't notice! I really dislike the standard box though, lack precision, smoothness and vibrates a lot, but gives the A500 a slightly raw racy feel about it which i quite like!

although i am looking for moderate power gains, i think any solution needs to be affordable and not make the car worse to handle, tempted to chip and then see!

jnoiles said:

looking at the diff that came out of my gearbox at 30k miles it was none the worse for wear. And that was 30k miles, half a dozen full day open pit track sessions and a few days at Nurburgring so I guess it varies.

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Perhaps you're not driving it hard enough?

306maxi said:

Perhaps you're not driving it hard enough?

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Lol. She gets plenty of hard enough driving. There's only so much damage you can do with 110 bhp