i have recently bought an engine and gearbox for my seicento S (1999)

however i only need the gearbox.....
The car the gearbox has been taken off is a cinquecento (1997) the engine size is the same, however the variant is different? can anyone tell me what this means please?

the variant on the cinquecento is 170 (1991 - 1999)

the variant on My seicento is 187 ?

will the gearbox from the cinquecento fit my seicento and can anyone tell me the difference please? IE what is the variant?

any help much appreciated.

Variant in this case is just the model or chassis type. Each FIAT chassis has a number associated with it. Bottom line though, the gearbox will fit.

Welcome to the forum

I'm not sure what you mean by variant. Isn't that an old volkswagen?

Anyway, both boxes should be C.501.5.1 -- this will be stamped on the front of the box. Renew the inner driveshaft gaitors as a matter of course.

The engines will also be -- to all practical purposes -- identical.

Thanks for the help (both of you) i did wonder if it was just the body or chassis that is differernt, i basically bought it on ebay, and under the "will this fit my vehicle bit" it said it wouldn't but the engines are exactly identical, but i did think that because they are different models in some sense could it just be the engine mounts in different place.... anyway - thanks.

is it not the 's' that can have either the wet or dry shafts???? So it might not fit.

The variant thing, Eklipze is bang on, they are the model/chassis codes.

If 899 (as you'd expect for 1999) must be wet shafts and thus C.501.5.1.

Only the late MPI 1108 S (and SX?) used wet shafts on the gearbox that won't fit 899s.