Fiat C510

Fiat's five-speed manual transaxle — in the Panda, 500L, 500X, Tipo, Lancia Ypsilon and Jeep Renegade.

It is the gearbox under the Dualogic, which is the connection worth making: Fiat's automated manual is this transaxle with a hydraulic actuator bolted on, so a Dualogic car and a manual car of the same model have the same gearbox and the same gearbox faults, plus one system the manual does not have.

Most complaints about it are the linkage. The cables, their end bushings and the lever's own base wear, producing a change that is long, vague, or refuses to find reverse — and reverse is where it shows first, because it has no synchro to cover an imprecise selection.

Second-gear synchro wear is the genuine internal fault, crunching on a fast cold change; a crunch in every gear is the clutch not releasing, a hydraulic problem outside the gearbox and a much cheaper one.

It is not a strong gearbox behind a strong engine, which matters on the 500X and Renegade with the larger turbo petrol: the differential and the bearings are what the extra torque finds, and a whine that rises with road speed rather than with engine speed is where to look.