Reconditioned Abarth 500 Gearbox

Abarth 500 from 2008 to 2015: MTA on the T-Jet, 5-speed manual on the 1.4 naturally aspirated

Over the 2008–2015 period, the Abarth 500 was fitted with two entirely distinct gearbox families with no crossover between them. The 1.4 T-Jet (312A1000 and 312B4000) was always paired with an MTA automated manual gearbox, whilst the 1.4 naturally aspirated was only available with a 5-speed manual. The engine code is therefore the first thing to check before taking any further steps: 312A1000 and 312B4000 do not share the same engine management mapping, but they do belong to the same MTA gearbox family.

MTA: what the sales method means in practice

The MTA is an automated manual gearbox: the actuator (robot unit) is not included in the reconditioned part. This is a key technical point, as a fault isolated solely to the actuator does not call for a gearbox replacement. Two sales methods are available within this collection: exchange and rebuild of your own unit. This second option makes sense when the gearbox has a known service history, when the owner wishes to keep their own unit, or when the exact reference is difficult to source any other way — a situation that arises with certain MTA references for the Abarth 500, whose production volumes remained limited compared with the standard Fiat 500.

Identification points on the 1.4 T-Jet

The MTA references listed in this collection (including 55276900, 71779121 and 71773209, among others) correspond to distinct part numbers depending on the model year and market. Checking the reference stamped on the gearbox casing remains the most reliable method to avoid a matching error, particularly between the 312A1000 and 312B4000 variants, which were sold alongside one another during the same production period.