Fiat 500 (2010) selecting Reverse issue?

Rannsachair · Feb 18, 2026

A friend of my wife has a 2010 Fiat 500 1.2 manual that has only done 46,000 miles - it has started struggling to get into reverse.

I had a quick look at it yesterday and could not find play in the selector cables or their bushes, there did seem to be a lot of play in the reverse selector joint at the gear lever. I have had a quick google and struggkling to find that as a fault or replacement parts - any suggestions? Or even a good Fiat forum to ask on?

dobbslc · Feb 18, 2026

There's a small plastic link under the gearstick gator that can pop off but that would probably mean it just won't work at all.
The cables can snap internally and it's hard to tell as they still 'push' ok but don't pull, when that happens it causes all kinds of weird trouble.

A fiddly twit of a job to do to replace them as you need to work from top and bottom at the same time to get them in place.
The car got sold not long after this :laughing:

dobbslc · Feb 18, 2026

Just remembered, if you unbolt the gearbox ends I think if I remember correctly you can pull the joint to see if it comes out with 2 foot of cable.
There's a setting up process that needs a set gap adjustment on something under the gearstick gator, I found it needed more fiddling to make it work nicely after I replaced the cables and then it shifted better than it ever had.

Rannsachair · Feb 18, 2026

Thanks @dobbslc , I remembered that the chap who bought my Alfa was a Fiat mechanic, so asked him:

"there are bushings on the gearbox end that can wear and become slack making gate alignment slightly poor on a 2010 a new set of these are often useful but i doubt the main cause of miss alignment i'll include a link if you have peered under the gaitor you'll see the alignment piece that it slides up against when the ring is lifted for the reverse gate if the gearbox end isn't aligned with this it will stop it going in easily some force may be required once you lift the gaitor there are two small screws and then a further two forks screws on the main plastic trim in the footwells it will unclip from adjacent pieces of plastic in the drivers footwell that run further forwards revealing the whole gear cable mounting on the sideways gear cable here there is a plastic latch mechanism that will release the lever from the cable allowing you to reposition it left or right whatever way is desired to check and adjust its alignment it's likely that's all it will need they often came with pretty inaccurate adjustment from the factory these gearboxes very rarely if ever have internal issues with selection so i very much doubt that if the clutch was dragging it would grind the straight cut non synchronised reverse so that would be an obvious problem to you i'm sure you can pretty easily manually operate the box at the gearbox side with the cable balls popped off if you suspect any issues inside also worth checking the balls for lubrication bearing in mind your location the salt water may have rusted the plastic cups onto the metal sockets further restricting movement checking that is as easy as giving each link a little twist to see if they pivot easily apply some grease for future proofing it's quite common for them to go dry"