Toyota U760E

The light-duty half of Toyota's six-speed automatic pair — the same six ratios as the U660E with lighter internals, built for the four-cylinder cars where economy matters more than torque capacity. It appeared two years after its bigger sibling and went behind the 2.5-litre 2AR-FE and the 2.7-litre 1AR-FE.

Which of the two you have depends on your engine, not your model year. A Camry of exactly the same age is a U760E if it is the four-cylinder and a U660E if it is the V6, and the two do not share part numbers. That is the first thing to establish, because almost everything below is specific to this one.

Its defining complaint is unusually well documented, and Toyota paid for it. The symptom is a shudder between 25 and 50 mph under light to moderate throttle — owners describe driving over grooves in the road, or a brief misfire that is not a misfire. The cause is a deliberate design decision. Toyota runs an aggressive flex lock-up strategy, partially engaging the torque converter clutch at low speeds to save fuel; a clutch that is deliberately slipping is a clutch that is wearing, and the friction lining glazes. The car is doing what it was designed to do, and the shudder is the bill for it.

What makes this worth knowing is that it is named in writing rather than merely discussed:

• T-SB-0312-17 covers the 2012–2014 Camry, and T-SB-0023-15 Rev2 the 2013–2015 RAV4, both for exactly this shudder at exactly this speed range.
• Warranty Enhancements ZE5 and ZH1 extended coverage for it on those same cars, which is a manufacturer acknowledging a defect in the only language that counts.
• The prescribed repair is hardware and software: a new torque converter, additional magnets in the pan, fresh ATF, and an ECM recalibration. Doing only the converter leaves the strategy that glazed it still in place.

The fault code an owner is most likely to be shown is P0741, torque converter clutch performance or stuck off, alongside the pressure-control solenoid codes P0746, P0776, P0796, P2714 and P2808.

After the converter, what the trade meets in roughly the order it arrives:

• Delayed or harsh reverse engagement, which points at the B2 circuit — worn valve bores letting pressure leak where it should be held.
• Flare shifts, where the engine rises between gears: accumulator and control-valve bore wear, so the apply rate is no longer regulated as accurately as when new.
• Solenoid varnish across the SL1–SL4, SLU and SLT solenoids, which shows as slow response with no electrical fault to find.
• Burnt clutch packs beyond about 160,000 km, and these are almost always secondary — the consequence of a hydraulic or converter problem that was left alone.

One thing it does not inherit, and it is the real advantage of being the light-duty one. The U660E's signature failure — the main housing bearing on its weak circlip — is attributed to the torque of a strong V6 through a low first gear. This unit never sees that load, so the failure that defines its sibling is not the one that defines it.

On fluid: Toyota specifies ATF WS and quotes no service interval. Given that the commonest fault on this gearbox is a converter clutch grinding its own lining into the fluid, the trade's 40,000–60,000 mile recommendation under hard use is not fussiness — it is the one part of the sequence above an owner can actually interrupt.