Also known as: a650e, a651e, aisin 5-speed rear-drive
Toyota's longitudinal five-speed — in the Lexus GS, IS, LS and SC.
It replaced the A340E and inherited most of its character, including its durability: these are transmissions that reach very high mileages with nothing more than fluid.
The complaint people report is a harsh or delayed engagement into drive when cold, and it responds to a fluid change far more often than to anything else. Toyota's Type IV fluid is required and is not interchangeable with the later WS, which is the reverse of the trap on the newer transmissions here — an older Toyota filled with WS behaves as badly as a newer one filled with Type IV.
A shudder felt as a light vibration at a steady 60–90 km/h is the torque converter lock-up clutch, not slipping, and it is the same first remedy as everywhere else in this catalogue.
The genuine wear item is the overdrive and direct clutch pack, which slips at speed under load before it slips anywhere else — so a car that pulls away normally and flares only on the motorway is describing a specific fault rather than a tired gearbox.
Cars fitted with this gearbox
6 generations. Only where a source names the model and the generation together — a gearbox is documented as a product far more often than as a fitment, so this list is deliberately shorter than the truth.
Information, not instruction
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Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.
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