Also known as: a960e, a961e, toyota 6-speed longitudinal
Toyota's longitudinal six-speed — in the Lexus IS and GS, and in the Subaru BRZ, Toyota GR86 and Scion FR-S.
That last group is the reason to know its name. The BRZ and GR86 are Subaru-built cars with a Subaru engine, and their automatic is a Toyota gearbox — so a BRZ owner searching Subaru forums for automatic transmission advice is searching the wrong marque entirely, and Subaru's own automatics (the Lineartronic CVTs) have nothing to do with it.
It is a durable transmission with few characteristic faults, which changes what a symptom means: an odd change on one of these is far more likely to be fluid, a speed sensor or an engine mount than the gearbox.
Toyota's WS fluid is required and is not the earlier Type IV. Using the wrong one produces a harsh or delayed cold engagement in a transmission that is otherwise fine — the same trap as on the U151E.
A light vibration at a steady 60–80 km/h is the torque converter lock-up clutch, shared with every lock-up automatic here, and it responds to fluid condition before anything else.
Cars fitted with this gearbox
7 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.
Scion
Toyota
Information, not instruction
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