Also known as: s51, s53, s54, toyota s-series transaxle
Toyota's S-series manual transaxle — behind the four-cylinder Camry and Solara.
It is the family fitted where the C- and E-series went in the smaller cars, and the three families are separate designs rather than sizes of one. A listing that says only 5-speed manual on a 1990s Toyota covers all three.
They are very durable and their faults are the faults of age: the third-gear synchro on a fast change, and the shift cables and their bushings, which produce a vague change that reads as a worn gearbox and is a fraction of the cost.
A crunch into every gear is the clutch not releasing — hydraulic, outside the gearbox, and cheaper still.
They take a gear oil to Toyota's specification, not ATF, and a heavier conventional oil makes one notchy when cold. On the same car the automatic takes Type IV — two fluids, two transmissions, one model year.
Cars fitted with this gearbox
3 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.
Toyota
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