Also known as: u151e, u151f, u250e, u151, 151e, u150e, u150f
Toyota's transverse five-speed automatic — behind the V6 Camry, Avalon, Highlander, Sienna and Solara, and the Lexus ES and RX. The U250E is the four-cylinder version of the same design.
It is one of the more durable automatics on this site, which is worth saying because it changes what a symptom means: on a transmission with a poor reputation an odd change is a warning, and on this one it is far more often the fluid, the engine mounts or a sensor.
The complaint that recurs is a harsh or delayed 1–2 change when cold, and it responds to a fluid change and a relearn in most cases. Toyota's WS fluid is not interchangeable with the earlier Type IV, and using the wrong one produces exactly this symptom in a transmission that was fine.
A shudder felt as a light vibration at a steady 60–80 km/h is the torque converter lock-up clutch, not the transmission slipping — the same fault every lock-up automatic on this site shares, and the same first remedy.
The U151F is the all-wheel-drive version, mechanically the same gearbox with a transfer case attached; the extra letter is the only place the difference is written down.
Cars fitted with this gearbox
9 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.
Pontiac
Information, not instruction
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Community experience
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