Also known as: w55, w56, w57, w58, w59, toyota 5-speed rear-drive manual, t50
Toyota's rear-drive five-speed manual — behind the Celica, Supra, Lexus SC and the first Lexus IS.
The numbers are torque ratings rather than generations, which is the useful part: the W55 is the light one, the W58 the strong one behind the Supra's six, and the case looks the same. A car described as having a W-series gearbox may have either, and the ratios and the internals differ.
They are among the more durable manuals of their era, and their faults are the faults of age: second and third synchros, crunching on a fast cold change, and the shift lever's own bushings, which produce a vague change that reads as far worse than it is.
The one thing worth knowing about the W58 specifically is what people do with it. It is a popular swap and a popular thing to put behind far more power than Toyota fitted; a W58 that grinds into third under load is at the end of its rating rather than badly maintained — the same story as the Tremec T-5.
A whine present in neutral with the clutch out, which stops when the pedal is pressed, is the input shaft bearing — the same tell as on every manual in this catalogue.
Cars fitted with this gearbox
4 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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