If it is a shop that specializes in transmission work, then they should know what they are doing. Otherwise getting a manufactured transmission should be fine. I don't recommend used because it is used. Just depends on what you are willing to pay and risk

 

Check your VIN's 5th digit and make sure it matches a used or remanufactured unit. If your considering just a transmission to get you by and plan on trading it in the near future there are quite a few on car-part.com and other sites that are low mileage (FWTW) and most the salvage yards are offering some sort of warranty.
Saw several with less than 70k on them for $950-$1500.
Might be a yard close to you? Just an option.

 

Check your VIN's 5th digit and make sure it matches a used or remanufactured unit. If your considering just a transmission to get you by and plan on trading it in the near future there are quite a few on car-part.com and other sites that are low mileage (FWTW) and most the salvage yards are offering some sort of warranty.
Saw several with less than 70k on them for $950-$1500.
Might be a yard close to you? Just an option.

When I search it up, there are 5 ID numbers for the same engine and 5th VIN digit. What does that mean?

And thanks for linking that site, I will look to see if any yards near me have it.

 

Honestly as far as the transmission goes I do not know but thought you should know that it seems important. I looked up the U760e transmission and they mention it too but don't explain it. I think it refers to the plant the car was assembled in which makes sense since that trans fits more than one toyota, so minor differences?
Anyway:

Toyota VIN Decoder - Free from Olathe Toyota Parts Center

Free Toyota VIN Decoder - Get detailed information about any Toyota vehicle made since 1980.

parts.olathetoyota.com

 

Clean the magnets, change the TQ, flush it with WS, and run it! It will be fine. The material you saw on the magnets are most likely from the TQ anyway.

 

I agree with dud,,,, your going to get crap on the magnet... Did you take a picture???

 

No, I did not get a picture. The magnets were pretty covered in it, though the fluid when drained out supposedly didn't have any visible metal in it though I never looked at it myself. They said it looked burnt. FWIW I saw the amount of metal in my Subaru after the magnet was never cleaned for the first 140k miles and it wasn't half the amount of metal the Camry had in 10k miles.

The pan was dropped and the fluid was changed around 10k miles ago by the dealer so this was all from 10k miles of driving. It didn't look like a normal amount unless the TQ was sending large amounts of material in that time.

 

I went ahead with a used tranny that wasn't too far from me. It has 70k miles on it and is $800. The new torque converter will be installed to make sure this doesn't happen again. Plus if this one goes bad within 3 months it will be swapped out free. I think for the price it's worth it over a rebuild. These transmissions don't seem to ever fail and it has fewer miles than the car.

I was talking to someone from the dealership after finding out my tranny is dead in hopes that they might do something just because it was barely out of warranty when this happened, and they told me they have never seen a single transmission failure due to the torque converter. This was actually the first time they've heard of a transmission in a 2012 Camry go bad at all. This is completely different from what the shop told me, which claims to have seen several effected Toyota models come in and ultimately needing complete transmission rebuilds. I don't think the shop is trying to rip me off because they aren't charging any additional labor regardless of what I do (just replace the TQ, rebuild the tranny, or install another tranny), I think they actually believe it's dead and I would agree based on the amount of metal and the fluid condition. I'm tempted to see if I could get the old transmission back and try to figure out where the metal came from and what evidence there is of failure.