Today I checked my transmission fluid... its dark brown in color (is the transmission fluid from MB red when its fresh?), and has very small metal particles with small chunks of dirtlike material... hard to describe kind of like the stuff on your dishes after you finished dinner =) Is the transmission fluid stick suppose to be very long, and doesn't go all the way in? can someone measure the transmission dip stick for me? how long is from top to bottom? thanks... My ML has 86,500K =) still running great! I'm planning to do the transmission fluid change myself, replacing the fluid, gasket (if any), and filter... at 100k.. any tips? thanks