Auto trans excessive metal in fluid

[BirthdayBenz]

I've never owned an automatic car until I purchased my 85, 123 wagon this past September. It seems to shift fine. When cold, 1st to 2nd sometimes can be a little hard but this isn't always the case. There's 192K on the car.

I decided to change the trans fluid and filter today and found what I would consider excessive metal on top of the filter when I dropped it down.

I have no service history for the trans and in hindsight probably should have changed/checked the fluid sooner, but I'm used to manual transmissions... The fluid I drained wasn't burnt or too dark. Only three quarts drained from the pan. I let it drain for probably an hour while I did other things.





What type of metal particulate are others seeing when changing fluid? I had less metal in my 300K mile 4 speed before I rebuilt it and had more metal in multiple crummy Subaru 5 speed transmissions.