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.

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Old Blue - 83 240D 6 speed manual trans, OM648
Green Machine - 2001 Europa G500
87 300SDL Bought on Peachparts. Low-ish miles..?

Family Truckster - 2012 VW Touareg TDI

Patchouli Wagon - 2004 E500 - SOLD
333k mile 97 BMW 750il V12. - SOLD
The Californian - 85 300TD - SOLD
Daily Super Sedan - 03 Audi S8 -SOLD

I wouldn't really worry about it too much if the car is shifting okay for the time being.. Eventually it's going to need a rebuild if you have metal shavings the size of a fingernail clipping in there. Keep driving it until it breaks, but eventually, yes you will need a rebuild. Those are a little big to say that is normal. It looks like some of that is the friction material from the clutch discs as well, unless that's just the metal stained from the oil. Whatever you do, don't think about a flush, otherwise you're a madman.

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Only diesels in this driveway.
2005 E320 CDI 243k Black/Black
2008 Chevy 3500HD Duramax 340k
2004 Chevy 2500HD Duramax 220k

Do they stick to a magnet? I would be less concerned with aluminum pieces. I haven't rebuilt a M-B transmission, but would expect most "hard parts" in the drive-train to be steel. Wear of gears and steel clutch plates would be as tiny particles that stick to the magnet in the pan as "fuzz". If those are steel, I would expect from sheet-metal pieces like a roller bearing cage or thrust washer. Anyway, since not affecting operation, just note in your maintenance book and keep driving.

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1984 & 1985 CA 300D's
1964 & 65 Mopar's - Valiant, Dart, Newport
1996 & 2002 Chrysler minivans

As others have said, there's not really anything you can do about it. Drive it until it doesn't anymore.

As for your oil change, there is a drain plug in the torque converter as well. You have to spin it around until you can take it out through the little grille on the bellhousing. You'll get another 2-3 quarts out of that for a more complete fluid change.

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Current stable:
1995 E320 149K (Nancy)
1983 500SL 120K (SLoL)

Black Sheep:
1985 524TD 167K (TotalDumpster™)

Gone but not forgotten:
1986 300SDL (RIP)
1991 350SD
1991 560SEL
1990 560SEL
1986 500SEL Euro (Rusted to nothing at 47K!)

The prognosis on something that I do not know. In this case automatic transmissions with your issue. I would ask a guy that actually rebuilds them day after day.


If car annually does not accumulate too much milage and is not used for long trips. There is chance symptoms will increase after a period. So you can drive the car back home if you want to deal with the transmission. You do not want to be a long way from home and experience a failure.


Besides ruining at least a day you can find yourself at the mercy of a garage. Plus the better ones usually always have a backlog of work. One possible solution is finding if there are any salvage cars in your area.


Have a peek if the transmission case on one seems cleaner in general than the engine. A lot of these cars already have had their transmissions rebuilt. Fortunatly the cases are really cleaned in the process usually.

For transmissions in general, the metal you are seeing isn't typical. Long thin magnetic chips are a sign of a thrust washer / thrust bearing coming apart. This could be between rotating parts of in the torque converter. If the chips are not magnetic, the front pump bushing ( where the torque converter is ) is failing.

Another possibility is the rear pump / governor assembly, though I think the rear pump gears were deleted in round about your year.

Changing the fluid does little to prevent this kind of failure, it is more of a metal fatigue issue.

Typical metal is when the magnet has a bit of fur / flat areas have a slight glisten like metallic paint or a dark gray cast.

You could run it until it finally fails but it will cost you more $ if more internal parts are damaged. During a rebuild, ~ 85% of parts are reused.

Have a look at the filter, if there is any molded plastic on it there is usually a casting date.