95 e320 Transmission Slipping? Help

[Gunth]

I just drove my my 95 e320 Sedan from Southern California to Sacramento the other day. I have had zero problems with my transmission until a strange thing happened when I stopped halfway between on my trip. I had pulled off for eats, and when I got back in to drive, I came to a traffic light before getting back on the freeway. When the light turned green, I pushed on my gas pedal and the car moved forward very slowly, like it was more like coasting, while my rpms and engine seemed to rev with the pressure I put on the gas, I guess this is called "slipping"?

I thought I had accidentally hit my shifter in Nuetral, so I checked it, and the car still only moved fwd slightly, I went into 3rd gear, then coasted or moved slowly to the shoulder. Once on the shoulder and stopped, I played with the shifter a little and put it in drive and then the car drove off fine.

I finished the 400+ mile trip with a few more stops and no problems, so I thought it was just a isolated incident.

The next two days I forgot about it, until this afternoon when I left my parents house, drove to the city, all highway, no traffic, and shopped at a store. Then I went to another store about two miles away. When I returned to the car from the last stop, the same thing happened that happened on my drive up from SoCal, the car seemed in N, and barely moved forward. Like before there were no unusual noises, no leaks, no indication of anything visually or physically, other than the thing seems like it has problems engaging into drive or any other forward gear.

I played with the shift for a few minutes, then turned the car off for about 10 minutes. When I tried again, it was still like it was not engaging in drive, except maybe 10-15% power. I tried putting the gear in Reverse (which worked), and then when I went back into drive and it worked again. I went back to my parents, about 12 miles without any futher incident.

When I got back here, I read the manual to check the tranny level which looked like a clean red-pinkish color, but it was hard to read whether it was at the correct level.

The tranny dipstick had two written marks on it, 30 (low end) 80 (high) and 4 notches with the top notch corresponding with the 80 mark, and the bottom with the 30. The fluid is not like oil, it is much thinner, but color seems correct. So, there doesn't seem to be a clear reading to me as to it's level, but when I clean the stick off, insert and pull out, it appears that the wetness rises about 2-3 times higher than the upper level on the stick. So, if the area is 4 inches, the high level mark is about 1 inch from the bottom. These are just scale estimates, not exact, my point is that the fluid seems much higher.

I added a picture of the wet dipstick, but it's hard to see the upper level, I added a red arrow to show where it goes, but is tranny fluid this thin, or is this just splashing up the stick since it's so light, which indicates I am low on fluid? Is this the problem or is it something bigger :<

If the fluid is this thin, and this is too much, why wouldn't this have caused a problem way before now, where there wasn't one previously?

Is this even a fluid issue, or is it something bigger? Help me, I'm poor!

Note: I don't know if these are factors, but outside air temperatures were in the 90's, my travelling speed was about 75-80mph on open road. I use to live in NY, so temps were low or cold, and here in Cali I live by the beach and have no long or heavy driving. This is the hardest, as in weather, the car has been driven by me, which makes me wonder. Car temperature and gauge indicators read normal operation, though I have a check engine light issue that I have had since earlier threads I posted several months ago, which I do not believe is related. Again, I have had no issues whatsoever with my transmission until now.

Thanks!

[mbdoc]

Too much fluid can & will cause "foaming" of the fluid.

Most likely that is your problem.

I would drop tha pan & change fluid & filter & set level correctly.

Correct level is at or below the lowest mark with cold fluid!