Findings after a Transmission drain and fill
 

Hey guys, so what was supposed to be a flush ended up just being a drain... Which really annoyed me but I'm past it for the moment...

Anyway, I had them change out the filter and all three shifts solenoids.

Well they didn't do the flush like I asked, they did take a fluid sample like I requested which I'm going to send off to Blackstone labs. I also had asked them to not throw out the old solenoids because I was going to keep them just in case. Long story short they ended up keeping the whole filter with the solenoids and put it all in a bag. At first I was a little annoyed but when I got home a little while ago I ended up checking out the filter just to look at it and that's what caused me to decide to post tonight.

So the entire filter has this coating of like this super fine metallic powder or dust. Is this normal? I do have a magnefine filter installed so I guess I was just not expecting to see all this metallic powder.
Beyond that, the fluid is like a dark red, depending on how much light you get on it and how thin it is. It's definitely not black though. Depending on how you look at it it almost looks like a dark, super oily, strawberry mixture. Just looks odd to me but maybe it is normal?

Anyway, I obviously won't get the lab results back for a while but I was just curious to see what you guys thought of my findings.

And for those who might be wondering, I went ahead and changed out the solenoids mainly as a preventative item...
However certain shifting situation this seem to have improved since the swap. I'll test it more tomorrow to know for sure, but the most common thing I was used to was that whole thing that happens when you're starting to slow down to come to a stop but then the light turns green so you step on the gas. Previously when doing so there would always be a large rev up and then a "slow/fat but smooth" shift. I never really considered this a slip, I was just kind of took it as maybe the transmission was a little confused.
Anyway, now this delay is very minimal and the shift is much faster. Definitely caught me off guard at first and feels good.

https://i.ibb.co/9hdL0sb/IMG-20210831-220858.jpg https://i.ibb.co/f2FgY3d/IMG-20210831-220901.jpg https://i.ibb.co/m5q4fmY/IMG-20210831-221752.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/tQ0BjYK/IMG-20210831-223726.jpg

The metallic-ish film on the filter is normal for any transmission I've ever pulled the pan on. I wouldn't be concerned about it at all.

As the clutch packs are made up of steel shims and clutch material. And as they wear they leave clutch material and metal behind and is part of normal wear and tear.

Things get concerning when the shifts start to slip and or fluid has a burnt smell to it.

Really? Okay well that makes me feel a lot better.

I just assumed that having that magnetic filter would have made everything super clean but maybe that was a oversimplified generalization.

Phew

While those are better than nothing they can't get everything. Some of that metallic looking stuff isn't magnetic either.

That metallic looking film is perfectly normal, nothing to worry about.

ATF when new is a bright translucent cherry red color. As it get's older in the tranny, it will start to darken in color and become more brown/red. When it becomes overheated over time, it will actually turn black and smell burned (no bueno). The other thing to look for is if the fluid becomes a "milkshake" consistency as in it's lost it's translucent nature (becomes cloudy/milky). That would indicated moisture has been mixed with the ATF (usually coolant from a failed radiator).

Your fluid looks fine but your lab results will tell the whole story.

Looks normal to me.. Just needs a new filter screen magnets cleaned and the fluid (3 gallons exchanged)

Ah bummer I thought you were going to post a picture of some jewelry or some old miner's gold tooth found in the bottom of your transmission pan. What you did find is normal though.

Even without a flush your fluid looks good.

looks good to me...and I just did a filter change, a flush and added a magnafine to mine. I dont know if its ever been done to this rig before as there is no records indicating it had been done ( filter or flush) but mine looks like yours and im at 223k ( ive only owned since june)

Got to laugh out of me, and I wish I could find stuff like that in a transmission. Please tell me that's actually happened to somebody here something is that some kind of an inside story? Haha