Quick couple of questions.
1)What color should the tranny fluid be on my 95 montero. I thought it was suppose to be reddish, but mine is light brown?
2) my oil dipstick has no level line to tell how much oil I have in it, how high should the oil line be to indicate full?

Thanks

Brown is the indicator for heat, change your fluid and filter.

The dipstick may have notches to indicate 'full hot' if there are no lines or verbiage.

what do you mean, brown is the indicator for heat? I checked the color of the tranny fluid on a cold motor this morning.

I do remember seeing some notches on the oil dipstick though

IIRC, it will turn brown from being too hot and breaking down...

The red color is from a dye that is added to the fluid. Over time the dye breaks down.

If the fluid runs too hot it also gets dark in color. Even under normal conditions it will get darker, but not much past a light brown. The harder part of the color change test is knowing what is normal wear and tear or if it got too hot.

The fluid on my Raider has never gotten to hot, but after five years, it does have a light brown color to it.

A burnt smell is always bad. If in doubt, fresh fluid is good preventive maintenance.

Kevin

So am I good on the tranny fluid with a light brown or should i start cycling new tranny fluid in?

What he said.

The FSM recommends a fluid change every 30k, but I can't seem to find a reference for the filter change. Is it assumed that one should change the filter every time the fluid is changed? (Like when changing your oil.) I've been changing the filter every other time. At the 60k change, the filter looked in fine shape when I took it out to replace with the new one.

Any thoughts?

The filter is usually good to go if just cleaned. You change the fluid to get a new dose of detergent additives to keep the tranny all [censored] and span inside, which it likes a lot. Our trannies make a lot of heat, and heat kills the life of atf, so annual fluid changes are not a bad idea. That said, how many trannies belong to folks on here who have 50k miles on the fluid, or more? I bet more than a few, and the boxes just keep on running and shifting and running and shifting...

As to the colors, red means new, light tan means older but ok, dark brown means change me now, burnt smell means change me now and find out why I stink, like a pressure test and drive test...

Thanks for the input. I'm thinking of bumping up the aft service to an annual event, right before the summer heat seems like a good time of year.
What is your solvent of choice to clean the filter with?