Hello folks,

My regular supplier of many years has dropped the Hengst brand in favour of Fram/Crossland or MANN.

On my last order I used MANN which looked equal to Hengst at least visually, on this type of filter you can see most of the element exposed.

Just about to place an order and thought the Fram looked good with metal cage around bottom element - there's no real price difference, just wondered if things had moved on with Fram quality wise?

Fram



MANN



Crossland

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David


1996 Mercedes S124 E300TD - 129k - rolling restoration project -

1998 Mercedes W210 300TD - 118k (assimilated into above vehicle)

The Fram cartridge filters for Merc Diesels were always great filters. The criticism, right or wrong, is always directed at their spin ons.

You cannot hide that there is almost no filtering material in a cartridge type filter. So Fram cleans up their act with them.

With the actual low cost of the filtering medium. I often wondered if every last penny of profit was that important to them on their spin on filters. I estimated there was only 10 to 20 percent of the filtering material in comparison to decent German filters with Fram.

I think others also play the same game. They rightly assume few will ever cut them open and examine them.

Our members have done extensive research on the 617.952 Oil filters but not on the others.

In the past the filter makers websites say what the full flow part of the filter was rated at (how well it filters). However, there is two different standards of ratings.

https://www.lenntech.com/library/fine/absolute/absolute-nominal-filters.htm

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Fram doesn't make these, they re box them .

Decent quality it seems .

Allied Signal bought the Fram brand name decades ago and the spin ons and pleated air filter elements are trash .

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-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

OEM at the Mercedes Dealer is about $15. I've gone that route a couple of time when I forgot to order a couple of Manns to have on hand. Don't know if MB genuine is markedly better.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

If you cut the top of the filter open you will see that the filters are filled with cotton waste, bugs, twigs, saw dust and other floor sweepings from the cotton ginning mills. (atleast they used to be like this)

Only the mercedes benz filters actually have clean media in them, the turkish sourced fram filters with these construction also had clean cotton string media - Some Iranian, Pakistani and Indian oil filters also had the same clean cotton string media in these mercedes oil filters but none were or are sold in USA.

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2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)

I cut open a bunch of the other filters. The sticks and bugs and rocks and cotton field mowings didn't bother me at all - if it works and is cheap I'm game. What did bother me was that the filters were so poorly constructed that said debris was escaping the filter cartridge. Unacceptable.

I'm aware that millions of engines have gone probably billions of miles on the filters full of cotton field mowings without issue. Best practices and personal feelings aside, real world experience has shown this to be a non-issue.

I still ain't doing it.

I run Baldwin P102 or Hastings LF380 oil filters. They may not be better constructed, but there are no field mowings to leak out.

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617 swapped Toyota Pickup, 22-24 MPG, 50k miles on swap

Are Mahle, Wix or Baldwin available? Check the price on MBZ also.

Good luck!!!

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"Rudeness is a weak man's imitation of strength" - Eric Hoffer

No need to chop open as most of the filter paper is exposed, that said not sure what's in the can side probably more of the same. Occasionally see Mahle but not the last two Wix or Baldwin, MB are not pricey around twice the cost of MANN.

This is another popular web site which lists the MANN filter almost double the current cost (inc shipping), it also also has a Purfulx filter which looks very much like the Fram.

https://www.mister-auto.co.uk/oil-filter/mercedes-benz/e-class/e-class-estate-s124-e-300-t-d-136hp-1993-1996/

Going to stick with MANN, bank holiday w/end which normally means an extra 10% discount

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David


1996 Mercedes S124 E300TD - 129k - rolling restoration project -

1998 Mercedes W210 300TD - 118k (assimilated into above vehicle)

This is a slightly off topic question, but does anyone think the filter design may affect oil pressure?

If you take the Fram its heavily covered in mesh with small holes, compare this to say MANN being fully open perhaps allowing better flow/less pressure. There must be some resistance to oil flow as when blocked have a by-pass valve.

The oil pressure switch on 606's is located just under the filter housing.

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David


1996 Mercedes S124 E300TD - 129k - rolling restoration project -

1998 Mercedes W210 300TD - 118k (assimilated into above vehicle)

Years ago on here or another MB board, a fram got opened up and found cotton plant remnants in the bypass section of these. Like bits of leaves and twigs, as I recall.

Someone should cut one open and see what it's like these days.

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Current Diesels:
1981 240D (73K)
1982 300CD (169k)
1985 190D (169k)
1991 350SD (116k)
1991 350SD (206k)
1991 300D (228k)
1996 Dodge Ram CTD (442k)
1996 Dodge Ram CTD (267k)

Past Diesels:
1983 300D (228K), 1985 300D (233K), 1993 300D 2.5T (338k), 1993 300SD (291k)

This is exactly why I chopped several brands open, and unfortunately you'd be wrong. It looked like someone mowed a cotton field, plants and all, and emptied the bag into a loose coffee filter type bag and then crammed it into the bypass section. Literally dirty cotton, sticks, stones, bugs, sand, etc.

Again, all that junk in the filter doesn't bother me - when it stays in the filter. It wasn't.

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617 swapped Toyota Pickup, 22-24 MPG, 50k miles on swap

Your recall is poor. They opened a bunch of different filters. The usual German filters, like Hengst, Knecht and Mann, were filled with floor sweepings from cotton mills. Their fill included sticks, bugs, dust, all sorts of crp.

Fram, specifically the ones made in Turkey, used nice clean material. I've preferred Fram for my Mercedes diesels ever since. It has to be fifteen or twenty years and half a million miles or more. The above comment about restriction is complete nonsense. The cumulative cross section of all those holes FAR exceeds the cross section of the filter outlet (look at the top and bottom of any filter). Everything else is just sniping. Recently I've switched to Wix because of availability, but I won't use the German brands.

The original thread was off-board and long-gone, but here is one of several old threads that covered this:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/104768-oil-filters-one-buy-7.html

Just look at the photos, and you'll be convinced.

Flip, that's horrendous, given the relative low cost of material what's the point.

Hopefully mine never gets to use the bypass media as changed twice a year, 5k miles max.

I would be interested to see if the mesh type have any impact on performance, pretty familiar with oil pressure readings at various temps - will give it a try, might even chop the old MANN unit up to see if bypass media has been used.

Theoretically the bypass media should be clean as around 3k of mileage so far.

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David


1996 Mercedes S124 E300TD - 129k - rolling restoration project -

1998 Mercedes W210 300TD - 118k (assimilated into above vehicle)