I know this is an old thread, but wanted to update now that I have an update... LOL!

Today.... finally ended up using the "BMW" oil filter that our local Mercedes dealer sold us for my moms '88 300SEL a few months ago...... well it worked fine like everyone said, its a taller filter for sure (the MB filter I had on there before was pretty short), but the rest was the same size and it worked fine. Guess I worried for nothing. Just never guessed a BMW filter would even fit it, lol.

Thanks for the replies!