Dear Mr Beck,

We appreciate your comments on our website and are happy that our customers are interested in more details of our filters.

As you did not referred to a specific filter, I assumed that you were complaining about one of our filters which are indeed filled with cotton material. This could for example be our E170HN D16 (suitable e.g. for the MB W201 series with 2.5 Turbo-Diesel) or the E196HN (MB W123/S123 and others).
These filters are parallel-flow filters and are filled with raw cotton. This filling is described in the Mercedes Benz standard (DBL 8911, dated 2006-10). As it is in German I translate the relevant paragraph: "textile fibers, preferably raw cotton, with seed vessels and other natural pollutants are allowed. Additives like wooden fibers to increase stability are admitted. (...) Synthetic fibers which allow capillaries are not to be used. To avoid channel-forming, the material has to be filled equaly up to both ends."
I hope that the translation is understandable for you.

We supply this filter in this kind of manufacturing directly to the Daimler Company as we are the OEM for this part (OE-Number A 601 180 01 09).
Thus, the filter you were suspecting to be of bad quality is indeed a standard product for one of the worlds leading carmaker!

As I understand, you found some more foreign material in a filter like bugs and metal burrs. This should not be the case and I have to assume that this is a single case. In any case, the outer material will stop these particles from entering the oil system of your engines.

I hope I could answer your doubts about the quality of our products to your satsifaction!

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Best regards

Wolfgang Stauss

- Quality assurance / Customer support -
Hengst GmbH & Co. KG
Nienkamp 55 - 85
48147 Münster-Germany

fon +49-251-20202-482
fax +49-251-20202-160
mailto:w.stauss@hengst.de
http://www.hengst.de

__________________
1980 300TD-T (82 Turbo and Trans) 159,000 Miles "Jackie-O"
1983 300SD 272,000 Miles "Aristotle"
1987 Jeep Wagoneer Limited - keeps the MB's off the ice and out of the snow
1994 BMW 530it