The cotton junk probably does a better job of trapping and holding a larger capacity of contaminants than a pleated filter. The Mann filter has a pleated paper section, the sotton I assume for coarse filtering, the pleated paper for finer filtering.

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 167,870 July 2025
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked