What's inside that MANN oil filter? Taking it to bits... - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Mölyapina · #1 01-11-2014, 09:40 PM

Prompted by a discussion in the "OIL FILTERS: which one to buy????" thread, I have totally disassembled a MANN oil filter for the 616/7 engines.

Here is the cadaver. As you will notice, there is a dent on the side that made me feel less guilty about hacking the thing to bits.

I first tried to get the top off by assaulting it with lots of sharp tools -- lots of them.

Realizing that I was getting nowhere, I tried a can opener as per OM617Yota. That worked like a charm.

That pretty white thing on top is basically paper -- when you take it off, you find cotton that looks like it's been in a fight.

So at least it was well packed. This is all the junk that came out of the filter. Yeesh!

Here is the inside of the filter. Both the inside tower and the outside shell are covered in some sort of thin cotton.

The outside cloth is held on by the pressed flange at the top of the filter.

On the inside cloth, a piece of tape at the top of the filter was holding the cloth on. Neither cloth was sealed in any way at the bottom.

This rubber grommet is coming out just because I can take it out.

This pressed flange needs to be unfurled to get the outer wall of the filter off. It's a pain to get started -- I used a flathead screwdriver to start unfurling it -- but once you have it going, you can use pliers to unfurl it the rest of the way. This was painful at first, but once I developed a method for doing it, it went swimmingly.

Completely unfurled.

I ended up having to hack at the top where the seam for the outside cylinder is joined so that I could unfurl the side, too.

The side seam was easily unfurled with a small flathead.

Once the side seam is unfurled, the cylinder pretty much peels right off.

It's off.

The center tower is held on by five spot welds at the base. Here it is coming out...

Here's what's left.

I started to peel the top off. Some sort of rubberized compound is holding the top onto the rest of the assembly and also holding the fins in place.

Now it's almost off.

Now it's off.

I stopped here, but it is interesting to note that the compuond here on the bottom is a tan color while the compound on top is gray.

Here is everything we took out.

All in all, only one blister and one cut (all for the sake of science, of course). Not bad!

I'll post an explanation as to how the filter works later, but duty calls and I must step away from the laptop for a little bit...

Dan Stokes · #2 01-11-2014, 09:48 PM

Is the Mann filter different from the Gurl filter?

Dan

Rockyriver · #3 01-11-2014, 09:53 PM

Thanks for taking the time and trouble to do this.
I had no idea that some sort of cotton material was in the filters.

tjts1 · #4 01-11-2014, 10:10 PM

Looks well built.

vstech · #5 01-11-2014, 10:15 PM

now we need someone to tear into a purolator, and a fram and compare them

Mölyapina · #6 01-11-2014, 10:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tjts1

Looks well built.

Meh. Not terribly impressed -- as OM617Yota's photos more clearly show this thing has dirt in it. Filtering dirt with dirt seems pointless, especially if the thing isn't fully sealed, which it isn't at the bottom of the large cylinder. Here is OM617Yota's description of what's in the filter. He has better pictures of the junk.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vstech

now we need someone to tear into a purolator, and a fram and compare them

If someone gets them for me, I'll do it

.

tjts1 · #7 01-11-2014, 11:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jooseppi Luna

Meh. Not terribly impressed -- as OM617Yota's photos more clearly show this thing has dirt in it. Filtering dirt with dirt seems pointless, especially if the thing isn't fully sealed, which it isn't at the bottom of the large cylinder. Here is OM617Yota's description of what's in the filter.

As others pointed out in the other thread, some bypass filters use dirt and saw dust in bypass filters for million mile trucks. Mann is by far the best stock filter you can buy for your engine.

Mölyapina · #8 01-11-2014, 11:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tjts1

As others pointed out in the other thread, some bypass filters use dirt and saw dust in bypass filters for million mile trucks. Mann is by far the best stock filter you can buy for your engine.

OK, so I don't know how much -- if any -- difference clean cotton makes, but if it's available at a CHEAPER price than the MANN and isn't deficient in filtration otherwise... why go with the dirty? Furthermore, why call it the the best? That seems strange.

ROLLGUY · #9 01-12-2014, 10:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jooseppi Luna

Meh. Not terribly impressed -- as OM617Yota's photos more clearly show this thing has dirt in it. Filtering dirt with dirt seems pointless, especially if the thing isn't fully sealed, which it isn't at the bottom of the large cylinder. Here is OM617Yota's description of what's in the filter. He has better pictures of the junk.

If someone gets them for me, I'll do it

.

From the other thread:

Quote:

Originally Posted by gsxr

Exactly. Why wring your hands and lose sleep over five bucks per filter, when a replacement used engine is easily $1-$2k...? Seriously, WTH?

OM60x filter p/n 601-180-01-09 is $14 MSRP and can be found at the various OE interweb dealers for $9-$11... for Genuine Mercedes. Aftermarket is... uh-oh... $9-$11 at Pelican, and OE is $14 at Pelican.

It ain't worth the debate, just use OE.

Why would there be small bits of metal in the OE filter? Yes the cotton looks cleaner, but it still looks like cotton gin waste to me, and not a good thing to filter oil through because of the metal. I could be wrong on this, as maybe the cloth on both sides of the cotton core may not allow the dirt and metal bits to get in the engine. I have been using NAPA filters with gold colored pleats the entire length of the filter. I don't care for their top Oring, as it does not fit tight on the cover, and is a little tricky to hold on while sliding the cover in place. After looking at that junk even in the OE filter, I will stick with the NAPA GOLD filter.....Rich

tangofox007 · #10 01-12-2014, 10:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ROLLGUY

Why would there be small bits of metal in the OE filter?

Could it be because the filter was doing what a filter is supposed to do?

ROLLGUY · #11 01-12-2014, 10:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tangofox007

Could it be because the filter was doing what a filter is supposed to do?

I just asked myself this question: "Was the photo of a new or used filter?" Answer: I have to admit that looking back at the photos, it does look like new filters unopened, and a used filter cut open (with metal bits).
At first I thought it was the same filter, but now I see a used and new filter in the photos....Rich

EDIT: The text on the photo says "OE filter from the dealer", so I assumed that the photo was of a "new" OE filter from the dealer.

gsxr · #12 01-13-2014, 01:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ROLLGUY

Why would there be small bits of metal in the OE filter? Yes the cotton looks cleaner, but it still looks like cotton gin waste to me, and not a good thing to filter oil through because of the metal.

I should have clarified. Those photos are from a USED filter, after a vacuum pump explosion dumped massive amounts of metallic debris into the oil pan. I cut open the filter to see what was inside. That is why metal was in the filter - it was doing its job. Details on the vac pump explosion are in this thread, more photos are here.

Sorry, I don't have any photos of a new, OE Genuine Mercedes filter cut apart.

Diesel911 · #13 01-11-2014, 11:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vstech

now we need someone to tear into a purolator, and a fram and compare them

My Pics from the Purolator L43056 I got from PepBoys 4 years or so ago are in one of the 3 large Oil fiter Threads.

The Filter was made in India and the Cotton Gin that was inside was not terribly firmly packed.

It had more of the typical Trash in it and the Cotton was poorer than the other that people have cut apart.

Worse the central inside Tube is not sealed on the Bottom like the Onter makes it is just the Metal Tube sitting on the Metal Bottom.
The STP Filter that Autozone was selling was also made in India and it looked to be the same Filter.

But, they could have change how the make them since then.

I hope you can see the pics in post #278
OIL FILTERS: which one to buy????

funola · #14 01-11-2014, 11:30 PM

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.

Mölyapina · #15 01-11-2014, 11:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by funola

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.

Might be the case, but then why don't we have the filtration capabilities somewhere. I'd buy it if I could find what it's rated to filter. I will grant them that they PACKED that sucker.

I'm going to fire off an e-mail to them and see if I have better luck than Diesel911.