I've always used Hengst, believe Fastlane has a good price on them. I did try a Fram once from Kragans. Was surprised that it was stocked. Worked OK but someone gave Fram some bad press in one of the threads here.

I was really surprised though when I swapped out my original VDO preglow relay with a new one from Performance Products it was stamped 'Made in Hungary'. So far so good . . . . .

i use only fleetguard filters for my oil and fuel, for the early 5 cyl engines you will need a LF3397 should be around $8.00 and a FF5112 for about $6.00.
there are alot of differences in paper and materials etc. different filter manufactures design their filters to trap particals down to a certain micron size. they derive at this size by manufacture specs. Some other "el cheapo" manufactures dont pay any attention to this. One way a guy can tell is ask about the warranty on the filter. will the manufacture pay for the damage caused by a filter failure??? ive been a truck "diesel" mechanic for 15 years and have seen several $20,000 heavy duty diesel engines turned to scrap iron because a junk filter was used.
i highly recommend to purchase a good quality filter, the average person drives 20,000 miles a year, so that is only 7 filters a year, @$10.00 each, $70.00 a year on filter, as apposed to taking a chance of ruining a $4500.00 mbz engine??? sorry so long, just wanted to get my 2 cents in the mix. good luck to all !!!!

god bless america!!!!

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matt

I'll stick with German made or Hastings. The ones made in India are garbage. It's a fact Dodge 0n Cummings diesels will void the warrantee on certain filters. They had problems with small particles coming loose and plugging oil lines. Just think about that before using a filter for a couple of bucks less.

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Ricali

03 C240 4matic wagon
95 300E 234,000
7 prior 240;s 5 still going
81 300sd gone
65 230sl gone
49 Studebaker Champion
90BMW convert.167,000
60 Dodge D-100

I have used Hengst and Mann, no issues with either. I read a filter comparison a while back that tested a bunch of pickup truck filters. They cut them open, measured the amout of filter media, noted how the bypasses were constructed, anti-drainback valve design, and the micron filtering level of the media. Fram did not fare well. One of the smallest filtering area, cardboard end-caps, and a fairly poor filtering performance. Mobil1, AC Delco filters did well, as did suprisingly Purolator, especially the premium line. The very best was a Baldwin. www.baldwinfilters.com Tough to find outside the truck/fleet world but a very nice product at a reasonable price. They may or may not make MB filters however if you have another vehicle and want a US made product give 'em a shot. RT

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When all else fails, vote from the rooftops!
84' Mercedes Benz 300D Anthracite/black, 171K
03' Volkswagen Jetta TDI blue/black, 93K
93' Chevrolet C2500HD ExCab 6.5TD, Two-tone blue, 252K

I second the Baldwin filters, been running them on my Toyota truck for most of the last 238k. The make a huge range of filtration products, I once saw a set of Baldwin air filters for a tugboat, that filled a whole box van! Sadly my distributor was in Oregon, and now I am in Texas. Expect I will buy an OEM German filter next to get a look, if it looks the same as the Baldwin, I will switch to Baldwin shipped in bulk. (The wix looks good, but it is made in Poland.) For the first time in my life, I am getting to the point that I would really like to start buying "Made in the USA as much as possible, short of a whole car that is, lol.)

The following are original suppliers for Mercedes-Benz:

Mahle
Knecht
Hengst
Mann

I would only stick to those brands. Just for kicks, I went to a local Auto Zone to see what the STP and Deutsch filters looked like as compared to the MB original ones. Turns out the STP was a reboxed Hengst and the Deutsch was also a reboxed Hengst. The STP I looked at was for a 616/617 diesel and the Deutsch was for a 112 V6 gasser engine, as in the E and ML320.

Since I have a business account with the local MB dealer, I just buy all of my filters from them. The ones in the MB boxes are one of the above German brands.

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Regards,
Aaron

I agree with Aaron. My local MB dealer always seem to have Hengst in the MB box. I once got a Hengst, a Mann, and a Bosch over the internet. The Bosch was from India. When I compared the 3 filters, the Bosch looked looked really really cheap. So, even though I'm not an engineer, I'll stick with the OEM brands.

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Paul 1987 300 SDL; 2000 ML; '69 MGB; '68 VW Fastback