Fleece Or No Fleece

[Lawrence Coppar]

We have a 2002 SLK32. As the dealer service has run out I plan to begin the oil changes myself. I am experienced at maintaining vehicles and have several of them I maintain myself as you can see in my signature block.

My question is whether I should purchase the fleece filter or not. I've read quite a few posts on this and wonder if the new filter is just another way of fleecing the public. Our SLK32 gets driven about 3000 miles a year. I plan to continue with synthetic motor oil as per factory recommendation.

Fleece or no fleece?

[iwrock]

What is the OEM reccomendation?? I would follow whatever guideline that were set out when your car is serviced at the dealer. They typically follow the best course of action to prolong the lige, so I would stick with it. That has been the course of action with all our cars, and we have seen many roll over the 200k mark...

[deanyel]

Originally Posted by justinwrock

What is the OEM reccomendation?? I would follow whatever guideline that were set out when your car is serviced at the dealer. They typically follow the best course of action to prolong the lige, so I would stick with it. That has been the course of action with all our cars, and we have seen many roll over the 200k mark...

You may not have heard the latest on this - MB has reversed gears and is now actually trying to shorten the life of their products. So you should first find out what they say to do and then do exactly the opposite. For example if they say don't ever service the transmission - service the transmission, etc. etc.

[iwrock]

Originally Posted by deanyel

You may not have heard the latest on this - MB has reversed gears and is now actually trying to shorten the life of their products. So you should first find out what they say to do and then do exactly the opposite. For example if they say don't ever service the transmission - service the transmission, etc. etc.

I know what you mean. But as of recently, the service advisor at my local dealer told me to change the oil at 5000 miles, instead of 10000. He also told me to change the trannie at about 50,000 miles, as it will decrease the amount of premature wear. I know that many think that MB is trying to destroy their products, but I feel differently. They do know about what is best for the cars that they sell. You may have had a poor dealer expierience, but I get alot of good vibes from my local dealer.

Also, my boss has an E55. The service advisor told him to follow the maintainence, plus some that the book says shouldn't be done. Like to change the trannie fluid, and some of the other "lifetime" fluids. He said that to prolong the life, just go above and beyond the regular, that way you can cover all of your bases, and prevent any destruction due to improper maintainence.

I feel that my dealer is more than competent to service and maintain my car. However, the $$ that they charge is absurd. I go to an indy that I trust, as he does awesome work. They are cool, helpful guys who truely care about you and your car. Some do have good hearts, perhaps you have been to a bad dealer.

[Lawrence Coppar]

Think I'll go with the Baldwin. Been using them in my Ferrari for several years. They make filters for my TL and AMG, but unfortunately, not for my Porsche.

[Ali Al-Chalabi]

I use the fleece oil filter. The filter media supposedly has better filtration properties. I wonder exactly what they mean by this. Does anyone have or know how to find the micron ratings on the paper or fleece filters?

[Roncallo]

I dont belive the fleece filter is for better filtering. I belive it is used to get a filter that will last for extended service intervals without risk of going into bypass. With service intervals increased you need to get either a larger filter or do something else to get a small filter to last longer. I belive the fleece filter is MB extended life filter.

John Roncallo