W124 New Replacement Oil Filter, smaller, better? - Page 2 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

joel · #16 10-28-2002, 11:19 AM

went looking for the new filter wrench but cannot
find one. hope this is not another dealer item.

Gilly · #17 11-08-2002, 01:09 AM

Well, I've kept this thread in the back of my mind, and this week the opportunity presented itself to do a little sleuthing. Noticed that we had an older style "long" 103 oil filter in the drain bin, and of course several of the new short filters.
I sawed around the outer steel covering with a hacksaw to get to the inner filter medium.
On the older filter, the filter medium is simply a pleated filter and looks very much like a canister filter for the 112/113 motors.
On the short filter, not only is it pleated like the long filter, but it's also zig-zagged to make it shorter. i didn't unravel anything yet,but it looks like the filtering area would be identical, plus to me, it looks like the short version may do a better job as the filter media looks like it would do a better job than the longer version. It has a more uniform appearance than the long version, as the the long version tends to have pleats which are not uniform.
I hope to post an image of them side-by-side. i have a digital image that the general manager took with his digital camera and emailed to me, now I need to find out how i can post them on this thread. i've asked the webmaster for an assist.

Gilly

joel · #18 11-08-2002, 09:46 AM

dan - very good commentary. i bet the filtration medium
was similarly improved to handle various demands of
varying oil viscosity. cheers!

royaiii · #19 11-08-2002, 04:10 PM

Hey Dan for the long filters did you get a look at the Knech filter. I thought they changed their medium to micro-star.

Gilly · #20 11-08-2002, 05:17 PM

Here is one of the images I mentioned.
Maybe someone viewing this thread is more of an expert on flow dynamics and can comment on the different designs.
I'm sorry I don't recall what brand the black filter was. I know I have seen the "Micro-Star" wording on MB filters before, i am unsure what this means, i would tend to think it's a reference to the type of filter material used.

Gilly

Thanks to Bill Mills, the general manager at Z European for taking the pictures and mailing them to me.