No, not another "panel filter" questione...

ePer says I needs an air filter (46783546) . I looked on t'internet and have bought a few OE or OEM types over the last few years.. all look like a regular filter and they all fit okay. So far so good.

Now, I was mooching about looking for Stilo air filters and I notice that Mahle does a compatible one (LX1074) but it says "only up to December 2002". My beast is a December 2003.

I dig around some more.. Mahle recommends an LX2060. It's slightly taller than the LX1074 (54mm vs 52.7mm) since it has a spongey ("pre-filter") layer on top of the paper element. It's the equivalent to Fiat 55184943.

It looks like the spongey filter is designed for dusty environments.. and, since my filter always comes out dustier than a pharaoh's tomb, I'm inclined to use the spongey one... but what's the gig? Mahle usually get things right, so I tend to believe them about the post 2002 thing... but ePer only shows one option for the JTD (the all-paper type).

What's it all going on then?

Ralf S.

I would suggest that all it does is hold finer particals... stick a k&n panel rated for 100k and leave it for 10k each time and clean it.

Or 5k depending how long your runs are.

I have a Green Panel Filter in mine and it was a great upgrade. Just don't over oil it on the re cleaning time.

Agreed, as we all know... an oily filter can cause issues on a MAF or Throttle body A/F sensor.

The filter element changed from part number 46783546 (without sponge) to 55184943 (with sponge) on 15th January 2003. The complete filter housing also changed on the same date, so the later element with sponge may not fit in the earlier housing.

The holes in the sponge will be larger than the holes in the paper element, so would not stop dust reaching the paper element. My guess is that the sponge was added to prevent leaves getting trapped in the "Vs" of the paper element.
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It's a curious one. The sponge-topped filter is just 1.3mm taller than then 100% paper one, but the sponge layer looks about 1cm thick.. so the paper filter has more paper part than the sponge-topped one. Otherwise the dimensions are identical.

I'm going to give the sponge-topped one a try and see what happens. I'm pretty sure that just 1.3mm more height (considering that there's a 1cm layer of sponge that can ne squashed a bit, if necessary) won't be a problem to fit into my airbox.



Ralf S.

Should not be a problem, I would say the tight fit would help out to provide a better seal.

Agreed... it would be a better fit... tie wraps also recommended... my k&n panel filter was around 1mm bigger, fits fine but tie wraps help as the metal clips are ****

Yorkshire007 said:

I would say the tight fit would help out to provide a better seal.

Click to expand...

The seal is formed by the foam rubber rim, around the edges of the filter element, being trapped between grooves in both halves of the plastic housing. It has nothing to do with the thickness of the element.
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Cheers for the update ?