Ok I made a very stupid mistake. I was going to perform a routine oil change on my 2000 S500 and the cap was stuck. I cranked on it a little too hard and twisted the housing assembly off. The aluminum filter housing literally snapped in half. I ordered the part, but I can't figure out how to get the old one off. Anyone know?

Just a 46mm nut at the bottom of the housing. You need to replace the 2 oil cooler seals and the 1 housing seal as well.

Turns out mine is attached as one cast unit to the front cover. Had to remove the harmonic balancer in order to get it off. Thanks for your reply.