Bought a set of matte black ones that I'm trying to replace, and when I popped the hood, noticed it wasn't easy to get access to the grills from behind, to unclip them... On my 335, it was real easy.

Anyone can point me to a DIY guide or know what parts I need to take off possibly to get access to them?

Also, there's two methods apparently. One is to unclip the whole thing in one shot, which is supposedly harder, and the other is to separately the inner slats first. Which one did you use?

Thanks!

 

http://forums.5serie...o-swap-grilles/

http://forums.5serie...razed-knuckles/

http://forums.5serie...ll-a-new-grill/

http://forums.5serie...ost__p__1230223

 

THANK YOU Mr. Mod!

I typed it in a hurry (and hadn't had a chance to search, I admit), after opening up the hood and undoing 15 torx bolts, then thought maybe I should see if others have posted a DIY guide instead of trying to undo the whole front end, which is the direction I was going!

 

glad to help, and glad you did not remove the entire front bumper

 

LOL! I undid the other cover, which had the two latches for the hood, thinking I'd get access to the grills, but when I saw they were still blocked, figured there must be an easier way. I was part way there I guess - I had taken off the 5 torx bolts to loosen the front bumper, but didn't think to just pull it out a couple of inches and slide my hand in there. That was brilliant. Worked perfectly.

And I did the pass side first, then slipped my hand in there to undo the driver's grill.

Will post pics tomorrow.

Only thing is these aftermarket grills are so flimsy. The tabs are attached much flimsier than the OEM slats. One had broken during shipment I just saw, so I'm gorilla gluing it tonight and hoping it'll stay. I doubt these grills would come off without their tabs breaking. The side tabs towards the center of car were missing completely on both of them, so out of 7, worst case, I should have 5 tabs on this one grill: 3 on top, 1 on bottom, and 1 on headlight side. Hopefully that would still keep it nice and tight...

The driver's side went on just fine with 6 tabs, though I could see if I pushed hard to get it in, the top tabs could have broken. So I pushed them in using a flathead screwdriver a bit, instead of just putting pressure on the slats to pop it in.

 

Ahhh.... Much better now!
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