Anybody removed the lower mesh grill yet?
 

Rock punched a hole in mine this morning (the ******* is still sitting in there mocking me) and I've got one on order. But they couldn't tell from the parts diag how it goes in. Seeing if anybody, long shot I know, has pulled theirs out to replace it yet.

Seriously hoping that it just clips in but from the quick look I gave it seems like they're pretty solid clips like the bumper might need to come off to get it out. Hope not. Not in the mood for that kind of work.

I'm in the process of installing HIDs in my foglights yesterday. The mesh for the foglight can be removed by using a screwdriver with a T-10 tip (hexagon in shape) as there are 3 screws that attaches it to the bumper. I'm not sure about the center mesh but it should be the same.

Well, in case anybody's curious it doesn't clip in from the front like the W203 grill and it doesn't attach with torx screws like the grill covers on the fog lights.

It clips in from the back.

Good news: part is only $64; which doesn't seem bad since you're used to getting bent for Benz parts, until you examine the cheap ass quality of the plastic.

Bad news: clips in from the rear; no biggie just pull the 8mm bolts holding the pan underneath and you should be able to get at it right? Wrong.


DIY lower grill replacement (Mercedes calls it the ventilation grill)

1st. Get the car up on jacks or up on ramps and discover that there's in fact 2 pans underneath. A front and a rear which overlap and share two bolts. But oddly there's a plastic block attached to the frame that has tabs holding both in place ... never could figure out how to get this off/moved out of the way and ended up breaking a tab. No biggie, the front of the rear tray attaches with the same bolts as the rear of the front tray.

2nd. Get the front tray out. Easy.

3rd. Stare at another internal shroud covering the radiator that contains a wired sensor and some ducting that leads to what look like brake ventilation? Or possible these are the pick up points for the intakes? Didn't bother to investiage further. I was able to unclip a hinged portion and pull the rock out at least, so it wasnt' still mocking me. But I couldn't figure out for the life of me how to get it off in one piece.

4th. Replace tray, tighten 8mm bolts, pull car off jacks/ramps and call dealer service dept to make an appt.

Further update. Dealer tech took it all apart and came to same conclusion that I did ... entire bumper skin has to come off.

They're sending me out to their preferred body shop.

Wow, what a **** design to have to pull and entire bumper just to replace a cheezy little plastic grill.

Ha reminds me of a similar problem I had. I already made a thread about it, but the just of it was I dropped a deer horn down the front of the grill and it was laying on the bottom pan. I attempted to remove the bolts just as you did and found it to be some sort of German jigsaw puzzle under there, so I put the bolts back in and went about it another way. Luckily my part was in the front and I just used a yard stick with double sided tape wrapped around the end to retrieve it through the top slats.