Originally Posted by InMyCee_213

Hello everyone, new Mercedes owner and site member here. I have a 2017 C300 I’d like to add a diamond grill to like many others have done before. I found a oem C43 diamond grill for a reasonable price and was wondering if it would fit my non-amg model? Or does fitment change between a C300 and C43? Thanks in advance!

Originally Posted by kaisersioze

Funny. Didn’t get it at first.

Called my local dealer. Ordered the OEM diamond grill for $ 107. Install is another 100. I think that sounds reasonable. Having dealer install on Thursday.

Will post lay before and after Pics.

Originally Posted by Krypton

Before with OEM Grill


After with Diamond Grill
Hi Members,

Attached is a before and after picture of my car from this weekend!!!

I finally made the swap from the OEM double slat grill to the Diamond Grill on my wife's 2015 c300 W205 4matic Sedan. I used the instructions on this forum as a basic guide to get started but then because the instructions aren't the best, I kind of used my own logic and looking around for anything that could possibly be holding the bumper back from coming off. Since it was my first time and I was doing it all by myself, it took me a total of 4 hours to do this (not including the 1.5 hours that it took me at night to figure out what at the bottom was holding the bumper off from coming out). I started doing this at night around 9 p.m. in my garage without putting the car up on jack stands. The intention was to get started and then once I got stuck, wait it out until morning and then put the car up on the jack stands and then get underneath to take the under belly pan off that attaches to the bumper. Unfortunately I did not take any pictures so I am going to try and explain this out step by step as best as I can. Here it goes:

1 - Turn the wheels inwards on the side that you are starting on - You will see 3 rivets - start on the bottom most one and remove that with a rivet removal tool or the pronged end of a hammer. Similarly remove the other 2 rivets above it immediately in line. Then remove the sole rivet from under the car right below the fog light. This is the one that holds the fender liner from the bottom to the bottom of the bumper. Follow the same process on the other side.

2 - Once these are out then unscrew the 2 screws on the bumper on the inside of the fender liner - you will have to hold the fender liner pulled away from the bumper. Best is to have some help but if not then just stick a screw driver between the bumper and the fender to keep it apart so you can get your hand with a wrench in there. The screw is the one holding the bumper to the side fender panel of the car. There are 2 screws - 1 that you see immediately when you pull the fender apart and the 2nd one about an inch behind it. Unscrew both of these on both sides of the car. This completes working on the sides of the bumper/fender liners, etc.

3 - Pop open the hood, if you haven't already. You will see 3 screws right where the bumper top meets the hood, unscrew those and also unscrew 2 screws (1 on each side) between the bumper and the headlight. That takes care of all that you have to do up top under the hood, for now.

4 - Raise the car on Jack stands (do this very carefully and responsibly at your own risk) by jacking up the car using the center raising point between the 2 front wheels and then once you have got it to a sufficient height then slide in the jack stands on each side under the jacking point behind each front wheel under the front doors. Make sure you are doing this on a completely level ground and not a sloped ground. Lower the car jack very slowly so that the car doesn't come crashing down on the jack stands. Once you feel that it is secure on the jack stands then slide the car jack out from underneath the car and get under the car.

5 - There will be roughly about 7 or 8, 8mm screws that you will have to unscrew from the car underpanel. 1 will be right up front in the center of the bumper and the other 6-7 will be in line with the car jack point between the 2 wheels. Unscrew all of these and then pull hard on the panel right behind the jack point as that will then allow the front panel to drop down and then you can slide that out. Once you have this panel out then you will see 2 screws (1 on each side) right by the front wheel holding the bumper attached. Unscrew these and this will release the bumper completely from the bottom and sides.

6 - Go back up to the engine bay of the car and the 3 screws that you unscrewed earlier. Pull on the bumper so as to slide it out of the 3 tabs that are holding it in place. Don't worry you won't break it. Once you do this then your entire bumper should come out. Once the bumper is out, don't try to walk away with it, go back to the passenger side and on the inside of the bumper you will see a electrical connector. You can either unplug it, if you can figure out how to, or just give it a 90 degree twist and it unhooks from the bumper without unplugging it. The only drawback is that you can't walk away with the bumper and have to lay it down there itself but the wire is long enough to give you enough wiggle room to take the bumper away about a foot. If you are planning on doing anything but installing a new grill then you obviously want to unplug the electrical connector so that you can walk away in far lands with the bumper itself

OEM Grill removal (this was a PITA):

1 - Remove the hard thermocol padding that will be attached to the bumper, this is the back that you see when you remove the star on the grill. It just slides out from each end. Then you remove the rubber cowl that is right under it and over the grill. That rubber cowl just needs to pulled up with a bit of force and it snaps off. If it doesn't or you feel like you are going to be breaking the tabs then with a screw driver give the tabs a little push inwards and pull the rubber piece.

2 - Now you have the entire Grill exposed from the inside of the bumper. Locate the tabs that are holding it securely in place - these tabs are a part of the bumper and should be the same color as your car. Mine where white, which is how I figured that those are the ones that need to be popped out and not the ones next to it. This should free the grill and then all you do is pop in the new grill and clip it in well and that's it.

3 - follow all of the above in reverse order and you should be in great shape! Get the car jack back and raise the car from the center jacking point a bit higher than it is so that you can slide out the jack stands and then lower the car back to normal.

4 - Pat yourself on the back...get your wife/partner to give you a pat as well and cheers with a cold one! You deserve it after saving about $100 to $150 in labor and having a sense of self accomplishment! Come back to this thread and thank me and contribute with any of your own tips or suggestions or pictures and help out the community

I hope this helps everyone and if anyone has any other tips or suggestions or even pictures of when they are doing it, to add then please do so to this thread.

Originally Posted by atdh

How can I tell whether I have a camera hole on my grille or not? I am new to this, and I plan to have my dealer install the grille. I just need to order it. I currently have a black 2016 C300 with AMG tires and mats, so I want to upgrade the grille as well.

My car also has an illuminated star. I am unsure if that matters for any of this.

Originally Posted by kaisersioze

Funny. Didn’t get it at first.

Called my local dealer. Ordered the OEM diamond grill for $ 107. Install is another 100. I think that sounds reasonable. Having dealer install on Thursday.

Will post lay before and after Pics.

Originally Posted by atdh

I took the grill in I ordered to the dealership today to have it installed on my 2016 C300. The technicians said that the emblem hole was too large for the star on my car and that they would need to remove the entire bumper to install the grill. Am I being given poor information? I took it to the Mercedes dealership. There is one or two more shops in town that service Mercedes. The dealership also owns a collision center. Perhaps they would know better than the service department technicians.

Here is the grill I ordered from eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/253956516176

Help would be appreciated.

Originally Posted by benzdude

You can verify that the star fits yourself. Unscrew it and try it on the new grille. Hopefully you bought a grille that accepts oem stars some don't.

And yes the bumper needs to be removed. Just get a friend and do it yourself. Its easy, but takes time.

If you keep the tires straight you can remove the bottom front cover without jacking up the car.

Or pay the dealer.

Originally Posted by atdh

I know very little about cars, so bear with me. I have an illuminated star and the front camera. The dealership said they would help me find another star that would fit it, but it would cost me. I'd prefer to keep the star I have and not spend $500 on this. My service guy said it looked like the grill was for the 2019 model and not the 2016 model, but the dealership did not take off my bumper to attempt anything. I was just told the technician said the star would not fit on the grill as it was too small and this was told to me almost immediately after they took the car back into the garage.

Originally Posted by benzdude

From ebay listing. (did you verify your vin?)

Anyway, good luck.

Originally Posted by Wail Faridi

Finally installed mine this week after it's been sitting for three weeks because of lack of time, I wasn't about to install it by myself because I don't have a lift or tools, so I took it to my mechanic after I've done my research about the instructions, it was his first time working on a W205, but he figured it out immediately without my help, he took the bumper off, unplugged the wire harness, unclipped the old grill, clipped the diamond grill on, he didn't know how to remove the star so I told him not to worrry about that since it's easy, he put the bumper back on, he did it all in 35-40 mins, I had a little bit more time to spare so I asked him to tint my rear windows. The diamond grill installation and the windows' tinting cost me $9 each. Couldn't be happier with the result. Oh forgot to mention that he didn't use a lift so if you don't have one you can still do it. All I need now is a distronic star.

Originally Posted by Wail Faridi

Finally installed mine this week after it's been sitting for three weeks because of lack of time, I wasn't about to install it by myself because I don't have a lift or tools, so I took it to my mechanic after I've done my research about the instructions, it was his first time working on a W205, but he figured it out immediately without my help, he took the bumper off, unplugged the wire harness, unclipped the old grill, clipped the diamond grill on, he didn't know how to remove the star so I told him not to worrry about that since it's easy, he put the bumper back on, he did it all in 35-40 mins, I had a little bit more time to spare so I asked him to tint my rear windows. The diamond grill installation and the windows' tinting cost me $9 each. Couldn't be happier with the result. Oh forgot to mention that he didn't use a lift so if you don't have one you can still do it. All I need now is a distronic star.

Originally Posted by Wail Faridi

I can't give you pricing since each country as its prices, and $350 would get me 3 diamond grills with $50 to spare, so that defys it imo, but for the installation, anyone who works on car as a job, will do it with ease, as I said it was mechanic's first time working on a W205 he didn't get instructions or anything and he did it in 40 mins or so, so a MB dealer can 100% but I woudn't take it to them , dealers are such a rip off at least whee I live, so go to a body shop or a mechanic, know the instructions in advance and you'll be fine. I have pictures if you need them.

Originally Posted by atdh

Pretty disappointed I can't find anyone in town to install mine. The MB dealership kept claiming it would not fit and wanted $350 to do it if it did fit. A second MB shop said it would take 5 hours and wanted $250 to install it. I think I will end up just returning the diamond grill.