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I have seen a million W212 replacement grills for sale but none for one with distronic plus/adaptive cruise. Can anyone help me locate compatible grills or let me know if the radar cover just attaches to a standard? See the bubbling coming from this 50k mi. 2013 E550 4Matic. Thanks! W212 E550 Damaged Grill w Distronic Plus
I have this exact same setup: comfort-trim DistroPlus.
The radar module is attached to a bracket behind the plastic grill that has a dark plastic lens to hide the boxy module.
Our square lens is equivalent to the large round plastic star on sport-trims.
I have this exact same setup: comfort-trim DistroPlus.
The radar module is attached to a bracket behind the plastic grill that has a dark plastic lens to hide the boxy module.
Our square lens is equivalent to the large round plastic star on sport-trims.
Your new grill must be "DistroPlus" compatible.
Thanks. Any idea of OE part numbers for this or aftermarket versions? It seems there must not be nearly as many like ours, as there seem to be a million non distro-versions out there.
Thanks. Any idea of OE part numbers for this or aftermarket versions? It seems there must not be nearly as many like ours, as there seem to be a million non distro-versions out there.
Good questions...
there are a million similar parts that almost fit in but can not. You best need the exact part number that matches your VIN!
You can look up a Mercedes parts dealer store for this info.
Wow, that's not "bubbling", I would call that "total surface preparation failure". If that actually came from MB, I would complain loudly about it, warranty or no.
I have seen only a small number of aftermarket grilles specifically say that they are "compatible with distronic". EVEN IF they do, I wonder if they would need recalibration due to thickness differences, ABS plastic differences, and so on.
I put in an aftermarket "Panamerica GT" grille on mine some time ago, one of the reasons I did it was to preserve the OEM grille from rocks, peeling, etc. So, after about 2.5 years, the clearcoat on the black and chrome started to peel in a few spots (I have a 2013 50Kmi. 350) You can't buy anything actually good anymore, no matter what you spend. My aftermarket grille was relatively inexpensive (80, the star was maybe another 30) but I put a lot of blood sweat and tears into it, putting a mesh grill behind the main grille. I bought a new one and put on another mesh, awaiting install this spring.
Yeah, it's pretty terrible. It appears the part number is 212-880-19-83, and while you can get it for non-distronic for like $70, it's 10x for that version with not really good options on eBay either. Hmm…
Wow, that's not "bubbling", I would call that "total surface preparation failure". If that actually came from MB, I would complain loudly about it, warranty or no.
I have seen only a small number of aftermarket grilles specifically say that they are "compatible with distronic". EVEN IF they do, I wonder if they would need recalibration due to thickness differences, ABS plastic differences, and so on.
I put in an aftermarket "Panamerica GT" grille on mine some time ago, one of the reasons I did it was to preserve the OEM grille from rocks, peeling, etc. So, after about 2.5 years, the clearcoat on the black and chrome started to peel in a few spots (I have a 2013 50Kmi. 350) You can't buy anything actually good anymore, no matter what you spend. My aftermarket grille was relatively inexpensive (80, the star was maybe another 30) but I put a lot of blood sweat and tears into it, putting a mesh grill behind the main grille. I bought a new one and put on another mesh, awaiting install this spring.
Panamera looks really nice when you know you're in 10yr old car - Its a good deep-fake!
I think the distronic plate is separate from the grille on the pre-facelift, or so it appears on the OE grill at Mercedespartscenter.com. My sport has 3 crossbars and my luxury has 4, so yo may want to check that
Last edited by pierrejoliat; Mar 5, 2025 at 06:14 PM.
I have seen a million W212 replacement grills for sale but none for one with distronic plus/adaptive cruise. Can anyone help me locate compatible grills or let me know if the radar cover just attaches to a standard? See the bubbling coming from this 50k mi. 2013 E550 4Matic. Thanks! W212 E550 Damaged Grill w Distronic Plus
I have a 2010 E550 with Distronic that looks like yours in front. I have the hockey stick DRLs.
For looks of the car I always thought the big star in front is cool and I bought the big star grille for Distronic from 55Tech Motors. For Distronic it works just the same as the original grille that the car came with.
Problem is to find the hood badge. My car, as yours, has the small indent in the hood for the stand-up star. The only good badge to fit I bought from dfwdude who roams in these forums. He made them and is very good equality. It just is he stopped making them…
The plastic badge that 55Tech sent to me is way too big I installed it on the motor cover where the star left without telling me where it went…
Of course, you can leave the stand-up star on the hood too but it may look silly with the the big star.
I do not know where you can buy the original grille as the dealer may not sell them anymore as it is more than 10 year old car. I cannot find it on 55Tech pages.
Panamera looks really nice when you know you're in 10yr old car - Its a good deep-fake!
Where did you find your aftermarket grills ?
Sorry that I didn’t immediately respond to this. This thread ( https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...-facelift.html ) explains how I installed the first grille and modified it with a mesh in the back. The second grill that I bought presented some problems. There are at least TWO versions of this grille and four versions of the star (twist-in lit, twist-in unlit, push-in lit, push-in unlit). The grill is almost always sold separately from the star and the stars apparently have a “twist in” and “push-in” mounts. The grille must be compatible with the star, otherwise you will fail to mount it. You can see the difference in closeup photos - but the second grill that I ordered on eBay showed a twist-in in the auction and I received a push-in, incompatible with my old grille’s star. I had to send it back. I eventually found a proper “twist-in” type grille on Amazon. When I ordered this, it seemed to me that the twist-in parts were getting harder and harder to find and the push-ins were more common.
FWIW, the "twist-in" stars were horrible to install and took some serious force and a bit of filing on the grille mounts to do.
To alleviate concerns, I would ask the supplier to provide the star AND the grille or recommend a suitable star.
I haven’t seen any claims of Distronic compatiblity on these but who knows.
I did not have a problem finding an appropriate hood star replacement (see the end of the linked thread), but there seems to be some confusion about the part number and the possibility that more than one version with the same part number exists, or, possibly, that a pretty good cheap counterfeit exists.
Yes, luxury versions came with the 4 line grill slats unlike 3 grill slat versions of the Avantgarde models . However, I don't remember right now whether or not Distronic grill was available with two model variants . I mean only available with the 3 grill slats
55tech's Grille does not work right with distronic. At least not on my 2012. It bounces radar signals instead of focusing them on the transceiver. Concrete is horrible, and metal gets detected as a larger/closer object than it should be.
55tech's Grille does not work right with distronic. At least not on my 2012. It bounces radar signals instead of focusing them on the transceiver. Concrete is horrible, and metal gets detected as a larger/closer object than it should be.
Thanks for the feedback. I’m still trying to find a grill that’s not a million dollars for this old (but otherwise nice) car.
55tech's Grille does not work right with distronic. At least not on my 2012. It bounces radar signals instead of focusing them on the transceiver. Concrete is horrible, and metal gets detected as a larger/closer object than it should be.
I have the 55Tech Distronic grille and I have not seen any ill effects from it to how my Distronic works.
I have the 55Tech Distronic grille and I have not seen any ill effects from it to how my Distronic works.
This is the one I got from them. I think
the fact that the star, and the black plastic circle is not one piece it's what is causing the issue. Also the back plastic is not as thick.
I have a 2013 E 63 wagon and I put a panamericana grill on mine. It doesn’t have the smooth star, but it worked fine for DisTronic. It just gets more debris caught in the recess and you might have to clean it more. I’ve had 55 tech and ckm in the panamericana style. 55 was junk. Ckm, slightly less but is delaminating after 2 years. Ive gone through three aftermarket grills. They look good but definitely not the same quality. Ckm fits better as well.
Let me know if you have any questions or need a picture.
this after two and a half years. Super dirty, other projects underway. The first one I had did not delaminate like this. Not sure if this is to be considered pandemic quality, or just the world we live in..
Last edited by Baltistyle; Mar 29, 2025 at 05:08 PM.
Wow, that's not "bubbling", I would call that "total surface preparation failure". If that actually came from MB, I would complain loudly about it, warranty or no.
I have seen only a small number of aftermarket grilles specifically say that they are "compatible with distronic". EVEN IF they do, I wonder if they would need recalibration due to thickness differences, ABS plastic differences, and so on.
I put in an aftermarket "Panamerica GT" grille on mine some time ago, one of the reasons I did it was to preserve the OEM grille from rocks, peeling, etc. So, after about 2.5 years, the clearcoat on the black and chrome started to peel in a few spots (I have a 2013 50Kmi. 350) You can't buy anything actually good anymore, no matter what you spend. My aftermarket grille was relatively inexpensive (80, the star was maybe another 30) but I put a lot of blood sweat and tears into it, putting a mesh grill behind the main grille. I bought a new one and put on another mesh, awaiting install this spring.
Can you recommend a reliable source for an aftermarket grille? I like the Panamerica for my W212 also. I am also interested in how you installed the mesh. Thanks, I just got my merc and joined this forum.
Can you recommend a reliable source for an aftermarket grille? I like the Panamerica for my W212 also. I am also interested in how you installed the mesh. Thanks, I just got my merc and joined this forum.
did you read my post above. I listed the manufacturers and the quality…..Ive been driving these grills for 5ish years. Though I likely made a mistake and it is CKS not CKM. I would edit my original post but the idiots that run this website took away the editing feature (no six hours is not enough time to edit because we are not all on a leash to the website operator) so everybody has to work a little bit harder to get the right information, while bad information can’t be removed from the original post. (true ineptitude on behalf of the forum managers that actually think we want to contact them to make changes to posts which is an extremely inefficient and absurd way to think and makes the forum worse). I think the people that created this rule use bumpers when they go bowling and by bowling, I mean life, diapers and all.
additionally, the CKS website says it may not be shipping anymore due to a health issue with the owner. My orders were done through eBay through the manufacturers..55 or cks.
Last edited by Baltistyle; Apr 18, 2025 at 04:08 AM.
This car has about 60k miles and has been extremely well cared for. Unfortunately I couldn’t find something very cost effective, but after talking to MBpartscenter.com, I was able to get something I felt was acceptable. My local MB and third party tech said you’d have to buy the new part for $1,070 plus shipping/tax. Originally the part came in at a higher shipping cost than the part itself(!) but we got it down as pictured as the end. I went ahead and ordered some seals/interfaces that weren’t much but seemed like they’d be a good add.
THe part numbers I went with and photos are below. The new one certainly looks perfect as you’d expect.
We’ll install next week. MB E 550 W212 new and bubbling “luxury” grille MB E 550 W212 new rear “luxury” grille MB E 550 W212 new “luxury” grille
Glad you enjoyed! I thought so too. Part of me is amazed to see a brand new cosmetic OEM part for a >10 year old vehicle, and I was glad to share that. I’ll report back when installed.
I have seen a million W212 replacement grills for sale but none for one with distronic plus/adaptive cruise. Can anyone help me locate compatible grills or let me know if the radar cover just attaches to a standard? See the bubbling coming from this 50k mi. 2013 E550 4Matic. Thanks! W212 E550 Damaged Grill w Distronic Plus
Bit of a resurrection but just tried to pm you about this but I am not allowed wanted to ask a question?
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. Sorry , for not helping you out here as you already seem to get the help from the members as well 
wanted to ask a question?
