What is this behind the front grill in the pic.

Distronic cruise control. One of the reasons why I don't like distronic. Even though it is subtle, I still think that sensor looks ugly in the grille.

im thinking of buying a used car that has this option on it however i wont be using this feature so i was wondering if its possible to remove that piece.

My friend has this option on his ML63 and its a nice option... I wouldn't simply trash it because you can see part of the assembly for it.

I have distronic on my car, the piece is not too bad in person, and it's on top of the grill not behind it. It's like a fitted piece that fits in between the grill lines.

+ 1

Does anyone know if its possible to have it removed?

no - cannot be removed...if you replace the distronic grill with a regular grill your cruise control won't work too well as the distronic sensor has difficulties seeing through the grill and it will throw "clean sensor" messages.

Regardless whether you think you will use distronic or not - it is automatically engaged every single time you use your cruise control....and once you know how to use the distronic you will definitely like it; IMHO it is one of the best options a car can have!

greetingz,

just paint it black

If you never use the cruise control, it would be possible to leave the Distronic radar sensor in place and put a standard grill on the car. However, if you ever activate the cruise control, there will be a fault in the system and it will not work correctly.

In general, I would say that it isn't recommended. I have this on my car and the lens doesn't bother me at all. The only downside to it is that you can not swap to an aftermarket grill.

One thought though...I wonder if you could shut of Distronic in Star and put a standard grill on while retaining the use of the basic cruise control?

+1

Distronic is a $2K option? I don't think I would remove it, it will help your resale value.

My car has distronic and I simply replaced the grille. It works fine except when its raining really hard... and in Phoenix thats like once a month. It works wonders in traffic as it doubles as a collision warning system (it beeps at you if you approach an object moving too fast that is at a much lower rate of speed than you are.. cars, bikes, joggers, construction barricades, M5 and M6 etc...).

So you have had no issues with it?

What happens when it is raining?

Nice.

When it rains cpu says that Distronic malfunctioned (or something like that) and has been deactivated. Upon restart it is fine. Cruise still works, just not adaptive cruise or collision detection. Also hit you with a more detailed PM

It looks far worse in the E63 or any other face lifted W211 with DISTRONIC. The whole middle of the grille is fake louvers with painted on chrome slats...yuck!