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I have a 2109 E53 and really love the facelift grill with the vertical components. Anyone know if that is an easy swap? I am not desperate to do it, just wondering.
I’ve been curious to do it on both mine too, especially on my GLE with that ugly diamond grill. I’ve heard both ways. Easy and hard. Most have said the whole front has to come off. I’m not worried about that as much as I’ve heard the distronic has to be unhooked and therefore it has to go back to the dealership to get recalibrated. I made a deal a few weeks ago that I will never set foot back into my local dealership (Carlton MB). I think most on here have had someone do there’s and I’ve talked to two local shops and neither seemed to eager to get involved with it.
So honestly who knows for sure. Maybe some pros will chime in. I’ve been looking and watching for maybe a thread that goes more in depth about.
I’ve been curious to do it on both mine too, especially on my GLE with that ugly diamond grill. I’ve heard both ways. Easy and hard. Most have said the whole front has to come off. I’m not worried about that as much as I’ve heard the distronic has to be unhooked and therefore it has to go back to the dealership to get recalibrated. I made a deal a few weeks ago that I will never set foot back into my local dealership (Carlton MB). I think most on here have had someone do there’s and I’ve talked to two local shops and neither seemed to eager to get involved with it.
So honestly who knows for sure. Maybe some pros will chime in. I’ve been looking and watching for maybe a thread that goes more in depth about.
I most definitely do not want to open up anbag of worms although if I had a little accident I would not worry about it and wither would the shop. They would fix it. Lets see who else chimes in.
8515765[/url]]I most definitely do not want to open up anbag of worms although if I had a little accident I would not worry about it and wither would the shop. They would fix it. Lets see who else chimes in.
Until recently I wouldn’t worry either. My local dealership is about 10 minutes away but after my last visit, it’s just that, my last visit there ever. They burned their bridge to a loyal client. The next two are about 1 1/2 hrs away and they are very tiny independent shops that I’m not sure I can trust. After that the next two are about 2 hrs away and are very large and probably the most knowledgeable. I don’t have a rapport with any of them though. So so for now, I’m trying to avoid dealerships at all costs.
I did mine over the holiday break. Took around 7-8 hours, but I consciously paced myself and was deliberate with each step of the process so I wouldn't screw anything up. There are a lot of bolts involved, including some that are a bit tricky, but I did a lot of homework ahead of time to learn as much as possible about each of those challenging steps and at the end of the day, it was not hard. Once the bumper is off, the hardest part is snapping the numerous tabs that hold the grill to the bumper itself (and by "hard" I mean awkward to deal with, but with patience it becomes just a matter of time). The only special tools I needed were 2 car jacks, a torx bit set and metrics socket set, a socket extension set from Harbor Freight (for a few of the hard to reach spots) and a $15 rivet gun from Amazon.
All in all, it was just time consuming, but at least to me, it was an immensely rewarding job since I don't have experience working on cars. It's easy to feel overwhelmed looking at your front end all ripped apart with so many complex components showing, but keeping in mind you don't have to touch any of that helps stay focused on the job.
I’ve heard the distronic has to be unhooked and therefore it has to go back to the dealership to get recalibrated.
This is BS. Before I mustered the courage to tackle it myself, I shopped around for a place that would do it for me and I heard this same story, which didn't quite make sense to me. All you have to do that is remotely related to distronic is that you have to twist the start on the front grill counter clockwise to get it loose, then disconnect the radar harness as part of the bumper removal. The star emblem went back on the new grill perfectly and with no fuss, and all my distronic functions were 100% unaffected. This was by far the most straightforward step of the whole process and took all of 5 minutes.
And how much? If you don’t mind. I actually thought I would just replace the insert part. I did not realize it was the entire grill. Bet that is pricey!
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