The BMW got some more love today. I replaced the front grille that had a chrome surround to one that is all black. I went aftermarket as the all black OEM one was very expensive. The hardest part was removing the OEM one. Having been on there for three years and 40k miles I didn’t think that would be long enough for dirt and grime to get in and help “glue” the grille in but apparently it was.
The first part of the OEM grille removal was to pop the hood and remove the the front weather stripping.
Then the little plastic pop rivets came out easily with a trim removal tool.
After the pop rivets are removed, the large plastic trim piece they were holding on needed to slide back. I tried to pull it up and felt some resistance. Not wanting to break anything I took a closer look and saw that it needed to slide back, not pull up.. It took some force but I was able to slide it back, however I must have had some upward force on it without realizing it and broke two clips. This will turn out to not be a big deal thankfully.
This revealed a T30 torx screw that I needed to undo.
Once I removed that, I began the process of removing the grille. I used a trim removal tool to press on the clips while applying and outward force gently. There are clips on the sides of the grill that seemed tricky at first but I was able to get a thin flathead screwdriver down there to pop them off. As mentioned earlier, grit and grime that has accumulated seemed to help hold the clips in place a bit as they were very tight to remove. But they did release.
Once the top and side were popped out I carefully pulled on it, working around the lower part from the outside in. After a little tugging it came right off.
Here it is without the grille in place. It took some patience and gentle pressure to get to this point but it wasn’t impossible. Time to pop the new grille on.
I just lined up the new grill and gave it a few light taps with my hand and it eventually popped right in. I did use a small dap of silicone on the clips so they would slide in easily and that greatly helped. I always do that when working on bumpers and trim pieces. Not a lot, just a very thin layer to aid the install.
Here it is all seated and in. It fits well and overall I’m happy with it. Now I just needed to put all the stuff I removed back together. The torx screw went back in, the plastic trim cover, the pop rivets and finally the weather stripping all went back into place. The broken clips on the trim cover did not seem to make any difference. The pop rivets hold it tightly in place, still I wish I hadn’t broken them.
All back together and, in my opinion, it makes a huge improvement in how this car looks. All in all the install took about 40min taking my time but now that I’ve done it, I could probably do it in much less time. I have a new spoiler on the way as well as a black 330e badge for the rear. Then I will need to replace or wrap the chrome door and window trim to match. But that is for future me to worry about. For now, I’m happy with today’s small project.
Supergoat Garage 