[pablokoguchi@gmail.com]

Anyone have any links to a video or a post on replacing the front kidney grills?

[adriang]

Please ignore the dirty car, if you haven't done it already, probably easiest would be to remove the front bumper to get to the back of the clips of the kidney grills.

I loosened the top bumper and plastic components hex screws and size 11 nuts on airbox plastic piece in the front of the engine. I then struggled to fit my hand behind the top of the bumper using a long flathead screwdriver to get to the top clips around the grill. Once I had about 5 around the top of the grill undone I put my hand between the grill and bumper and with a stubby flathead screwdriver I pushed about 3 or 4 clips undone from below the grills and finally got them to pop out. The top grill clips are 'easy-ish' to get to but the bottom clips are very hard to get to. A combination of plastic trim removal tools poked between the slats of the grill would help greatly for the bottom grill clips. I couldn't find my trim tools… so I opted for a bit of a heartless approach, in doing so I sadly broke two clips on the right original grill.

I think taking the front bumper off would have been the better approach to not break grill clips but likely not any easier to do as on many models of BMW's the bumper screws get difficult to remove around the back of the headlights. However I didn't have any plastic grommets kicking around to replace around the wheel trim if I decided to take the bumper off.

[Rich807]

I could've donated a bunch of skin to someone in need of skin grafts after having done this replacement via top approach. Would not do it again myself at home unless I absolutely had to.

I will echo those in other posts on this topic that say:

- This is a total PITA job if you're not removing the entire front bumper cover

- The best way to do it is to have a competent shop you trust remove the front clip & swap out the grilles for you

BMW made what should be a fairly simple deal (like on other BMWs) a very hard job on these cars.

The grille clips are very difficult to press for release, even the top ones that are easier to get to. I can't see having the typical person with smaller arms (like a wife or child) do this for you as I barely had the strength to pop some of the clips.

I ended up taking a sawzall to 1 of the grilles & cut out 1 slat so I could get my hand into some places it needed to be in order to try & get everything released. I tell ya what, you haven't lived until you've taken a sawzall to a car that's less than 1 model year old. LoL

The lower corner clips/tabs on each kidney grille were impossible for me to navigate around for release. I basically had to break them to finish the removal process.

At the end of the day I hated the chrome bezel/black slat grille my car came with, it just made zero sense to me why BMW did it that way & looked weird/terrible to me. Either all chrome or all black would've been a much nicer look. So, I'm super happy to have gotten rid of the original combo but it wasn't an easy job in terms of time, tools, or damage to my hands/arm flesh.

[chowser51]

Seriously? I hated doing it on my F33. Guess I won’t be getting the diamond grills for this car.

[Rich807]

I think the diamond grilles look great over what I had from the factory & would buy them again in a NY Minute, I just wouldn't fuss with changing them out again myself.

Since COVID I've had horrible body shop luck 2x with what should've been a very very easy job on my wife's car. Chalking it up to lack of skilled labor shops in my area are experiencing nowadays, but nonetheless I wasn't about to have a local body shop goon screw up my basically brand new X2 over a grille swap out. If not for this reason I'd have just paid a shop to swap 'em out for me. The difference in the look from what I had to what's there now is 100% worth the cost, at least to me.

FWIW I'm really surprised the parts of the front bumper cover where the grille clips snap into didn't break off during this (the corner ones & some of the bottom ones) doing the swap via the top-down method. Not sure if I could get away with it again though, especially on an older car with say, sunbaked / more brittle plastic.

Damn shame one can't really get to some of the clips on the bottom grilles from under the car but far as I could see, you can't (crossmembers/supports etc look to be in the way).

[rice_rocket88]

I'm sure they were designed so that they weren't that easy for theft.... with that in mind, on all the previous cars I've changed (E60,F30, and E70?) You're supposed to grit your teeth and yank them out.. Of course if you're not planning on keeping them at all I would certainly just cut the slats out and reach in. I'm still fond of my grille since it's also the cerilium? Grey that comes with the m35i model so I'm happy not to touch them.

[Rich807]

Originally Posted by rice_rocket88

I'm sure they were designed so that they weren't that easy for theft.... .

Hadn't thought about that angle & even if BMW didn't do what they did here with them on purchase (for theft), the net effect is definitely there!