How To Replace Upper Bumper Grill

[milleniumaire]

Unfortunately my wife drove into a large bird (the feathered variety :)) at 70mph the other day and thought she had missed it until she stopped and saw the thing wedged in the front grill! It was a very messy job extracting it and unfortunately the grill has a large hole in it now.

I'm not talking about the kidney grill that is attached to the bonnet, this is one of those "cross" shaped grills nearer the bumper. There are two; a low and a high one. It is the high one, which looks like it comes in seperate parts; a left and a right. I need to replace the left grill as you look at the car from the front. I've seen some black grills on ebay, but ours is silver (titanium).

It's tricky to get to with it being behind the bumper, so I'm not sure if the bumper needs to be taken off first before replacing the grill.

I have the X5 E53 model (2004).

Can anyone please provide me with instructions on our to remove the upper bumper grill? A link to a utube video would be superb. Is it a reasonably simple job?

Also, if anyone knows where I can get a replacement from without paying BMW dealer rip-off prices, that would be great. It is a 10 year old car after all - even a second hand grill would be adequate (as long as it wasn't broken).

Thanks.

[Greydog]

I think the bumper has to come off, I have also been told it is easy to snap the plastic clips that hold them on so take care. have you tried Quarry Motors in Sheffield they are specialist BMW breakers and have helped me a couple of times with trim bits (mirror covers, PDC sensors) Have a look at their web site to see what they have in.

Good Luck

[milleniumaire]

Hi Greydog, thanks for the pointer, I've sent them a message.

[Greydog]

Good luck. I think all the grills are Black Plastic so you may have to spray them to match if yours are Silver