Originally Posted by ThunderDent

Lookin' good!

Gloss Black >>>> Stone Grey

Originally Posted by cmaquito

You guys are indeed awesome! Amazing transformation, what a beauty!

I have a 2012 Q5 Black S-Line (all flat black front grill) with the standard front honeycomb fog light grills. You might find it strange, but I'd like to get hold of a supplier, who sells the plain looking-one grills that would fit the S-Line model. I was looking at the 2013 Q5 base model and its front fog light grills are the same as the 2012 S-Line...or not really?

Any help would be appreciated, thanks a lot in advance!

Originally Posted by cmaquito

You guys are indeed awesome! Amazing transformation, what a beauty!

I have a 2012 Q5 Black S-Line (all flat black front grill) with the standard front honeycomb fog light grills. You might find it strange, but I'd like to get hold of a supplier, who sells the plain looking-one grills that would fit the S-Line model. I was looking at the 2013 Q5 base model and its front fog light grills are the same as the 2012 S-Line...or not really?

Any help would be appreciated, thanks a lot in advance!

Originally Posted by c-dub

** DISCLAIMER: FOLLOW THIS GUIDE AT YOUR OWN RISK. I WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR CAR. **


Background:
This DIY guide is to show you how to remove your Q5 front bumper and replace the grille.
The example used is swaping the 2.0T Stone Grey / Platinum Grille to the Gloss Black S-Line Grille on the standard non S-Line bumper. I have proven in this guide that there are absolutely no mods required to the grille or bumper.

Note 1: That being said, you'll have to purchase the correct plate filler / bracket. S-Line grilles have fewer verticle slats, thus the holes on the plate filler / plate bracket are fewer with different locations from the standard non S-Line plate filler / bracket. See correct part numbers in the other thread I created:
Official Q5 Part Number Thread
Note 2: This guide was performed on a 2011 Q5 Premium Plus 2.0T, with home link, but not headlight washers, parking sensors. Thus, I am only able to show you how to remove the home link transmitter, but not the parking sensors, headlight washers connectors.

Tools:
Gloves (to prevent cuts)
Torx Screw Drivers (T20 and T25)
Flat Head Screw Driver (For prying tabs and speed nuts)

Procedure:
1. Open engine hood. Remove fasteners/rivets from lock carrier cover by pressing the center stud into the rivet, then pulling it out. There are a total of eight (8) rivets. Pull the lock carrer cover off.





2. Remove the two (2) torx screws shown below.



3. Behind the grille, remove three (3) torx screws holding the home link transmitter.


4. Remove approximately fourteen (14) torx screws from the bottom closure plate at the shown locations.


5. Remove six (6) fastener screws (3 on each side) from the bottom closure plate (not pictured). Allow the bottom closure plate to flip down.


6. After flipping down the bottom closure plate, remove four (4) more torx screws at the shown locations.


7. On each side of the front wheel well, remove three (3) torx screws (total of six (6) both sides) shown at the following locations.


8. Pull back the wheel well liner and disconnect the fog light connectors. (not pictured).

9. Carefully pull off the bumper towards the front of the vehicle. Tab locations are shown below.





10. (a) Remove the black styrfoam material (Blue). (b) Remove twelve (12) torx screws shown (Red). (c) Remove eleven (11) bumper tabs from grille shown (Yellow).


Note: The bumper tabs took me a while to remove. For clarificatoin, removing all these tabs (Yellow) allows you to remove the following piece.



Be patient here. I ended up just replacing the grille first, putting the car back all together, then take my time to remove all the tabs on this piece from the old grille. Thus, installing the shown piece was actually my final step of the procedure.

11. Put everything back in reverse order. This is the end of the guide.

Result: