Deer disaster- W218 CLS grille replacement?

[PRSboy]

Car is a W218 CLS 2015 facelift MY.

I had a relatively low speed collision with a muntjac the other night (could have been a lot worse, thanks BAS brake assist!) but sadly the grille has been damaged and will require replacement, together with the spars, Mercedes badge, chrome surround and rear mounting frame.

Anyway, I have a quote for the parts but the labour quote looks high... £450. A quick look on YouTube shows that front bumper removal is reasonably straightforward, then I intend to see how it goes removing and replacing the various parts (assuming replacement is the opposite of removal!)

Anyone tried anything similar and able to share tips, encouragement or otherwise?

Added complication is that the car has distronic and 360 cameras... will these pose a significant additional issue? There is one camera at the top of the grille, and I believe a number of radar units behind the bumper which I am hoping can simply be unplugged. I don't mind paying for them to be recalibrated if necessary, but I'm keen to avoid the bulk of the £450 quoted labour charge for the job.

Is there an online service manual which shows how to do the job, or a PDF extract available?

Any views gratefully received. I will post up pics and the story, depending on how it goes...

 

[PRSboy]

I did this job yesterday, very straightforward. I removed the bumper following the instructions in this excellent video

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. The only tips I would add are that its quite fiddly initially getting the clips on top of the bumper to undo... I used a pry tool, and shoved it in so it picked up the plastic tab and pushed the bumper away a little, this bit may need a bit of perseverance. Also, make sure you unclip the temperature probe on the lower left of the bumper (you can access from under the car) as well as the loom connectors on the right before you remove the bumper as shown in the video.

Removing the 360 camera is simple; the wiring disconnects as part of the loom from behind the right wheelarch liner as shown in the video. Its held on to the back of the grille with two Torx screws.

The Distronic posed no issues; the middle radar stays on the car, and the two in the bumper are wired into the loom which unplugs.

Clipping the various bits out and in was straightforward; remove the grille first from behind by unclipping the fixings to the chrome surround, then the chrome surround unclips from the bumper carrier and pulls out from the front. I found it best to use one screwdriver to push the tab apart, and another to push the fixing down to release. To refit, clip in the chrome surround first, put the 360 camera holder back in place, then clip the grille to the surround when its in situ. Put the badge into the cross spar (clips in then twists into place) before attaching the assembly to the grille by pushing it into place. Screw the 360 camera back into place then refit the bumper, connections etc.

As it turned out, the bumper carrier was undamaged... if this needs replacing, be aware it is held on by 4 rivets.

Ideally have a helper to remove and refit the bumper.

The camera and distronic are working fine, don't seem to need re-calibration.

When you release the car off the jacks the airmatic suspension (if fitted) may need to spend 30 secs or so getting itself sorted out so don't panic...