DIY: SQ5 Front Bumper Removal

[Campblett]

Re-uploaded the photos to a different service since Photobucket got greedy. Msg me if they ever disappear again!

I took delivery of the car yesterday and instantly began the process of doing my own black optics conversion. After searching around I could not find a straight forward diy on how to take off the front bumper. Having had experience with removing both a b8 a4 and b8.5 s4 front bumper I figured this could not be that much different so I called up a few other members: BirdmanQ5, SilveR316, and $nooze and we began the process of taking it off.

**I am not responsible for anything you do to your car by following this guide. If you do not feel comfortable doing this yourself then I strongly recommend you have a shop perform this for you.**

Step 1. Remove the radiator carrier cover by locating and gently pushing in the 6 plastic tabs in. Do not push too hard or the pins may fall through the holes into the engine bay. A philips screwdriver should do the trick.






Step 2. Once all of the tabs are removed, the radiator cover can be taken off by lifting from the front of the car to unlatch the cover from the bumper. (pic below shows the clips)




Step 3. Turn the wheels to one side so that the inside of the wheel well is easily accessible in the front. Remove 4 torx screws (3 pictured, the 4th one is located above the two that are in line with one another, close to the top left corner of the picture) A T20 torx bit is needed. Repeat on other side.





Step 4. Peel back the fender liner to gain access to the inside of the wheel well. Locate the fog lights and pull the bulbs from the housings by rotating the bulb counterclockwise. There is also a bolt where the fenders meet the bumper which needs to be loosened to release the clamp/pinch holding the bumper and fender together. Refer to step 5.




Step 5. Locate the bolt behind the fender liner and loosen it using a 10mm socket. It is not necessary to remove the bolt, but loosen it enough that you can easily turn it with your hand. Repeat on other side. (my camera refused to focus on the bolt)




Step 6. On the underside of the bumper, you must remove all of the torx screws that secure the belly pan to the bumper. There are also 3 phillips screws (on each side, 6 total) which are located on the belly pan right near each wheel (on the right in the picture below)



Step 7. Pull back the belly pan as shown and locate the 4 (I think, it may only be 3) silver t20 torx screws securing the bumper to the rest of the car. Remove these bolts.



Step 8. Inside the engine bay locate the two screws in between the grille and the headlights on each side which were originally hidden by the radiator carrier cover and remove.



Step 9. Disconnect the homelink and cable for parking sensors and pull on each side of the grille starting in the wheel wells. The bumper should come free easily.



Step 10. Locate the 15 t20 silver torx screws on the backside of the grille holding the bumper in place. Remove all of these.




Step 11. Remove the clips holding the parking sensors in place and remove the foam backing. Unclip the grille and place the new grille in. Bolt everything back by reversing the process and thats it!



I was able to get a copy of the elsa instructions for a q5 to help in giving a rough guide on removing the bumper. The elsa version is not a straight forward guide and is missing a few key steps so do not go by this 100%, but it gives a good overall idea of some of the areas I had trouble taking pictures of.

[B7A4WD]

Nice Write up

[Boom]

Nice! Need this added. so much work for just a grill. lol

[BirdmanQ5]

Man this was quick! Gotta tell you, the whole bumper removal was easier than my B8.5 S4 as there was more room to reach inside the wheel well. The parking sensors, however, were a PITA to figure out. Pretty much have to cut the tape on the snap ins that held the crash bar foam in and yank the rest.

Your parking sensors still work right? I was pretty rough on them haha

[BirdmanQ5]

Oh! Also add in how when you're taking off the bumper that's the best time to reach in and turn the fog bulbs, remove them, and hang them on something. They aren't accessible from the wheel well.

[spijun]

I was able to get a copy of the elsa instructions for a q5 to help in giving a rough guide on removing the bumper. The elsa version is not a straight forward guide and is missing a few key steps so do not go by this 100%, but it gives a good overall idea of some of the areas I had trouble taking pictures of.

In ELSA is all perfectly explained, but the version that you have some missing sections

[Campblett]

Nice Write up

Thanks!

Man this was quick! Gotta tell you, the whole bumper removal was easier than my B8.5 S4 as there was more room to reach inside the wheel well. The parking sensors, however, were a PITA to figure out. Pretty much have to cut the tape on the snap ins that held the crash bar foam in and yank the rest.

Your parking sensors still work right? I was pretty rough on them haha

Once we knew what we were doing it was pretty simple. You are right, the parking sensors took longer to deal with than the actual grille removal. Yeah the front sensors still work!

In ELSA is all perfectly explained, but the version that you have some missing sections

It doesn't really matter since I made my own diy anyway. You are more than welcome to use ELSA if you don't like mine.

[dr.evil]

Cool write-up, I was thinking of doing the same thing when I swapped mine over a couple months ago. But I was so anxious to get it on I didn't feel like taking time for pictures :)

Only thing missing is a photo of the finished product on the car!

[spijun]

It doesn't really matter since I made my own diy anyway. You are more than welcome to use ELSA if you don't like mine.

Thank you but I do not need a long time ago I did this.

I did not wrote it I do not like your post, but only it the ELSA program correct and clear

To many members of the forum I sent a PDF of this and similar things, because here I can not attach PDF. I just wanted to tell you that the ELSA program OK

Good luck


This is just an example:

[E90brad]

Hey Campblett, I used this DIY to do my conversion yesterday thanks!

Did most of it alone but had some help from my girlfriend at the end (ha!).... 3-4 hours it took me, first time. I did the lower fog grilles too which were pretty easy once you figured out the grille.

I had a small problem in step 5. The guide mentions the pinching clamp and the 10mm nut. The bumper would not pull free after loosening the nut. I used a flat head to separate the clamps from around the lower bumper clips and then the bumper slid off.

Great write up, thanks for saving me on shop labor. Now its time to vinyl the chrome trim and roof rails. After that some black rims!

[tlahoud]

Hey Campblett, I used this DIY to do my conversion yesterday thanks!

Did most of it alone but had some help from my girlfriend at the end (ha!).... 3-4 hours it took me, first time. I did the lower fog grilles too which were pretty easy once you figured out the grille.

I had a small problem in step 5. The guide mentions the pinching clamp and the 10mm nut. The bumper would not pull free after loosening the nut. I used a flat head to separate the clamps from around the lower bumper clips and then the bumper slid off.

Great write up, thanks for saving me on shop labor. Now its time to vinyl the chrome trim and roof rails. After that some black rims!

Thanks for this great guide. I did this DIY a couple of days ago with my brother on my 2015 Q5 S-line. Fitted the SQ5 Black optics grille on. We had the same troubles mentioned here but otherwise it went smoothly.

We also mounted a 22" LED hi-beam behind the grille as the stock beams are abysmal.
PHOTOS:https://drive.google.com/folderview?...DA&usp=sharing

[tlahoud]

Does anyone know if this sort of cosmetic mod will mess with Audi warranty. I figured it was the same as changing your fog lamps or spraying your badges black?

[tlahoud]

Anyone know what I can do if I've lost a couple of the plastic tabs for the radiator cover?? It still locks in but I'm a bit worried about it coming loose
Perhaps an alternative?

[Mobileguy]

Thanks a lot for the write-up. I already changed the grille on my S5 but this one came in very handy!

[Daygo1904]

I took delivery of the car yesterday and instantly began the process of doing my own black optics conversion. After searching around I could not find a straight forward diy on how to take off the front bumper. Having had experience with removing both a b8 a4 and b8.5 s4 front bumper I figured this could not be that much different so I called up a few other members: BirdmanQ5, SilveR316, and $nooze and we began the process of taking it off.

**I am not responsible for anything you do to your car by following this guide. If you do not feel comfortable doing this yourself then I strongly recommend you have a shop perform this for you.**

Hey Campblett, i stumbled onto your DIY and its very detailed, but the pics aren't working. im in the process of taking down my bumper and i'm having trouble.

[ThunderDent]

They're links from 3 years ago on Photobucket which just disabled all their links.
They aren't coming back I'm sure.

[andylyco]

THANKS TO THE OP! However, the pictures would have been nice... Here is my removal DIY from last friday July 14, 2017. I copied most of the verbiage from the OP.
I give credit to my pretty little wife Linzy for choosing this "quattro" grille:
http://www.xenonz.co.uk

Step 1. Remove the radiator carrier cover by locating and gently pushing in the 6 plastic tabs in. Do not push too hard or the pins may fall through the holes into the engine bay. A #1 philips screwdriver should do the trick.
This first photo is what they look like ready to reinstall. If you do pop them all the way out, you'll likely find them on top of the belly pan. I had 2 pop out, despite knowing what I was doing...


Step 2. Once all of the tabs are removed, the radiator cover can be taken off by lifting from the front of the car to unlatch the cover from the bumper.
Pry gently with fingers.



Step 3. Turn the wheels to one side so that the inside of the wheel well is easily accessible in the front. Remove 3 torx screws.




Step 4. Peel back the fender liner to gain access to the inside of the wheel well. Locate the fog lights and pull the bulbs from the housings by rotating the bulb counterclockwise. There is also a bolt where the fenders meet the bumper which needs to be loosened to release the clamp/pinch holding the bumper and fender together. Refer to step 5.
For the driver side foglight, you have to reach behind the rubbery fairing that directs air through the lower radiator. Don't worry, it won't tear or break. If you're worried, wait until you are pulling the bumper off the car by a few inches, then reach in and remove the bulb.



Step 5. Locate the bolt behind the fender liner and loosen it using a 10mm socket. It is not necessary to remove the bolt, but loosen it enough that you can easily turn it with your hand. Repeat on other side. (Andy: I removed the nut completely.)



Step 6. On the underside of the bumper, you must remove all of the torx screws that secure the belly pan to the bumper. There are also 3 phillips screws (on each side, 6 total) which are located on the belly pan right near each wheel (on the right in the picture below)
Step 7. Pull back the belly pan as shown and locate the silver t20 torx screws securing the bumper to the rest of the car. Remove these bolts.
(Andy: I left the rear belly pan bolts holding it to the car, so it just dangled while I did the grille swap.)



Step 8. Inside the engine bay locate the two screws in between the grille and the headlights on each side which were originally hidden by the radiator carrier cover and remove.
(Andy: sorry, I didn't get this shot - you can see where the screw used to be in the center of this shot:)




Step 9. Disconnect the homelink and cable for parking sensors and pull on each side of the grille starting in the wheel wells. The bumper should come free easily.
(Andy: I just unclipped the homelink module and let it hang while I did the grille swap.)





Step 9a. (added by Andy)
The parking sensors can be unplugged from the bumper, or I just left a few of them attached since I never had to take the bumper completely away from the car. If you are planning to work on a work bench, disconnect all the parking sensors. Also, remove the foam bumper support - you won't be reusing this.





Step 10. Locate the 15 t20 silver torx screws on the backside of the grille holding the bumper in place. Remove all of these.



Step 11. (Andy's step 9a) Remove the clips holding the parking sensors in place and remove the foam backing. Unclip the grille and place the new grille in. Bolt everything back by reversing the process and thats it!

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Andy's extra tips:
1. remove the plastic air deflector from the aluminum bumper to paint the aluminum black- otherwise you will see a bright aluminum bumper behind your new black honeycomb grille. (or whatever grille you are reinstalling). Once the paint dried, I did reinstall the air deflector.


2. You are likely going to have to dremel the hell out of the bottom of the replacement grille - it took me 2 hours to fit it correctly! I wasn't even close to done in this photo:

3. I also dremeled the plastic piece that held the homelink (garage door opener) module. Here is what it looks like before dremeling; it would have been ugly behing the wide open honeycomb grille:

This is what I cut off!!!:

And a view of the same piece, with everything cut out and installed:

4. I zip tied the homelink module just inboard of the driver side headlight. Don't worry, you can't see any of this with the front end back together:

5. The parking sensor wires needed to be zip tied or attached to the bottom of the new grille, since the grooved foam piece isn't being reinstalled.
6. The bottom edge of the replacement grille didn't line up at all; I ended up having to fabricate 2 clips using some old cabinet hardware to hold it flush. My jury rigging is better/stronger than OEM, but depending on the aftermarket grille you get, be prepared to wing it at that point. The sides and top edge of my replacement grille fit perfectly without any trimming.
7. The radiator cover clips correctly installed - tab pushed just deeper than flush:


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Before:

After:

[Daygo1904]

Thank you so much!!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Audizine mobile app

[Campblett]

Im sorry to those who were not able to see the photos in the guide I created. I made this years ago and it looks like Photobucket get greedy and wanted money for simple third party hosting. I have put the photos back up for those who will need it in the future.

Glad to see how many it has helped!

[jwhalen]

I’m know I’m posting to an old thread, but over the weekend I replaced my grill on my Q5 and had a few questions for the folks who followed this tutorial.

When adding the RS style grill did you guys leave the styrofoam bumper piece off and the wind deflector off the crash bar? I’ve seen some that have left the wind deflector on and some that left it off.

If I leave off the wind deflector off will it cause any problems?

Thanks
-Jeff

[Thudux]

Nice!

[SerJay311]

Has anyone experienced the parking assist / rear camera turn off after installing their new grill?

[smf92]

A couple of post-install questions I am hoping someone can help me with.

1) I noticed there is a gap under both of the headlights and I can't recall if that was there before. You can only see it from an up angle up close, but it doesn't look quite right. Everything else appears to be properly seated and I'm not sure what I would do differently to close the gap.
2) The fitment of the RS grille seems to leave a little to be desired. Is the edge gap something common or is the production quality just lacking on the one I got?

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