There has been a lot of chatter about this particular grille insert on this forum as of late. I always wanted to have this upgrade done, as I like the look of this Avantegarde Grill. The W220 And the W210/S210/W211/S211 with the Avantegarde appearance package have this style of grill. This kind of grill was never released for the W124 at all as OEM.
A lot of people have given negative feedback to this particular product; some have praised it. This post is not meant to demean the maker of this product, nor is it to advertise for him. It is simply a DIY for people who are interested in buying it, and want to see if the installation is difficult or not.
First, This is how to remove the OEM grill from your hood. Again, this is off of a W124.028, 1993 300E 2.8. This will be the exact same process on a 124.026 and a 124.030.
The Chrome Grill Assembly is held to the hood by 7 8mm. bolts. There are 2 in Plain View (Red Circles), 1 hidden Behind a Foam (removable) Insulation, and 4 hidden right under the Hood Insulation - above the hood crease (see picture (Pink Circles)).
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Remove these Bolts with your Ratchet and put them in a place where you wont lose them. Gently pull the Hood Release Lever back (without snapping it - like I did (see Fig #4)). Those hidden bolts may be tricky to get to, but hopefully I made them easy to find. I was hoping that Finding and Unscrewing those bolts would be the hardest part of this job. I was wrong...
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I brought the grill inside where I could sit down, remove the OEM grill and swap it with my new updated one. There are some Clamps that are holding the OEM grill in place and they can be easily removed. They are located at the four corners, inside the Chrome Casing. Also, there is one Phillips Head Screw holding the Plastic insert steady from underneath. Lastly, the blue Laurel Wreath Mercedes Logo must be removed by unfastening the nut in the top center from behind. Please pay special attention to this illustration as it plays into the next step of my particular installation.
![Image]()
![Image]()
After I fit the Aftermarket Insert into the Chrome Casing, I realized that some vertical strips were broken. I cannot blame the vendor for this, as they may have been broken in the mail. They may have even been broken in my Garage, sitting there for two days in the box - who knows. What I DO know, is that unfortunatly this Aftermarket Insert is VERY delicate and clearly glued and hacked together (more on this later). You can see the pieces that were glued clearly upon examination, although, from the outside looking at the whole grill they will be impossible to notice.
But wait a second - In order to screw my Laurel Wreath Benz Logo on top/center of the grill, I must insert the screw from the outside, and fasten the nut from the inside. I realized a problem. This aftermarket plastic insert did not have a hole for this screw! What the hell do I do now? This thing is so delicate that if I take a drill to it, it may crack. Then what? Whatever.. I took a drill to it and bored a hole where the screw should be inserted. I did not take a picture of this process, unfortunately - I was preoccupied with measuring and doing it right.
![Image]()
![Image]()
![Image]()
Okay, so I guess I found a fork in the road and went straight (sorry, Scion). I got over that obstacle and now it is time to go put this on the car and see how it looks. When I went to the car and tried to fit the whole assembly, the extra wedges of uneven plastic on the top of the insert did not allow me to correctly mount the grill! No matter how many times and how hard I tried to mount it, the obstructing plastic was just in the way and there was no way around it. I had to go back inside, remove the plastic all over again (clips, screws, bolt, laurel wreath logo), and cut plastic off of the top of this insert...
![Image]()
This was a tedious task and one I was least expecting. I wasn't going to take a saw to this delicate constructiong so I grabbed a pair of wirecutters and started cutting away from the top of the plastic until it was short enough to fit onto my hood.
After cutting the plastic, the grill fit fine. I reattatched the bolts into place, securing the assembly properly. I took a step back and realized that I has forgotten one thing - the Hood Release Latch! Take a look at this:
![Image]()
Now what? I'm afraid I haven't figured this one out yet boys and girls. With this Aftermarket Plastic Insert, it is impossible to have the Hood Latch protrude when activated by pulling the lever under the dash. I had to bent it so that it streched aside the vertical strip and I left it like that until I buy a new one (because mine broke during this installation). I'm figuring one of two things. Either I cut the new one in half and rest it that way, or cut the Vertical Strip so that I have room for the lever to rest.
One last thing. There is an MB part number on this thing. I'm confused by it. The part number is A210-888-01-23. When I get to work I'm going to check it. At first glance, the 210 tells me its for an E-Class (96-02), the 888 tells me its for the Hood (Or Fender for that matter, but obviously its for the hoog/grille). The 01-23 i don't know about, it's not making sense to me. I think its a bogus number but I'll get back to you on that.
![Image]()
I'm going to see if this thing stands up to a car wash this weekend. After I get my baby shined up, i'll take a picture of the whole front end so I could give everyone a real nice look of how the grill transforms the front.
I hope this helped people at least form an opinion on this product, if not helped some people install it.
A lot of people have given negative feedback to this particular product; some have praised it. This post is not meant to demean the maker of this product, nor is it to advertise for him. It is simply a DIY for people who are interested in buying it, and want to see if the installation is difficult or not.
First, This is how to remove the OEM grill from your hood. Again, this is off of a W124.028, 1993 300E 2.8. This will be the exact same process on a 124.026 and a 124.030.
For this job you will need: Patience, (1) Ratchet, (1) 8mm Socket, (1) Phillips head Screwdriver, and possibly a Pair of Wirecutters...
The Chrome Grill Assembly is held to the hood by 7 8mm. bolts. There are 2 in Plain View (Red Circles), 1 hidden Behind a Foam (removable) Insulation, and 4 hidden right under the Hood Insulation - above the hood crease (see picture (Pink Circles)).
Remove these Bolts with your Ratchet and put them in a place where you wont lose them. Gently pull the Hood Release Lever back (without snapping it - like I did (see Fig #4)). Those hidden bolts may be tricky to get to, but hopefully I made them easy to find. I was hoping that Finding and Unscrewing those bolts would be the hardest part of this job. I was wrong...
I brought the grill inside where I could sit down, remove the OEM grill and swap it with my new updated one. There are some Clamps that are holding the OEM grill in place and they can be easily removed. They are located at the four corners, inside the Chrome Casing. Also, there is one Phillips Head Screw holding the Plastic insert steady from underneath. Lastly, the blue Laurel Wreath Mercedes Logo must be removed by unfastening the nut in the top center from behind. Please pay special attention to this illustration as it plays into the next step of my particular installation.
After I fit the Aftermarket Insert into the Chrome Casing, I realized that some vertical strips were broken. I cannot blame the vendor for this, as they may have been broken in the mail. They may have even been broken in my Garage, sitting there for two days in the box - who knows. What I DO know, is that unfortunatly this Aftermarket Insert is VERY delicate and clearly glued and hacked together (more on this later). You can see the pieces that were glued clearly upon examination, although, from the outside looking at the whole grill they will be impossible to notice.
But wait a second - In order to screw my Laurel Wreath Benz Logo on top/center of the grill, I must insert the screw from the outside, and fasten the nut from the inside. I realized a problem. This aftermarket plastic insert did not have a hole for this screw! What the hell do I do now? This thing is so delicate that if I take a drill to it, it may crack. Then what? Whatever.. I took a drill to it and bored a hole where the screw should be inserted. I did not take a picture of this process, unfortunately - I was preoccupied with measuring and doing it right.
Okay, so I guess I found a fork in the road and went straight (sorry, Scion). I got over that obstacle and now it is time to go put this on the car and see how it looks. When I went to the car and tried to fit the whole assembly, the extra wedges of uneven plastic on the top of the insert did not allow me to correctly mount the grill! No matter how many times and how hard I tried to mount it, the obstructing plastic was just in the way and there was no way around it. I had to go back inside, remove the plastic all over again (clips, screws, bolt, laurel wreath logo), and cut plastic off of the top of this insert...
This was a tedious task and one I was least expecting. I wasn't going to take a saw to this delicate constructiong so I grabbed a pair of wirecutters and started cutting away from the top of the plastic until it was short enough to fit onto my hood.
After cutting the plastic, the grill fit fine. I reattatched the bolts into place, securing the assembly properly. I took a step back and realized that I has forgotten one thing - the Hood Release Latch! Take a look at this:
Now what? I'm afraid I haven't figured this one out yet boys and girls. With this Aftermarket Plastic Insert, it is impossible to have the Hood Latch protrude when activated by pulling the lever under the dash. I had to bent it so that it streched aside the vertical strip and I left it like that until I buy a new one (because mine broke during this installation). I'm figuring one of two things. Either I cut the new one in half and rest it that way, or cut the Vertical Strip so that I have room for the lever to rest.
One last thing. There is an MB part number on this thing. I'm confused by it. The part number is A210-888-01-23. When I get to work I'm going to check it. At first glance, the 210 tells me its for an E-Class (96-02), the 888 tells me its for the Hood (Or Fender for that matter, but obviously its for the hoog/grille). The 01-23 i don't know about, it's not making sense to me. I think its a bogus number but I'll get back to you on that.
I'm going to see if this thing stands up to a car wash this weekend. After I get my baby shined up, i'll take a picture of the whole front end so I could give everyone a real nice look of how the grill transforms the front.
I hope this helped people at least form an opinion on this product, if not helped some people install it.
