[Brand]

I'm trying to remove the front grill on my 08 STI to swap the mesh and paint some of the plastic pieces. I have removed all the push clips and managed to remove the four tapping screws holding the front grill on without remove the bumper. However, I've only seen the manual for the 08 WRX and not the STI, and even with all the screws I know about removed, I can't quite lift the assembly off.

Attached is a pic of where the grill sticks when I lift it off. The other pic shows how far I can lift the grill at the corner near the headlight. I know my car is filthy, it snowed 5 inches last night so cut me some slack . Are there some kind of clips I don't know about? any help is appreciated! Thanks.

[Brand]

Got it off. Just took some careful prying. There are two clips in the areas I indicated, and you can find them because they have big tabs coming off the back. So, it is possible to remove it without remove the bumper face!

[NuEraSubie's]

wow not to be mean your engine bay dirty

[GhoSStRyda]

Originally Posted by NuEraSubie's

wow not to be mean your engine bay dirty

eh, doesn't that happen when you drive a car?

[gforced]

Originally Posted by GhoSStRyda

eh, doesn't that happen when you drive a car?

And let me add.... In the winter.

[Brand]

Yeah, it's just kinda the way things work here in winter. But she is garaged and gets a wash/quick wax every weekend

[skeetskeet]

Any insight on how to get the screws and two tabs out without removing the bumper cover?

[importfanatic17]

He said it a few posts above.

[Brand]

To get the 4 tapping screws out of the lip of the grill I pretty much just grabbed both "halves" of the grill (the ones held together by the push clips originally) and pulled them towards myself enough that I could fit my hand/wrist behind them in order to get at the screws. I have skinny wrists and medium-sized hands, so you may have to play around. I positioned a trouble light so I could kinda see what I was doing and where to put the screwdriver, and then just kept at it for a while until the screws were out. You will definitely want a stubby screwdriver though, otherwise the handle will be hitting the radiator and you won't get a good angle. The two corner screws are much harder, so I'd start with the lower ones to get an idea of what you are in for.

For the tabs, once you get the screws out and start playing around, you should be able to figure it out, just takes a bit of inspecting and prying - basically the two big tabs need to come straight towards you when you pull.

Hope that helps a bit.

[skeetskeet]

Thanks for the info. Just what I needed.

[Brand]

Originally Posted by skeetskeet

Thanks for the info. Just what I needed.

Did you have any luck? Post what you did, I wanna see it

Here's how mine ended up:

[04STiguy79]

In the first pic it looks like the paint is coming off the grill right under the subaru symbol? Is this the stock paint on a plastic piece or did you paint over it??

[Spork]

That looks like camera flash reflection, the grill was painted over. Those pieces are silver stock. I like the look of the lower mesh on these cars, is that the Grillcraft piece?

[Brand]

edit: woops, too slow. ^^ what he said!

That's just the flash from the camera, there's no paint coming off. The badge surround I painted gloss black, the mesh inserts are from grillcraft. If you look at the mesh behind the fog lights, that was the mesh that was in the upper originally. There was no lower grill stock.

[Spork]

Hmm, I wonder if Grillcraft is going to make a second upper grill mesh to fit the sport grill or if that piece fits.