[jtrosky]

I know that you said *without* removing the bumper cover, but I never found a way to do it. The grilles on the older 8th gens could just be pulled right out, but on the 2012+, it seems that it's almost impossible to remove them - at least without breaking something.

With that being said, you'd be surprised how easy it is to remove the bumper cover. Mostly "push" style connections with a few screws. It the end, I found it much easier and less frustrating to just remove the bumper cover than trying to save time by removing the grilles without removing the bumper cover (and end up regretting it because you end up damaging either the grilles or the bumper cover - or both).

I've removed the bumper cover a few times now - it really isn't hard at all and doesn't even take that long - and you can easily do it by yourself... If interested in details, let me know.

 

[jtrosky]

Actually, I recently bought that $20 electronic service manual - let me take a look and see if they list a "special" way of removing them...

And you're probably right - I have a feeling that body shops can do it without removing the bumper cover. I'm just afraid of breaking something while trying.

You'd be surprised how quick and easy it is to remove the bumper cover though - seriously. I just did it recently (again) in order to install my "bolt-over" billet grilles...

EDIT: - Unfortunately, I can't find any sort of procedure for grille removal in the $20 service manual...

 

[jtrosky]

Here is a picture of how the grilles fasten (from the back of the grille). Basically, there are those gray "tabs" that fit though "slots" in the bumper cover. the problem is that the "tabs" fit into the "slots" VERY tightly (the tabs get bigger at the end). It's almost like the bumper cover "slots" re-shrink after you pull the tabs though. It's hard to explain, but it's much harder than you'd think to get the grilles out...

Who knows, if you pull the grille hard enough, maybe you can get it out without breaking anything, but I'd be afraid of either breaking the plastic grille or even breaking the plastic bumper cover if you just try to "force" it out with brute strength...

 

[jtrosky]

I don't have an exact count, but basically, you just look along the bottom of the bumper cover - there are a handful of those plastic "push rivet" things and a few screws. You also need to take out a few push-rivet things on the front side of each wheel-well (where it meets up with the bumper cover) and the four push-rivets on the top (between the headlights). The "hardest" part is that there is a semi-hidden bolt on each side of the bumper cover, where it meets up with the fender - which I usually undo from where the wheel-well cover used to meet with the bumper cover (after you've removed the push-rivets. It's right behind a "slide to remove" metal post on each side. Once you get those 2 bolts out, you basically just "slide" the whole bumper cover forward and it comes right off. Once you've done it once, you'll see what I mean - it's easier than it sounds - but those 2 semi-hidden bolts took me a few minutes to find the first time.

I'll see if I have a picture from the service manual - it may help. Will edit this post with the pic shortly.

EDIT: Here you go - the #4 's are the screws on the bottom of the bumper cover. The "semi-hidden" bolts are the #2 's. Hope this helps:

The one time that I did remove the grilles from the bumper cover (to replace them with black versions), I remember having a hard time getting them out ever *after* taking the bumper cover off and having access to the back (when those pictures where taken)! That's why I say that it would be *really* hard to get them out without removing the bumper cover - because of how hard it was even with the bumper cover removed!