bigtexan99
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- July 16, 2017
- Messages
- 157
- Reaction score
- 26
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2016 Explorer Sport
Ordered a glossy black grille off the ebay and installed it today. To remove the front grille requires removing the whole front clip. I had it done at a body shop. On the 2015 and down, you can remove the grill without removing the clip, but its impossible on the 2016+ The whole front clip must be removed.
There are some 10mm bolts on top of the grill and 2 push pins. , then you need to remove small bolts in the front wheel wells and then the fender trim. Jack/lift the front of the Explore. Then, remove all the bolts along the lower bumper. Finally you can reach behind the wheel well to get at 3 bolts holding the clip to the front of the car. They have a ton of threadlocker on them and are hard to turn. 3 bolts each side. Make sure to support the front clip then disconnect the headlight wiring harness on the driver front side behind the bumper. On the passenger side disconnect and temporarily plug the water line to the front camera washer.
Now the whole front clip including the grille can be tilted forward and removed. Now you have to remove a big bracket piece on the back side of the grille, and then all the clips holding the grille to the front clip.
While the front clip was off, I went ahead and replaced the factory horn with a Hella twin tone horn set TE16. They fit just fine in the factory location, and you reuse the same mounting hardware. I did have to cut the horn wires and re-wire it with new wire as the factory horn has a custom plug/pigtail. You could probably replace the horn without having to remove the whole front clip, just remove the bolts on the top of the grill and then remove the top piece, it might be a tight squeeze but I think it could be done. It was a piece of cake with the front clip off.
I wired the 3 leds in the new raptor grill into the lower fog lights, so they turn on whenever the fog lights are on.
New horn sound from youtube:
There are some 10mm bolts on top of the grill and 2 push pins. , then you need to remove small bolts in the front wheel wells and then the fender trim. Jack/lift the front of the Explore. Then, remove all the bolts along the lower bumper. Finally you can reach behind the wheel well to get at 3 bolts holding the clip to the front of the car. They have a ton of threadlocker on them and are hard to turn. 3 bolts each side. Make sure to support the front clip then disconnect the headlight wiring harness on the driver front side behind the bumper. On the passenger side disconnect and temporarily plug the water line to the front camera washer.
Now the whole front clip including the grille can be tilted forward and removed. Now you have to remove a big bracket piece on the back side of the grille, and then all the clips holding the grille to the front clip.
While the front clip was off, I went ahead and replaced the factory horn with a Hella twin tone horn set TE16. They fit just fine in the factory location, and you reuse the same mounting hardware. I did have to cut the horn wires and re-wire it with new wire as the factory horn has a custom plug/pigtail. You could probably replace the horn without having to remove the whole front clip, just remove the bolts on the top of the grill and then remove the top piece, it might be a tight squeeze but I think it could be done. It was a piece of cake with the front clip off.
I wired the 3 leds in the new raptor grill into the lower fog lights, so they turn on whenever the fog lights are on.
New horn sound from youtube: