Ben Ward
New member
Hi all!
Yet to see this done by anyone else so I figured I'd share a bit about the custom job I did to swap in an RS3 style grille on my 2018 A3 E-Tron
Initially I took the front bumper cover off to take a look at how I could remove the charge port door assembly then integrate it to an RS3 style grille.
The charge port door assembly is heat staked to the original grille, I ground off the heat stakes and was able to successfully remove the charge port door without damage.
I opted to order one of the "blank" grilles that have no Audi rings to allow me flexibility of trimming/modifications.
After lots of measuring, and cardboard templates I trimmed out the rough opening for the charge port door/Audi rings, then continued to make small adjustments until fitment around the perimeter was looking good.
Due to having access to a collision shop, I used our plastic welding machine to secure the charge port door to the new grille, and applied plastic epoxy in areas that would not be visible from the exterior. Some zip ties are visible in the picture as I had them on to secure the parts while the epoxy cured.
I'm continuing to iterate on this design and plan to create an adapter of sorts that could allow the charge port door to be trimmed so less is visible from the front.
One issue I have not resolved yet is the radar opening, this is a known problem when installing RS3 Style grilles on A3/S3 with ACC as the bracket positions the radar higher on the RS3, adapters exist but I plan to fabricate something myself. So far driving it has not thrown any errors and ACC works as expected.
Disregard how filthy the car is
Yet to see this done by anyone else so I figured I'd share a bit about the custom job I did to swap in an RS3 style grille on my 2018 A3 E-Tron
Initially I took the front bumper cover off to take a look at how I could remove the charge port door assembly then integrate it to an RS3 style grille.
The charge port door assembly is heat staked to the original grille, I ground off the heat stakes and was able to successfully remove the charge port door without damage.
I opted to order one of the "blank" grilles that have no Audi rings to allow me flexibility of trimming/modifications.
After lots of measuring, and cardboard templates I trimmed out the rough opening for the charge port door/Audi rings, then continued to make small adjustments until fitment around the perimeter was looking good.
Due to having access to a collision shop, I used our plastic welding machine to secure the charge port door to the new grille, and applied plastic epoxy in areas that would not be visible from the exterior. Some zip ties are visible in the picture as I had them on to secure the parts while the epoxy cured.
I'm continuing to iterate on this design and plan to create an adapter of sorts that could allow the charge port door to be trimmed so less is visible from the front.
One issue I have not resolved yet is the radar opening, this is a known problem when installing RS3 Style grilles on A3/S3 with ACC as the bracket positions the radar higher on the RS3, adapters exist but I plan to fabricate something myself. So far driving it has not thrown any errors and ACC works as expected.
Disregard how filthy the car is
