When you're dealing with aftermarket China parts, all bets are off when it comes to fit and what you may (or may not) have to modify at all. It looks to me that even the pre-facelift S has the "lower" front grille so I think you'd have to use that type though there's still the caveat of the centre support and the energy absorber which can be different/require modification regardless. I think the way you can see this is on your grille you can count four "spaces" vertically and the shorter ones would only have three "spaces"--hopefully you get what I'm talking about.

If you take a look at my thread on the grille shenanigans I've had as of late you'll see the one I bought will not fit my bumper (a face lift S) unless I cut the centre support on the bumper and [probably] cut away part of the styrofoam energy absorber on the car too. However delmar's grille that he got, while looking nearly identical to the one I bought, doesn't require doing that at all. How the design is, seems up in the air and subject to how the rando China manufacturer made it lol.

https://www.ttforum.co.uk/threads/i-just-didnt-like-the-look-of-this-thing-aka-the-nearly-400-mistake.2036061/

Unless you find someone that has the exact same model (pre-facelift S), and bought the exact same grille you plan to buy, from the same seller, and can comment... I think you're going to be hard pressed for a definitive answer outside of actual trial/error.

In any event I doubt you'd end up with any glaring gap or anything but you may have to modify things depending on what you buy and the car you have. In all cases cheap china aftermarket is in no way going to fit the same or have the same quality level as the OE ones. It can be close but the differences in fit and quality will always be apparent to someone that's picky. The price of the OE ones is crazy though...unless you can find a used one for cheap. Aftermarket is probably what 90% of ppl go with when they want to change theirs up.

Personally I learned my lesson here and am just keeping my stock one on the car. I will be wanting to get rid of the aftermarket black one I never used, but that doesn't help you out in particular given we're on different continents haha.

As you have the best colour Audi of all time I think it will look good black on your car; but, you could also just consider leaving it alone lol. Everyone and their grandma seems to have these cheap China blackout grilles on their "old ass Audis" these days so there is something to be said for not doing it--entirely up to you of course.

 

Thank you! Yes mine certainly has the four gaps as you describe so is one of the deeper ones. The paint is in poor condition at the moment so once I've got that sorted and reconditioned the alloys I think I'll look at it in the round and make a decision - it may be that once those are back to how they should be the look ties together better. As you say I think gloss black would also offset the paint really nicely but I'm not desperate for the honeycomb look so I guess I can either look for a second hand black edition grille or go down the painting route with my existing one if I do decide to change. Given the fun I've had with Chinese internal trim bits I imagine external stuff where holes and tabs etc need to line up will be a whole other level of 'fun'

 

I have a Sprint Blue TTS on a P plate too 😃 and like you, I'm no fan of the grey plastics... a previous owner had even painted the foglight grilles grey to match 😣
I've since repainted the foglight grilles black, including the chrome and intend to mask and paint the centre grill to match. If that doesn't work out to plan, I'll be swapping to a black edition version.
I'm also going to paint the rear splitter
...I don't know what Audi was thinking with the 'old faded plastic' grey look!!

 

Audi does some weird things. I'm not entirely opposed to the silver grey parts but the fact that they sometimes don't get it all right on the "black editions" either is what irks me.

My A3 (also Sprint Blue 😁) came with was optioned with what is otherwise one of the "blackout pkgs". The actual name for the package over here at the time was Competition (just like the TT Competiton but a good bit less aggressive).

Anyway car came with things like--black grille, gloss black mirror caps, black headliner, black rotor wheels, piano/gloss black interior inserts, etc. But, the insert in the lower front bumper was the standard platinum/stone grey as was the rear valance! Also, minor nitpick, but the lug covers were also...grey!

The front bumper piece is pretty small so I plasti-dipped that black early on. The rear valence, well I was unfortunately rear ended at one point, so when they fixed the car I had them paint that rear valence gloss black instead of the original colour. These both look much better and more fitting with the rest. As for the lug covers, I don't really use them except on the rear wheels in winter, all other times I have black lugs on so I don't even use covers.

As I always say I'm not really any particular fan of "blacking everything out" but it does have to flow. This "in between" of making only this or that black that Audi did with the pkg on my car...well that was just annoying!

 

Haha yes, I get the silver/chrome, that being an S feature, but am similarly lost on the grey plastic. It almost feels like they budgeted from the top of the car down and had to go rooting around in the parts bin to finish off the splitter and grille🤣

I’m tempted by the aftermarket carbon rear splitter with fins, but again they’re not
cheap and I imagine coming from China could be similarly ‘interesting’ to try and fit…

 

As my TT is new to me - 2 weeks-ish now, I have a list as long as my arm with some serious Zero's if I was to put a figure to it too!
One of the items I would like to do also is replace my grille.....worried about fit ( I'm all for after market as long as it involves absolutely no modification in order to "bolt right on") having read what I have on this site and others I am thinking to do what I do on my vehicles in Africa. I would however fit a honeycomb main grille and fog light grilles if I was guaranteed a non-mod bolt on.
As a suggestion - find a local place that does sand blasting and who would be prepared to sand blast your original grille's. This does an awesome surface grip/prep job.
If you are not capable to paint yourself - then get them off to a local sprayer who would be prepared to spray them for you.
This way you know fit is guaranteed and you will have the color you want.
I did this to a 4x4 from Japan that I imported that had a hectic amount of chrome on the fits and finishes, no facelift options around at the time I did it - sprayed myself and 13 years on they still look good. Following that I did quite a few for mates too.
ATB
Axl

 

Cosmetic upgrades are always going to be difficult as the aftermarket products available are gradually declining in quality and availability.

Hopefully, things work out for you.

 

@TT'sRevenge - Grey lug covers on black wheels?! Why would you do that Audi, why? Sounds like the car equivalent of getting dressed in the dark...

@Axl - thank you, given I'm getting the paint sorted out quite soon I think I might ask the shop what it would cost to do the grille in gloss black whilst keeping the chrome accents. I'm happy to have a go at most things but aesthetics are not my strong point so particularly for something as key to the look as the grille I think it's probably best left to the professionals...