So yeah just a tale of caution here--make sure you will actually like the things you are buying, esp. when it's not something you can just return or whatever.
I bought an aftermarket "RS style" grille of the "blackout" variety for my car back in summer of 2022. I received it long ago but never bothered/got around to, putting it on. Just sat in a box for over a year I guess. I was honestly always pretty affected by "buyer's remorse" on this one, wondering how the black grille would look on a black car.
I decided to buy it in the first place for two reasons:
1. The original grille on my S was a bit worn from all the miles the car had and the plasti-chrome surround in particular is starting to peel a bit (more on this later). I was really thinking to buy an OE-look/style S grille but the problem was I didn't know if the horizontal slats would be matte/satin like they are on the S or whether they'd be chromed and the pics of such aftermarket replacements on eBay were not good enough to determine it. Trying to communicate with China-based sellers on it didn't really give any clear answer either.
2. I then decided to go for the black "RS style" one since this particular one was the newer style which has the nice "cutout" in the bottom where you can additionally install a "quattro" logo. I.e. It makes it look like more modern Audis with that same logo in that same sort of place in the lower part of the grille. "On paper" it seemed to be a good idea. Well I can definitely say now this was NOT a good idea and that buyer's remorse was well placed.
Pulling a pic from a similar eBay auction, this is the style that I bought:
![Image]()
It was almost $300 USD and therefore almost $400 CAD, which seemed a lot cheaper at the time I bought it than now...when I don't like it at all 😅
FFWD to recently where I decided to pull the bumper and then have a go at removing the grille and seeing what the "blackout RS style" one looked like. Well...I didn't like it LOL.
Getting out the original grille (after the bumper was removed) was a real PITA too, to do so the proper way without going at it like some hacks I've seen on YT do it (complete with breaking up the original grille and all kind of madness!). But anyway I got it separated from the bumper...the right way, from behind and w/o damaging anything, and here's what the result looks like.
Here's my bumper off and the original grille on it (yeah yeah don't mind the packed up Christmas decorations in the background lol):
![Image]()
And here's what it looks like with the aftermarket grille (just placed there not installed since to actually clip it in you need to cut the bumper, I didn't install the rings or quattro logo, either):
![Image]()
Ugh. 🤮 Just. Not. For me.
First of all there's no contrast (I'm not a fan of "blacked out" stuff in general); secondly it then makes the two fog grilles with the trademark matte silver "S" accents the only things like that (with the contrast); thirdly I had my lip painted blue (along with my wheels and mirrors wrapped) to put more colour on the car, the black only kills that effect. To me, the grille simply looks out of place and I'm just not "sold" on it unfortunately.
As most are aware, the bumper has to be modified for this to fit (you have to cut the centre support which you can see behind the grille); plus you would have to cutaway (at least partially) the energy absorber that sits behind the bumper. (I've seen some people, again on YT, totally remove that energy aborber which is a galactically bad idea but whatever). These are not things I'd be totally averse to modifying...had I actually liked how this looked. But I don't. So, it's simply not going on.
Another note is we have front LPs here in ON, Canada so I had to get a cheap LP holder separately (it comes with the Euro long-style one as shown in the stock photo). I mean that was only like $10 or whatever but still something I didn't need to bother with.
Anyway I've made some mistakes here and there on cars over the years but usually the more boneheaded ones while working on them mechanically 🤣 This is probably the first cosmetic mod I bought and really disliked later/when actually on the car. Also it def. has to be the most expensive one. Oh well, first time for everything I guess. 😐
To be clear there's nothing wrong with it and I think it'd look fine on another car (particularly a car any colour other than black), but it just doesn't suit my car or my taste. Over time I've realised I really like the way Audi did the stock S grilles on cars of this gen, and I don't want to change mine. I think the only thing to do with the aftermarket one now is to put it up for sale on kijiji/fb marketplace, etc. Thing that sucks is the TT is such a rare car over here to begin with, I think it'll just end up sitting in my basement in the box a loonnng time 😐 That $400 obviously long sailed 😥
My plan now is to do what I can in reconditioning this surround:
![Image]()
![Image]()
Which will actually be a lot easier said than done since any "chrome" spray paints are basically just glorified silver and you will never get the same chromed effect as a manufactured part unfortunately.
From there I think I'm going to clear plastidip over the surround to try to make the entire thing have a more matte look--one because that's a better match for the rest of the factory S parts anyway (including the rest of the grille), two because that's about as good as I'll get scraping off the messed up chrome and spray painting the bottom part.
Additionally I'm going to repaint the plate insert part, which I believe is either Audi Platinum Grey or Audi Stone Grey (if anyone knows for sure, lmk), by just getting a can of it made up at a paint supplier and doing a spray paint on it. Might not be visible in the pics but it's very stone chipped/pitted too. Wish me luck.
Oh and if anyone around the GTA here in Canada see this and wants the black RS grille, it's for sale lol.
I bought an aftermarket "RS style" grille of the "blackout" variety for my car back in summer of 2022. I received it long ago but never bothered/got around to, putting it on. Just sat in a box for over a year I guess. I was honestly always pretty affected by "buyer's remorse" on this one, wondering how the black grille would look on a black car.
I decided to buy it in the first place for two reasons:
1. The original grille on my S was a bit worn from all the miles the car had and the plasti-chrome surround in particular is starting to peel a bit (more on this later). I was really thinking to buy an OE-look/style S grille but the problem was I didn't know if the horizontal slats would be matte/satin like they are on the S or whether they'd be chromed and the pics of such aftermarket replacements on eBay were not good enough to determine it. Trying to communicate with China-based sellers on it didn't really give any clear answer either.
2. I then decided to go for the black "RS style" one since this particular one was the newer style which has the nice "cutout" in the bottom where you can additionally install a "quattro" logo. I.e. It makes it look like more modern Audis with that same logo in that same sort of place in the lower part of the grille. "On paper" it seemed to be a good idea. Well I can definitely say now this was NOT a good idea and that buyer's remorse was well placed.
Pulling a pic from a similar eBay auction, this is the style that I bought:
It was almost $300 USD and therefore almost $400 CAD, which seemed a lot cheaper at the time I bought it than now...when I don't like it at all 😅
FFWD to recently where I decided to pull the bumper and then have a go at removing the grille and seeing what the "blackout RS style" one looked like. Well...I didn't like it LOL.
Getting out the original grille (after the bumper was removed) was a real PITA too, to do so the proper way without going at it like some hacks I've seen on YT do it (complete with breaking up the original grille and all kind of madness!). But anyway I got it separated from the bumper...the right way, from behind and w/o damaging anything, and here's what the result looks like.
Here's my bumper off and the original grille on it (yeah yeah don't mind the packed up Christmas decorations in the background lol):
And here's what it looks like with the aftermarket grille (just placed there not installed since to actually clip it in you need to cut the bumper, I didn't install the rings or quattro logo, either):
Ugh. 🤮 Just. Not. For me.
First of all there's no contrast (I'm not a fan of "blacked out" stuff in general); secondly it then makes the two fog grilles with the trademark matte silver "S" accents the only things like that (with the contrast); thirdly I had my lip painted blue (along with my wheels and mirrors wrapped) to put more colour on the car, the black only kills that effect. To me, the grille simply looks out of place and I'm just not "sold" on it unfortunately.
As most are aware, the bumper has to be modified for this to fit (you have to cut the centre support which you can see behind the grille); plus you would have to cutaway (at least partially) the energy absorber that sits behind the bumper. (I've seen some people, again on YT, totally remove that energy aborber which is a galactically bad idea but whatever). These are not things I'd be totally averse to modifying...had I actually liked how this looked. But I don't. So, it's simply not going on.
Another note is we have front LPs here in ON, Canada so I had to get a cheap LP holder separately (it comes with the Euro long-style one as shown in the stock photo). I mean that was only like $10 or whatever but still something I didn't need to bother with.
Anyway I've made some mistakes here and there on cars over the years but usually the more boneheaded ones while working on them mechanically 🤣 This is probably the first cosmetic mod I bought and really disliked later/when actually on the car. Also it def. has to be the most expensive one. Oh well, first time for everything I guess. 😐
To be clear there's nothing wrong with it and I think it'd look fine on another car (particularly a car any colour other than black), but it just doesn't suit my car or my taste. Over time I've realised I really like the way Audi did the stock S grilles on cars of this gen, and I don't want to change mine. I think the only thing to do with the aftermarket one now is to put it up for sale on kijiji/fb marketplace, etc. Thing that sucks is the TT is such a rare car over here to begin with, I think it'll just end up sitting in my basement in the box a loonnng time 😐 That $400 obviously long sailed 😥
My plan now is to do what I can in reconditioning this surround:
Which will actually be a lot easier said than done since any "chrome" spray paints are basically just glorified silver and you will never get the same chromed effect as a manufactured part unfortunately.
From there I think I'm going to clear plastidip over the surround to try to make the entire thing have a more matte look--one because that's a better match for the rest of the factory S parts anyway (including the rest of the grille), two because that's about as good as I'll get scraping off the messed up chrome and spray painting the bottom part.
Additionally I'm going to repaint the plate insert part, which I believe is either Audi Platinum Grey or Audi Stone Grey (if anyone knows for sure, lmk), by just getting a can of it made up at a paint supplier and doing a spray paint on it. Might not be visible in the pics but it's very stone chipped/pitted too. Wish me luck.
Oh and if anyone around the GTA here in Canada see this and wants the black RS grille, it's for sale lol.
