[Colin evans]

Yeah it was possible- I just didn’t want the chrome. The downside is the distronic no longer works. I’ll keep looking for a all black star like the one from factory.

I’ve seen them on eBay just a cover

 

[pg868]

Has anybody installed this grill with Distronic? Any way to make that work?

 

[Col3man]

Why not just plasti dip the old star?

You could, but 2 issues- the first is that the factory star is flat on the surface, it has a foil inside of the clear, that makes it look like a star, but if you plasti-dipped or painted it, now you would just have a completely blank flat round part that would have no embossed or debossed relief where that logo is. Second part is that the radar system is very sensitive to whatever is in front of it, the engineers made sure that the flat star that came on the car is clear to the radar/IR (don't really know what the system is) but chances are that painting it or dipping it will make it opaque to the radar system, and you're back with the "dirty radar" warnings...

My best guess is that for some market & model or option, MB makes a star in dark relief or blacked out that is clear to the radar system.. They make so many models, there has to be one that would be the same Ø and not look like something around the Beastie Boys neck!

 

[Rothbury]

You could, but 2 issues- the first is that the factory star is flat on the surface, it has a foil inside of the clear, that makes it look like a star, but if you plasti-dipped or painted it, now you would just have a completely blank flat round part that would have no embossed or debossed relief where that logo is. Second part is that the radar system is very sensitive to whatever is in front of it, the engineers made sure that the flat star that came on the car is clear to the radar/IR (don't really know what the system is) but chances are that painting it or dipping it will make it opaque to the radar system, and you're back with the "dirty radar" warnings...

My best guess is that for some market & model or option, MB makes a star in dark relief or blacked out that is clear to the radar system.. They make so many models, there has to be one that would be the same Ø and not look like something around the Beastie Boys neck!

OK didn't realise that the star was just foil.

 

[kulle]

Has anybody installed this grill with Distronic? Any way to make that work?

Yeah mine has distronic and I think if you use the emblem that came with your car it will work. I chose to change to a matte black star and it doesn’t work.
See photos

 

[pg868]

Yeah mine has distronic and I think if you use the emblem that came with your car it will work. I chose to change to a matte black star and it doesn’t work.
See photos
View attachment 27648
View attachment 27650
View attachment 27649

Is it as simple as using the original emblem? Is there anything behind the emblem related to Distronic? You've seen both - does it look transferable to the replacement grille?