Just spent three hours . . .
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Captain
Joined: Apr 2013
Posts: 602
Likes: 1
From: Arnold, Maryland
Just spent three hours . . .
. . . swapping my Crew grille for one from a Citadel. ((No pix because they look like any other Crew/Citadel grilles))
Why THREE hours?
A. I wasn't sure how to do it and went veeeeeery slow.
B. The instructions I did have were incomplete and/or unclear.
C. Dodge didn't install all of the retainers it was suppose to so I spent a looooooong time looking for four retainers where Dodge installed only two retainers and left the other two recepticles emply. This, lying on my back in the driveway with a BIG flashlight running my hands back and forth along the underside of the fascia among 28,000 miles of road debris looking for four of something that did not exist.
And another surprise: The four honeycomb quadrants of the grille are NOT inserts, i.e. black for SXT and Crew and chrome for Citadel. The black portion of the grille is one entire molded piece INCLUDING the black honeycomb "inserts."
For the Citadel, appearently the factory (i.e. supplier?) cuts out the black honeycomb and then inserts a chrome honeycomb piece. At least that is what happened on the grille I got. My Crew grille was CLEARLY a single molded black piece and had the attachment points for the chrome inserts. The Citadel grill was CLEARLY modified (i.e. black honeycomb cut out) to accept the chrome inserts. Weird. I had assumed the chrome frame was one piece and they simply snapped in black or chrome pieces to reflect the model. I now see the wisdom of their process, i.e. more SXTs and Crews than citadels, thus . . .
If any Citadel owner has removed his grille check and see if what I found also occured on yours.
Why THREE hours?
A. I wasn't sure how to do it and went veeeeeery slow.
B. The instructions I did have were incomplete and/or unclear.
C. Dodge didn't install all of the retainers it was suppose to so I spent a looooooong time looking for four retainers where Dodge installed only two retainers and left the other two recepticles emply. This, lying on my back in the driveway with a BIG flashlight running my hands back and forth along the underside of the fascia among 28,000 miles of road debris looking for four of something that did not exist.
And another surprise: The four honeycomb quadrants of the grille are NOT inserts, i.e. black for SXT and Crew and chrome for Citadel. The black portion of the grille is one entire molded piece INCLUDING the black honeycomb "inserts."
For the Citadel, appearently the factory (i.e. supplier?) cuts out the black honeycomb and then inserts a chrome honeycomb piece. At least that is what happened on the grille I got. My Crew grille was CLEARLY a single molded black piece and had the attachment points for the chrome inserts. The Citadel grill was CLEARLY modified (i.e. black honeycomb cut out) to accept the chrome inserts. Weird. I had assumed the chrome frame was one piece and they simply snapped in black or chrome pieces to reflect the model. I now see the wisdom of their process, i.e. more SXTs and Crews than citadels, thus . . .
If any Citadel owner has removed his grille check and see if what I found also occured on yours.
Rookie
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 76
Likes: 0
Regarding your observation about the grills being the same part just modified, that's pretty normal. GM did the same thing with the Chevy Cobalts and Pontiac G5's. Far more Cobalts are sold than G5s, so the G5 uses a Cobalt bumper with the Chevy grill cut out and a Pontiac grill glued/staked in its place.
