I just received some LED bulbs I bought to use in the fogs since i've activated them as my coming/leaving home lights and went to install them.  A quick consult of the manual as to how to get to them led me to believe 'oh easy... well done Skoda for putting in some easy access panels to the fog lights'... only its lies... all LIES!

 

I do not know what I am doing wrong.. the manual suggests 'gently pulling' the access panels of the grill out.  Well my gentle pulling became rather forceful tugging with no avail.  Eventually I ramped up the pressure on them so hard that I have cracked 2 of the honeycomb slots and still the damn thing wont come out.  Can anyone shed some light on what i've done wrong??  Photos of cracks attached... luckily replacement parts are super cheap from SuperSkoda so if I can just work out how do get the now broken one out I can replace it with a nice new one.

 

 

Similar problem on the Mk2 Octy. It is almost impossible to pull off the access cover. I gave up and looked for other ways. I found it is easy to remove two or three screws holding the inner wing in place, pull it back enough to get your arm in and remove the bulb holder from the back. No need to remove the wheel, just turn it about half lock.

Don't know if it would work on your model but take a look.

Doesn't look like that will work for me either sadly - the intercooler seems to be in the way (I have the 280ps/206tsi model). 

 

Now i've put a couple of (very minor) chips in the paint at the top edge of the grill which aren't noticeable but enough to deter me from trying any further brute force tactics.

 

Plan B is now to ask the dealer to swap the fogs over for me when its in there in a couple of months - or if they won't put the bulbs in, to at least remove the grills for me.

 

 

 

Before ‘just’ pulling them out, try moving the grill towards the outside of the car a little, this means the locating lugs are holding onto the car less, then pull them off as described in the manual.

I would think the easiest way is to get the car up in the air and remove the under tray

 

 

 

Edited 1 July, 20178 yr by Auric Goldfinger

As above, the action is to pull the grill to the side (either away from or to the centre) and out towards you.

 

All Skoda models have been the same over the years, knowing where the lugs are helps. Warming them up with a hairdryer can also help, more flex less breakage.

 

MkII Octavia vRS...

 

 

MkII Facelift Octavia...

 

 

Edited 1 July, 20178 yr by silver1011

I found the left driver side one is easy to come off as its pretty solid. But the other side is really hard and I broke mine had to fix it coz it's got all the holes which is very flexible. Does anyone know if I can replace that one with the same one as the driver side or does it have to be the one with all the holes? I guess it might be for the air flow. I have got a 206 tsi as well.

3 hours ago, Jamesnz said:

I found the left driver side one is easy to come off as its pretty solid. But the other side is really hard and I broke mine had to fix it coz it's got all the holes which is very flexible. Does anyone know if I can replace that one with the same one as the driver side or does it have to be the one with all the holes? I guess it might be for the air flow. I have got a 206 tsi as well.

It’s a different one for the left.  I snapped mine too and replaced it with one from Superskoda. Catalogue no is ‘3V0853665A9B9’. (Grille V2left).

 

The aperture on the left is tighter as it has the thickness of the air intake too and it’s a bugger to get off.  Even knowing where all the fixing points are, I snapped one of the lugs and had to revert to swearing and white knuckles 😊 

 

 

 

On 01/07/2017 at 18:58, silver1011 said:

As above, the action is to pull the grill to the side (either away from or to the centre) and out towards you.

 

All Skoda models have been the same over the years, knowing where the lugs are helps. Warming them up with a hairdryer can also help, more flex less breakage.

 

MkII Octavia vRS...

 

 

MkII Facelift Octavia...

 

 

It’s different in the left side for the 280.  The right side just needs a firm tug, as per your post. 

 

The left side has an air intake behind the cover and has different lugs etc. It’s a very tight fit and a right PITA. 

 

In contrast the same job on my 150TDI took <10 mins.