Have heard these called a few names, I like the name gaiter, some call them bellows or grommets.  It's labelled '1' in this pic.

Was shown last week by a mechanic at the Skoda dealer how to take off the wiring gaiters WITHOUT breaking them.

At the top as you look at it is a plastic lever buried in the rubber, you can feel it if you squeeze round there.

Grab that with bottle nosed pliers and lever it up, the catch inside will then lever downwards and unclip the top of the gaiter from the door pillar.

Edited 6 November, 20178 yr by joeski

Very useful, thanks for posting it.

Good advice, but, did you really mean to write "bottle nosed" pliers?  Maybe edit that bit?

I find it easier to slip a thin item down between rubber and car body, then push gently down and then lift top away. I've never had any luck with the plastic tab and I have tried.

6 hours ago, rum4mo said:

Good advice, but, did you really mean to write "bottle nosed" pliers?  Maybe edit that bit?

Yeah bottle nosed pliers, the ones with thinner jaws, do you have another name for them?

6 hours ago, aubrey said:

I find it easier to slip a thin item down between rubber and car body, then push gently down and then lift top away. I've never had any luck with the plastic tab and I have tried.

If both ways work, then happy days  I did it this way once and the guy at the dealership did it this way too.  I just wish the #@*& who owned this car before me knew either way of doing it, there wasn't an un-broken gaiter on any door or the tailgate 

6 hours ago, joeski said:

Yeah bottle nosed pliers, the ones with thinner jaws, do you have another name for them?

 

Well before I posted that reply, I stuffed "bottle nosed pliers" into Google and only found links to Alibaba.com supposedly for them, though none in reality.  I've only heard of bottle nosed dolphins - I'm not trying to be smart here, just suggesting a better or more commonly used term to describe them!

 

Pliers that might resemble you what are referring to could be, long nosed or snipe nosed or flat nosed or maybe something else, but I've never heard of bottle nosed - if I thought that I was learning something new, I'd be off to buy a pair as I'm sure I've got space for another pair of pliers.

Yes, I've only heard of bottle-nosed in relation to dolphins.

My long-nosed pliers came cranked through about 15 degrees, I've also seen and used straight ones.

Richard

Potato patata

These are what I and others round these here parts call bottle nosed pliers: