Three of us spent over an hour today trying to gain access to the rear wiper motor which has recently become intermittent on a 2016 mk3 Superb estate.  We carefully prised the lower edge of the tailgate trim free from it's clips to open up a decent gap that we could see into  but about a foot up each side, the trim is really fast and as it is not my car I was scared to pull any harder as I think the plastic would just split, we couldn't see any other fixings so gave up for the moment as it was also raining.  In the past I always bought Haynes manuals but unfortunately they are no longer available for modern cars .  What's wrong with screws like they used to use ? 

Can anyone give us any tips on removing this panel, that doesn't involve ripping it off the car and binning it please 🙂

There are simply a lot of metal fixing clips all around the panel. You need to pull hard, once all screws have been removed.  

If necessary, you can download the workshop manual (body interior) from cardiagn.com. 

Thanks for your reply,  I tried looking at  cardiagn.com but the page says  'sorry your request has been denied'  Error code:403 Forbidden I tried on 3 different browsers and my phone. 

There are no screws in the panel or plugs covering screws that we could find. We popped out the interior boot lights built in the tailgate, removed 2 plastic plugs that accessed 2 torque screws but they are not fixing the cover and then popped the clips on the bottom edge of the panel, we are convinced that there is some positive fastener stopping the panel from coming off.  I will try cardiagn again tomorrow.

 

You simply need to pry in all the spots with clips, they do release, ideally a plastic trim removal tool makes light work of them but wrapping a screwdriver in tape could also work 

 

12 hours ago, ApertureS said:

You simply need to pry in all the spots with clips, they do release, ideally a plastic trim removal tool makes light work of them but wrapping a screwdriver in tape could also work 

Thanks for that, when we build up more courage we may have a harder pull if no more information turns up, how much is a new Skoda tailgate panel ? 

@Pete1955 Just trust yourself. You won't need to buy a new panel. You can also use a wooden spatula as a lever to get it out.  

Hi Bap33  Thanks for that,

I will probably give it another go at the weekend and perhaps let the owner (my son in law) have a try 😀  The panel came off quite well up to the same point at each side and we convinced ourselves that there had to be screws or something holding it from there.

Thanks again, Pete

 

There is a rain sensor setting in the menu for the rear wiper

That hasn't been changed has it? Before you go dismantling it.

15 hours ago, Pete1955 said:

Hi Bap33  Thanks for that,

I will probably give it another go at the weekend and perhaps let the owner (my son in law) have a try 😀  The panel came off quite well up to the same point at each side and we convinced ourselves that there had to be screws or something holding it from there.

Thanks again, Pete

 

 

Just use force, clips let go eventually:) This is how it looks like:

Just my advice. Don't yank the trim panel with great force, sure the metal clips will come out but you will likely break the plastic holders attached to the back of the trim panel that the metal clips are retained in. Best to just keep increasing pull force gradually until the metal clips eventually slip out of the tailgate slots. Pull near the location of the clip and work your way around.

 

Poor design.

 

Hope you understand.

 

Hi.  

Shugmo, we did check the rain sensor setting on the display, it was turned off and we did try it on but it made no difference and it was raining 🤔.

 

Insect repellent, thanks for the photo this will help a lot seeing where the clips are situated.

 

xman, I suggested yesterday making some slim wooden wedges to carefully insert around the edge of the panel so anything we gain in opening up the gap will not be lost.

Thanks everyone for your help. It was better when they used screws and could buy a workshop manual.  I will keep trying the site cardiagn.com suggested above but it seems out of action at least at the moment.

Cheers, Pete

 

Try again on cardiagn.com. I've just checked, it works for me (with Chrome).

Bapp33  Thanks that's  brilliant, 
I tried it again this morning and it was not working but it is now.

Thanks again, Pete

Update. 

We eventually got around to looking at this again today,  I had made some long wooden wedges to slowly exert more force on the tailgate inner panel rather than just pulling and It did come off with more force applied,  without damaging it.  The rear wiper motor was dead so a used replacement has been ordered from a breakers yard on Ebay.

Thanks to all who responded.

PS all the spring clips holding the tailgate on have been silicon greased up for future easy removal hopefully.

Pete