Skoda Fabia MK3 !.0 Tsi SE L 2019 facelift model has anyone taken the plastic panel / tray/ trim off that goes acrross the front of the car under the bonnet that covers the strut tops and goes onto the front winscreen ? they seem to be in two halves and will unclip from the sides and lift up but seem to to fixed ontop the car just under the windscreen, there are round type rings but cannot prise these up so not sure if they are press fit or a screw underneath and did not want to force it just in case it breaks as this part although only a bit of plastic would cost many pounds to replace, it also looks like the windscreen wiper arms need to be removed to allow this panel to come up but if i can get it loose i'll just try taking the whole blade off and see if the panel will slide up the arm as there is a bit of woggle room around the panel hole in the plastic, all the other panels i have seen being removed are just a quater type panel that just pulls up from eack side allowing easy access but this model has a long type panel actross the width with a join in the middle under the bonnet, I need to replace the strut top bearings as they are worn so might replace the struts as well just a note to thank the local councul for NOT repairing the vast amount of potholes and think this has caused them to fail the car has covered around 41,000 from new but that's nothing to go buy with the state of the roads we pay for but don't get repaired

Edited 10 July, 202510 Jul by Murdockman

Have now found out how to remove this panel it is held by 3 large push in studs like the door panel ones but the wiper arms also nee to be removed to take this panel off, I manged in the end to just move each end up enough to allow a ring spanner 21mm in and a short 7mm allemn key to hold the strut centre while i slackened the nut off to allow the strut to be removed both struts were replaced with Sachs gas struts fitted new bearings and rubber mounts the top hat rubber mount was also replaced but bought these from skoda parts as originals were nearly £30 each side but had the 2 for just over £10 for the pair bump stops and dust covers were also re[laced but used the original springs as they were in very good condition no rust and even still had the paint markings on them, had the tracking and suspension aligment checked had to have a slight adjustment but wasn't far out seemed a bit of a hard ride at first but now it's getting back to when we bought the car new

Yes, I've worked on the front struts on a 2009 SEAT Ibiza and a 2015 VW Polo, and all I did to get enough access to the strut tops was to use wooden wedges and/or blocks to keep one side of that cover up at a time. Doing that allowed enough room for me to use a "drive through" socket and a long enough hex bit through its centre.

I think that if you find the need to remove this plastic cover completely, then you use a looped cable tie at each end of the cover where it locates under the windscreen, and start by pulling at each end first.

It does seem to be quite easy to get things back together while retaining the original alignment, or near enough the original alignment, for the first car that I worked on I just sprayed yellow paint up on the lower outer end of the TCAs so that I could then reassembly things and used a mirror to get the nuts back into the exact same position. For the 2015 Polo I just used the "witness marks" on the paintwork of the TCA. I had some plain nuts of the correct size, so to get the TCA alignment correct on both cars I initially used these plain nuts and nipped them up tight, then replaced them one at a time using new stiff nuts - that worked for me. One year later, and I've still not got the Polo alignment checked/corrected and the tyres both summer and winter ones show even wear, I've still got the lower ball joints to replace, the alignment will get done after that. The only issue with that Polo is the steering wheel is maybe 5 degrees away from the "straight ahead" position, but I can live with that for a few more weeks/months.