Hi,

I've purchased a new pollen filter for my 04 Octavia 1.9tdi - I can see the housing lurking above the glove box area but I'm unsure how to remove the plastic cover that extends down from the base of the windscreen. I have removed the rubber strip seal that extends across the width of the engine bay and the cover looks as though it ought to just pull free - I can't see any mounting bolts or tabs anywhere and the half I need to remove appears separate from the off-side half through which the windscreen wipers pass.

I would be very grateful for any guidance:thumbup:

Have a search on here for scuttle cover removal, it should be well covered.

However:

- remove the rubber strip

- gently pull up the panel from the engine bay side.

- insert a small hand and unclip old filter (two clips at front)

- remove old filter

- insert new filter and ensure locating tabs locate correctly at the back of the filter

- press down the front edge of the filter so locks into place.

- push front egde of scuttle panel back down

- replace rubber strip

You can remove all the scuttle pannel if you like, but that involves removing the wiper arms which can a challenge by its self.

Thanks for that - think I'm going to have to go for scuttle panel removal cos my hands won't fit through.

Will do a search on here as you suggest

Many thanks

Half of the panel can be removed without removing wiper arms etc. It can be a pig to get unclipped from the bottom of the windscreen and be careful as one member here managed to crack his windscreen doing it.

More pics here towards the bottom:

Rob's Skoda vRS

Arh yes... I was thinking one wiper spindle came out of each section of the panel.....

Once the panel has neen off one or twice it suddently becomes much easier :-)

Thanks one and all - I managed it this morning. It took me a while to suss (by lifting the rubber water seal along the lower edge of the screen) that the correct place to remove the scuttle cover was from either of the two 3cm wide cutaways towards the nearside and offside of the screen. I inserted a 3cm wide piece of 1mm plywood to protect the screen and then using a blunt 1cm chisel over a small piece of wood, I levered the scuttle cover up and away at this point. As mentioned, it was a bit tight but once I'd moved it and freed it at this location, the whole "half panel" came away easily.

I had a good look around the housing cos my 04 Octy has also had a majory one-off water leak into the rear nearside passenger footwell. It occurred after a night of intensely heavy rain with the car parked 20 degrees nose up on my mothers rather steep drive. I'm quite certain that water from the windscreen drained back within the housing and down into the fan heater and footwells. Interestingly, I don't have any drain holes in the forward edge of my scuttle area - just one at either side into the wheel arches.

My door membranes are O.K as is the aircon - bearing in mind it was a one-off event that occurred overnight when the car was parked in the above manner.

The only other possibility, which I haven't ruled out entirely - it's always possible that I left the rear passenger door not properly latched - duh!!

Thanks again everyone

A good tip from big k is to warm the panel with a hairdryer before trying to remove it. This reduces the risk of the plastic cracking.

There is a grommet fillling a hole near to the pollen filter housing.... it might be worth checking that. Quite a few people use that to route large power cables for amps, etc - in my case I have the cable for my radar/laser detector going through it.

Now then, that last comment is interesting - standing at the front of the car looking rearwards, there is a small hole in the bulkhead, just to the left of the pollen filter ( 3 -4 inches from memory) and just bigger than a 1p coin. I didn't suspect this as the culprit cos it's a good 1.5 inches off the base of the scuttle housing floor - only mine doesn't have a grommet in it. Is this what yer meaning??

Given my leak occurred when the front of the car was raised, I guess this could be the cause??

Sounds very much like it could be the cause

Now i now this is an old thread but please someone help :(

Was having a go at this to fit my VDO gauges. Using the cutaways as suggested and got no where but a hair line crack in the windscreen, to say i was close to tears is an understatement as i was as gentle as can be.

Now i can get my hand under the scuttle panel but it feels like it steps down again to cover the clips so i can't get the them without really lifting the whole half panel quite a bit and didn't do this in the first place as i was being careful.

Anymore ideas or am i going to have to get the big extension out for the hair dryer?