Yesterday, I used my usual careful tug on the engine bay cover to remove it to get access to the battery. Despite my efforts to be gentle with it, the peg on it that engages a rubber grommeted hole near the battery tray broke clean right off. It made no sound or any extra resistance to give me some warning that this time I was pulling on it differantly. The cover will cost me near $90 to replace it. So be careful everyone when pulling these covers off.

 

or you can pop the peg near the battery tray first before you start popping off the other clips.. lol

 

I think the cause was probably the engine heat made the plastic cover hard and brittle allowing it to snap clean right off. The peg had no signs of being bent or twisted off. For all I know, it may have snapped off from vibration, long before I attemped to pop the cover off.

 

mine came off already as i snapped it, just epoxy it back on and it works fine.. infact works better then before.