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Stock XJ Cherokee Tech. All XJ Non-modified/stock questions go hereXJ (84-01)
All OEM related XJ specific tech. Examples, no start, general maintenance or anything that's stock.
Another dumb issue I can't really figure out what to do about. The previous owner pretty much broke every plastic tab he could find in my XJ.
The little "round" plastic tabs in the dome-light are no exception. I have always been missing one, and never had any screws for the dome light though it always held itself up without any major issues
Now, it seems that the stress/vibration of daily driving it has caused the one remaining tab to become too "thin" to grab the keyway that the plastic tabs normally slot into.
I can get the tab lined up with the hole, but when I slide it "back" to seat it in the groove (keyway or whatever), it is falling through, I suspect because the plastic tab has had too much material removed.
Does anyone know where the heck I can find new plastic tabs like this? I have been to the junkyard 3 or 4 times this year, and ALL OF THE XJ's have their dome lights removed. I have no idea why - maybe the guys at the yard grab them to sell on ebay, who the hell knows.
Anyways - I was going to go to ace and see if I might be able to figure something out with a nut/bolt combo but that seems extra prone to rattles
Pic of what I'm talking about. The white tab with the "plus" pattern that is missing towards the bottom (its a round hole where the peg should go) is what I am trying to find/replicate
I just looked at mine and it's not separate from the larger white piece in your picture.
I suppose it would be possible to make something work with the right size nuts and bolts, but looking at the clearances involved you might have to get creative.
For example, it might work if you were able to superglue a nut on the bottom and thread a bolt in from the top to get the clearance right, but you'd have to cut down the bolt to make sure it doesn't contact the RKE module
Took me a bit to figure out what was wrong. I just so happens that I have my dome light in my hand because I took my headliner out. So do this. See that white sticker. There are two holes under it. That is where the screws go through that secure it to the headliner. I am thinking that even though you are missing one dome that goes into the bracket attached to the roof the one you have and the 2 screws should secure it pretty good. Just so you know. To me that looks like Camel or Saddle in color. There is a difference. Saddle being a little more orange. I am guessing Saddle because it says '98 under your name. Saddle is a '97 and '98 color. Camel is '99 to '01. I am telling you this because if you do find one, Ebay, Craigslist, etc, people with say that it is for '97 to '01. That is true as far as fitment goes but not true as far as matching your interior goes.
I just looked at mine and it's not separate from the larger white piece in your picture.
I suppose it would be possible to make something work with the right size nuts and bolts, but looking at the clearances involved you might have to get creative.
For example, it might work if you were able to superglue a nut on the bottom and thread a bolt in from the top to get the clearance right, but you'd have to cut down the bolt to make sure it doesn't contact the RKE module
Yeah, your right - I didn't think about the remote module
Only way that would work out is to try and "transfer" the nub to that side and rig something up for the side that has clearance. I was thinking a bolt that is similar size and making a "slider" to fit in the keyhole slot or whatever its called
Originally Posted by Ralph77
Took me a bit to figure out what was wrong. I just so happens that I have my dome light in my hand because I took my headliner out. So do this. See that white sticker. There are two holes under it. That is where the screws go through that secure it to the headliner. I am thinking that even though you are missing one dome that goes into the bracket attached to the roof the one you have and the 2 screws should secure it pretty good. Just so you know. To me that looks like Camel or Saddle in color. There is a difference. Saddle being a little more orange. I am guessing Saddle because it says '98 under your name. Saddle is a '97 and '98 color. Camel is '99 to '01. I am telling you this because if you do find one, Ebay, Craigslist, etc, people with say that it is for '97 to '01. That is true as far as fitment goes but not true as far as matching your interior goes.
You are correct, I always get those colors confused. I do have the darker "saddle" interior in my '98
It never came with the screws but I would assume the standard trim screws for everywhere else would work in there (otherwise I can just get some self-tappers from Ace and get a little creative
Really appreciate the advice guys!
And after driving it around, it looks like the actual map lights are flopping around from not having any pressure behind them (loudest part of the rattle). But regardless, even before this the dome light would fall down and hit me in the head once every few months. Usually when I am merging with traffic during a blizzard or performing some other crazy evasive maneuver
Going to mess around with it after work and see what I can do about it.
Last edited by investinwaffles; 06-27-2016 at 05:19 PM.
Found both of these already. Would rather have found one at the JY but if the screws don't fix it I am going to just buy the $30 one I think (though it looks like its in worse shape externally than my current one)
Oh yeah, looks exactly like the other interior screws
Stupid - I can't believe I even missed that there were screws up there. I did retrofit an LED panel in the dome light so I may have forgotten to really look (i'm assuming the screws are "inside" the main dome-lamp cover
Jeze I figured it out - it's not the actual dome light that is loose - it is the inner "white" frame that is loose inside the actual housing.
Those brown looking "mushroom caps" that were sonically welded to keep the two peices together failed on one side.
Picking up some JB Weld on the way home to see if I can salvage it (should be fine I think).
BUT - I don't know if there were ever screws in the dome light - I can see where the holes are where screws should go - but I do not see anything in the roof structure that they will actually secure to?
As far as I can tell, they are way too wide to actually grab the center metal bracket. Am I missing some sort of cross-bar? Screws would pretty much solve my issue and I wouldn't need another tab really
the red dots are where my eyeballs say the screws would go
What is that? Here is my bracket. Believe or not I took these for somebody else on who needed to see them on a forum. Will go out back and take a picture of my headliner and show you where my screws go. Mine is an '00 by the way.
Maybe when you put the dome light plastic pieces in the holes and push it back in the slots that front piece between the red dots goes up in the dome light to support it?????
Maybe when you put the dome light plastic pieces in the holes and push it back in the slots that front piece between the red dots goes up in the dome light to support it?????
Yeah, the clip does engage but it will rattle loose at some point. Now the white plastic frame is secured to the actual bracket (well, secured with the clip thing, and the white plastic nub in the keyhole), but the actual colored plastic housing is not secured with anything except with those mushroom-plastic-fused caps during assembly (and the plastic is brittle and failed on one side, the side that actually clips in).
Result is that the actual white frame is fairly secure, but the colored housing now is allowed to droop away from the frame, causing it to rattle and "sag" off the headline (not sitting flush)
Secondarily, I think I am missing those threaded inserts in the headliner because mine is completely absent of those. Additionally, the sticker in the dome light has never been pierced so maybe Jeep just got lazy on my XJ, lol
Gotta love Cherokee forum though - I would probably have banged my head against a wall for a few days before coming to the same conclusion but the input from you all has been extremely helpful. Thanks again guys - I'll post pics of the repair when I get to it (hoping tomorrow)? Only just got home and I already worked 14 hours - defying gravity to get this thing repaired properly isn't in the cards.
Very peculiar, I took a quick peek while I was making a run to the store and my ceiling bracket looks completely different than yours, Ralph
No screws to speak of and that sticker is 100% "sealed" and there definitely has never been a screw in through there. Nothing in the headliner either, no holes for the plastic looking push pins that secure that metal plate/threads.
I guess they saw the design deficiency after 30 years, or mine is just a weird bastard. Headliner in my rig appears to be original.
And the bracket clip actually goes into the main dome light housing (white part) and there is a clip on the inside (right under where the part number is in my picture). It does a a good job of keeping the thing in position, but the clip didn't seem to want to engage even after I spent a while fiddling with the bracket to get it to seat better.
I think part of it had to do with the fact that I didn't realize the inner frame is coming loose, and not the bracket itself coming loose from the roof! Will need to JB weld the crap out of that and see
The pic I posted earlier was actually from a few years ago, when I retrofitted LED panels into the main dome area. It would fall down at some point, I would put it back up and it would be fine for 3 or so months before falling back down. I assume the inner frame gave way recently and that's when it started getting more and more annoying, prompting this post
I wish I could be of more help. When we started this it seemed pretty cut and dry. Your dome light looks just like mine. But then you showed a picture of the bracket and the hole for it in the headliner and I was like whaat? Not that I know first hand but just assumed all '97 to '01 XJ's with dome lights would be the same. My understanding is that '97 and '98 headliners are different but that it is that the sound bar for the rear speakers is separate. Having never seen one up close and personal though not even sure about that. Wondering if you could get your hands on a plastic strip maybe 1/16" thick, length and width to be determined and secure it like the picture. Impressed by my technical design precision drawing skills? LOL.
06-27-2016, 12:01 PM
97+ XJ Dome Light plastic tabs??
