Hey fellas...

Ever since I bought my XJ, when I opened the rear cargo door the dome lights would not come on. For a while I figured this was normal until I did some research. I suspected there was a wiring issue somewhere in the latch/door that wasn't working, but then I noticed that the button on my dome light was broken. It would not push in. I figured this might have been the issue. I got an old dome light assembly with a good switch in it, and went to work.

This is not a how-to, as i'm not sure this would be the fix for everybody who has this problem. Just something that worked for me with some pictures.

I got bored tonight doing my homework.. so please excuse the text book in the background lol

the gray assembly is mine, the tan is my donor.. they look similar but have different light bracket assemblies



flipping them over exposes the square black switch that is held in my that little plastic bracket.. pop that off with a flat-head screw driver, then remove the little black switch



i removed my switch from the plastic bracket, and the donor switch from the tan assembly.. it acctually had a harness plug for it.. mine i had to cut to remove.


discard old crap


clipped my old switch out, clipped the old switch from its harness.. and used two butt connectors to secure it in.. not the prettiest.. but it works!


dark with the door closed


tada!!


without grabbing my multi-meter and testing... im pretty sure the switch was broken in an "open position" not completing a circuit necessary to allow the cargo hatch's open voltage to go through..

so in all reality.. i could have just cut the wires to the switch, and most likely wire them together to complete the circuit permanently... im not 100 percent sure, it could be tested easily, but I just fixed the switch...
maybe this will help someone else having the same problem

Jared

 

Thanks, is exactly the issue in mine...now only to find a donor switch here...

 

great! i was hoping this would help some people out