Hey all,

New Jeep owner and was wondering if it was normal for the rear dome light NOT to turn on whenever I open the rear door/liftgate on my '99 XJ? They turn on whenever I have any of the other four doors opened but not the rear. Any way to get this light on when I'm loading/unloading?

Anyone else with this issue? I thank you in advance!

Interesting question. Mine doesn't light up either on my '89 XJ. I bet if we looked closely we wouldn't find the pressure switch required to make the lights go on anywhere around our rear hatches.

Maybe I'm wrong.

Anyway, my solution was going to be to install two 12V lights in the actual lift gate themselves, wired to a switch near my spare tire. I'm wondering if I could steal power from my rear lights/trailer harness on the driver's side.

Try pushing on the cover some have switch in them.

if you have a switch it might be stuck or busted ... i broke mine a couple weeks ago just pushing it, now its stuck so i cant shut it off if hatch is open

My 99 sport has a switch on the hatch and it works fine, yours is bad or the wiring is broken somewhere back there.

On my 1996, the trigger for the dome light is inside the hatch at the clasp.
The clasp pushes a plunger switch.

I have heard that the trigger for the dome light on some XJs is inside the tailgate at the latch itself.
I have not verified this on my '96, however the dome light does not come on when I open my hatch either...............
It does come on if I open any of the other 4 doors.

I was planning on using a switch to just turn on the dome lights at the back somewhere.

On my 99 you can switch it to turn on or not with the gate open. dont know about other years though

edit: you do have a 99. Just press the light once and it should automatically go on and off. If not something's broken

My 96 has no switch or plunger and doesn't come on at all with just the hatch open.

is yurs like this OP?

I have a 98-- I can turn my dome lights off or on if I want by pushing on the light lens itself on the light in the rear cargo area near the hatch. There is a switch built in to the light lens. So if you don't want to scare the raccoons away at night when you open your hatch to grab your gun, you can turn it off by pushing on the lens. Pushing it again turns it back on.

Thanks for the pic, MountainDog. No, my light isn't like that. I also thought that by pushing it, it might come on but it doesn't at all. It's a new Jeep so I'm still finding out all sorts of stuff as it never came with an owner's manual either. Now that the weather is about to get nasty, I've been driving it more often. I'll take a look on the lift gate itself as some you have suggested.

What he said. . . . I have a '99 and that's the way it works.

Wait, this is a thing? I've had a '92, two '93s, and a '95, and I swear the hatch never turned a single dome on for me. I'm going to guess this a feature upgrade for you people and your fancy '97-'01s!

Both my 99 have exact same problem. It used o work just fine then one day it stopped turning on when opening the hatch, but it ll still work when one of four doors are open. I haven't gotten around trying o fix it. Lol