My 98 XJ didn't come with rear speakers. I'm wondering though if it is wired for them. If it was wired for them where would I find the ends of the speaker wires? It has the wires in the harness at the head unit.

 

What year XJ? Mine ('92) has the connectors behind the trim panel in the D pillar, passenger side.

 

My '89 has them behind the trim panel on the liftgate. No speakers, but the wires are there.

 

So it looks like for the most part I should be looking in the back. I'll take a look back there since it has finally stopped raining in portland for the day.

 

@F1Addict, I just checked out your trip threads, very cool pics. It's good to see I'm not the only Cherokee owner that follows F1. Cheers!

 

If it had speakers in the hatch, the wires will come through the harness with things like the lock wiring (if you've got that). If you had a speaker bar, they'd be, I believe, in the roof at the very back. I think the first step would be to carefully remove the rear hatch interior panel - get the right tool, or everything breaks - and peek in there. That said, I've only /looked/ at 97+ Cherokee interiors: I drive old school.

 

I think that the 98's only had them mounted on the roof and not in the hatch. At least mine and all of the 98's I have ever seen never had them in the hatch.

 

None of the 97+ xjs had hatch mounted speakers, they did away with that when they went to steel lift gates. All xjs are wired for rear speakes, no sense making a bunch of different wiring harnesses.

 

Do you know what month your jeep was made that year? 97 and early 98 had the detachable speaker bar, if yours is a early then just find a speaker bar, but if yours is a later 98 then some one before you has taken out or modified your ceiling panel

 

The 98s have the molded headliner with built in speakers it they were installed from the factory. If not it will be a flat headliner. But like mentioned you should be able to install a sound bar from an earlier model.

 

My wife bought the XJ from the original owner when it was a year or so old so I don't think the sound bar was ever installed. I'll dig up those speaker wires though and maybe try and find a sound bar at a junk yard.

 

Got a pic of the area?

 

Might be but by the sounds of it, if his is a early 98' though he might have gotten left over stock of the 97' kinda like how early 97' got the left over stock of 96- hinges.