Mike Strawbridge

How to Change Taillight Bulbs on a Jeep Cherokee

The brake, turn signal, back up and running lights are all housed inside the taillight housing. In order to change any of these bulbs, you must remove the tail light housing.

In Cherokee’s built after 1990, the housing is held in place by three bolts with 10MM heads. On the 1990 and earlier there is a fourth bolt at the bottom that is very hard to access due to the way the bumper cap is made. Jeep replaced this bolt in the later Jeeps with a flange that the light housing slips over.

To remove the housing, open the hatch and locate the bolts. I usually use a ratchet and a 6 inch extension to turn the bolts.

Once the bolts are out, tilt the housing from the top to remove it from the body. Be careful with the wires and the bulb sockets as you tilt it out.

To remove a bulb socket, twit the socket 1/3 of a turn and pull it out of the hole. To install note that one tab is larger and will only go back in one way. Line up the tabs and twist 1/3 of a turn.

Installing the housing can be tricky as the ground prongs on the bulb sockets sometimes hang. Gently work them into the holes using before pressing the housing into place.

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Tags: jeep repair tail light

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 19th, 2011 at 12:34 PM and is filed under Car repair, Jeep. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.