How To Remove Jeep Doors AND Keep The Dome Light Turned Off

by Lynnette

Jeep Doors, Lights, Wrangler, Wrangler Unlimited

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Shari B. asked about taking Jeep doors off an ’04 Wrangler:

“How do I get the doors off my Wrangler without tearing them up?”

Jeep Wrangler with the doors off. See our tips to keep the dome light off (where the red arrow is).

Here’s how…

(It’s pretty simple, really.)

 

How To Remove Jeep Doors

These instructions show how we remove the doors from our 2004 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited:

#1. Fold the mirror in (on the outside of the door).

#2. Remove the black strap that keeps the door from swinging out too far when you open it.

#3. Unscrew the nuts on the bottom of the 2 bolts that hold the door on.

Jim pointing to the nut found at the bottom of each door hinge on the Jeep Wrangler.   Pointing to the 2 door hinges on the Jeep Wrangler door.

To do that, we use a 13mm socket (or crescent wrench). Just be careful, so you don’t scratch the paint off the nuts too much.

Pointing to the 2 door hinges on the Jeep Wrangler door.  The socket wrench and 2 nuts we removed from one Jeep door.

 

#4. Carefully lift the door straight up (while holding on tightly to the door). The bolts are actually attached to the top part of the door hinge, so they won’t “fall out” or anything.

Lifting the Jeep door up and out of the hinges. Holding the Jeep door we just removed from its hinges.

 

How To Turn Off The Jeep Dome Light

After the Jeep door removal process, you’re going to need one of these Lights Out Door Clips to shut the interior dome light off inside the Jeep:

Lights off spring-loaded Jeep door clips

Otherwise the dome light will stay on in your Jeep whenever the doors are off.

You could also pull out that particular fuse — as long as you’ll remember to put it back in when you put the Jeep doors back on.

Here are some other good ways to keep the dome light off:

 

How To Put Jeep Doors Back On

Jim trying to singlehandedly put the Jeep door back on. It's tricky to line up the 2 bolts with the 2 hinges yourself. The process of removing Jeep doors is pretty much a one-person job that only takes a matter of minutes.

However, to put the Jeep doors back on, you might want an extra set of hands to help you line those bolts back up with the hinges.

You simply line up the bottom of the bolts that are still in the door hinges with the tops of the door hinges themselves.

This can be a little bit tricky because you have to line it up just right so the bolts in the top and bottom door hinges line up perfectly at the same time.

It’s not that hard to do, just takes a little patience.