LED Map light install - broken dome light housing tab (ugh)

[Hroc65]

By far the dumbest effing design ever. Those clips are like the jaws of death.

Drivers side clip stayed inside the bracket and the bracket separated from the plastic housing on the roof.

Passenger side clip broke off.

I got the lights in. Yay.

But now I have a map light housing that does not sit flush. I have a gap and it’s loose.

Any suggestions on how I can get it to sit flush again? I’m gonna try gorilla glue and electrical tape around the broken clip to get it to grab into the clip again...hopefully.

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[Ghost50]

ouch. I feel your pain, man.

eventually I bought a new one and vowed I’d never take that thing off again.

love the ingenuity to make it work after snapping that post though!!

 

[IncisionInd]

Yeah I had the same thing happen to me when I took mine out, the plastic tabs just ripped right out. Replaced the housing and promised I would not take it out again and would just remove the lease covers...

All that being said I will be putting some extra housings in the for sale section soon. I have a couple extras and I ended up selling the mustang.

 

[sabtaj1]

The lens just pops right out rather than pull whole housing. Its way easier and wont damage housing.

 

[Hroc65]

My Maplight Broken clip fix worked like a charm.In fact it works better than the factory clip. I am able to pull the map light housing down without resistance and it snaps back in flush...

 

[TorqueMaster]

Those G******ED clips! I fought with them switching the dome light to LED, and now I'm fighting them taking off the rear trunk panel.

Reading older posts, and watching videos, it seems like they must have changed vendors on these clips at some point -- what used to be reasonably forceful disassembly has become potentially destructive removal. Some folks have broken the plastic headliner! Older clips had a less square shoulder, so they come out easier. Install is the same so likely Ford doesn't GAF. Bet their techs do...

Is there a correct forum to curse Ford, who -- based on words out of my mouth during my last disassembly -- are clearly the male offspring of female dogs, and have copulated with my mother? I'm sure I'll be posting again...

Edit -- adding clip damage image. Sheetmetal bent up, plastic tabs luckily survived. I did everything I could to reach behind the sheetmetal to pre-compress the clips, but there's not really enough room. Only 1 of 4 came out "easily."

 

[20ducks]

Same situation with mine. Some engineer is laughing his ass off about this.

 

[alandw]

Hey folks - first post in this forum - I've come over from the dark (Mopar) side.
After reading a ton of these threads on removing the overhead console, no one seems to have posted related to a convertible. The console mounts on plastic - not a cloth headliner - so on the re-install, the fit will be critical to no rattles. I tried pulling down, using a plastic prybar, squeezing, etc. I cannot get this off - and hesitating to really manhandle it after reading all the disasters. Has anyone done a convertible? Is it different - maybe has a different way to "release" the consolde?
Thanks for the help.

 

[sabtaj1]

Hey folks - first post in this forum - I've come over from the dark (Mopar) side.
After reading a ton of these threads on removing the overhead console, no one seems to have posted related to a convertible. The console mounts on plastic - not a cloth headliner - so on the re-install, the fit will be critical to no rattles. I tried pulling down, using a plastic prybar, squeezing, etc. I cannot get this off - and hesitating to really manhandle it after reading all the disasters. Has anyone done a convertible? Is it different - maybe has a different way to "release" the consolde?
Thanks for the help.

should be able to just pop the lenses out as well. This is much easier than the whole unit.

 

[Redlightdistrict]

So I went to put these DD map light LEDs in since it's, well, very straight forward. According to the internet, it's the easiest thing to do - pry dome light housing down from the back, pop out bulbs, put in new ones.

For whatever reason, my dome light housing took a LOT more force to undo than any other video on the internet I've seen, when it finally did pop out, half of the passenger side plastic mounting tab stayed inside of the metal clip that retains it. Of course this would happen to me. Anyway, now it's very loose and wiggles a lot. Am I the only one this has happened to/how could I attempt to repair the tab or at least make it wiggle less without spending I'm sure $100+ for a new housing.

Dumb.

Check ebay i got alot of things like that off there

 

[Bullitt$Bill]

This happened to me when changing out my LEDs. More trouble than I recall when the kit was installed in my 2016 car. After the bulb holder backed out of its mount, I tried to pull the housing down, but was afraid to have to break something just to learn the trick. So the first thing I did was search the forum and found this thread.

I put a headlight on my head and angled the light to the gap above the housing. I even had to raise the seat to get my head up to the roof and peek in there. I saw the two clips and instantly recognized the Jaws of Death metal clips. I remember how these don't release properly from when I was working on my dash.

I inserted a regular #2 screwdriver and pried the metal tabs away from the plastic slot, working both tabs of each clip evenly, and on both clips, until the housing came loose with no issues.

Then I pushed the driver's side bulb holder back in place, followed by the DD LED, and then pushed the assembly back in place.

And all this from using the pry-the-lens-out method from the outset!

Here is a photo of my technique for the clips.

This DOES work. It’s not exactly easy but if you pry it down with your fingers a little you can get a small screwdriver in there. A little prying on each side of the tab pushing that metal clip inwards and it will come out without breaking anything.

I too put the seat all the way up and used a head mounted light so I could see. Thanks GTP!!

To get the bulbs out I used the same small screwdriver to depress a small tab on either side of the socket. It then pulled out one side at a time.

 

[thompsje]

This DOES work. It’s not exactly easy but if you pry it down with your fingers a little you can get a small screwdriver in there. A little prying on each side of the tab pushing that metal clip inwards and it will come out without breaking anything.

I too put the seat all the way up and used a head mounted light so I could see. Thanks GTP!!

To get the bulbs out I used the same small screwdriver to depress a small tab on either side of the socket. It then pulled out one side at a time.

Just wanted to say thanks for posting this, and I will confirm that it DOES work. Push the metal clips in and remove them from the headliner. You'll never get the plastic tabs out of the metal clips without breaking them. Still took me way longer than I was expecting, but no casualties.

WTF Ford? I can just see some engineer being "don't want it to come loose, huh? Try THIS!"

 

[rothrj91]

I was able to replace my dome lights by prying down on the housing enough to fit a small hook and pick set in there to depress those little tabs on the clip. Definitely not the easiest to do and for sure not as easy as the Diode Dynamics installation video perceives.

Also, those clips are designed that way for crash so they don't come loose during impact.

 

[Scott]

I see that CJ Pony Parts has just released a new video for 18-21 Mustangs.

 

[velocityblue5.0]

guys, sorry to bring up an old thread gbut i just got a 2021, and its aboslutely ridiculous that this map housing wont come down. im doing all the methods. i see the two tabs. yet it will not budge. i did the lens method and of course my dumbass pushed the entire housing inside, so now im screwed. is there any other suggestion??? this sucks. its the same housing since 05, yet they change clips and this is nothing like my 2014. ridiculos

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