Jeep Renegade Daystar 40" KC LED Light Bar Installation Write-Up

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
If you're anything like us and plan on using your Jeep Renegade to head out into the wilderness and well into the night, a new Daystar 40" KC LED Light Bar System is an upgrade that I would highly recommend. The LED light bar comes with a combo beam pattern that provides both spot and spread reflectors to give you maximum lighting off road and the Daystar roof mount brackets can be installed in minutes and requires no drilling. That being said, the light bar itself will require you to figure out how to wire it up and being that we didn't want to run it down the windshield or drill a hole in the roof, we decided to get a little creative and this write-up will illustrate what we ultimately ended up doing.

What you will need
40" Jeep Renegade LED Light Bar Kit - KJ81000BK
• 5mm Allen Wrench
• 10mm socket
• Small Flathead Screwdriver
• Phillips Screwdriver
• Wire Cutter
• 14 Gauge Red Wire
• 14 Gauge Black Wire
• Solderless Terminals
• Electrical Tape
• Drill
• Small Unibit
• Trim Stick
• Wiring Conduit
• Metal Coat Hanger

Instructions
Here's a shot of everything you will get with your new Daystar 40" KC LED Light Bar Kit.
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1. Starting on the passenger side of your Renegade, use a small flathead screw driver to carefully remove the 2 forward most bolt covers on top of the roof rack rails as shown.
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2. Use a 5mm Allen Wrench to loosen the 2 forward most bolts securing the roof rack rails to the top of your Renegade.
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3. Lift up on the roof rack rail and then slide the passenger side Daystar light mount underneath it as shown. The bracket does have a cutout on the base of it and it will need to be aligned with the base of the roof rack rail.
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4. Using a 5mm Allen Wrench, secure the roof rack rails to the top of your Renegade by tightening the 2 forward most bolts.
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5. Reinstall the 2 forward most bolt covers on top of the roof rack rails as shown.
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6. Move over to the driver side of your Renegade and then use a small flathead screw driver to carefully remove all 4 bolt covers on top of the roof rack rails as shown.
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7. Use a 5mm Allen Wrench to loosen all 4 bolts securing the roof rack rails to the top of your Renegade.
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8. Carefully remove the driver side roof rack rail. The rail will be snapped into a plastic retaining clip at the rear end of your Renegade and you will need to carefully pry it out. Set your roof rack rail aside for now.
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9. Carefully lift up the front of the plastic trim mounted to the top of your Renegade until it comes free of its retaining clip.
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10. Again, carefully lift up the rear of the plastic trim mounted to the top of your Renegade until it comes free of its retaining clip. The middle section of the plastic trim is glued in place so you will not be able to remove it completely.
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11. Starting from the front, take both of your new red and black wires and slide it underneath the plastic trim.
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12. Slide both red and black wires underneath the back of plastic trim.
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13. Tuck the red and then the black wires in between the plastic trim and roof as shown.
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14. Using a small flathead screw driver, carefully embed the wires in place.
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15. Reinstall the front of the plastic trim by pressing down on it until it snaps in place.
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16. Reinstall the rear half of the plastic trim by pressing down on it until it snaps in place.
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17. The rearmost plastic trim is glued in place and cannot be removed. Use a drill with a small unibit to drill a hole into the back of the trim as shown.
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18. Open up your Renegade's rear hatch and then feed both the red and black wires through the hole until they can be pulled out the back as shown.
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19. Go back to your work bench, open up your KC LED Light Bar box, located one of the larger Allen bolts, insert it into the Daystar driver side light mount and install one of the rubber grommets onto the thread as show.
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20. Secure the Daystar light bracket to the KC LED Light Bar until it's just snut using the Allen Wrench provided with the kit.
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21. The wiring coming out of the KC LED Light Bar is long and the plug on the end of it is quite large and being that we decided to run everything underneath the roof rack rails, we needed to cut the extra length off. To begin this step, use a razor to cut around the outer insulator being careful not to damage the red and black wires inside.
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22. Pull the outer insulator apart to expose more of the red and black wires inside.
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23. Use wire cutters to cut the red and black wires.
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24. Place a fabric tarp or towel on top of your roof and then place the KC LED Light Bar on top of it.
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25. Install solderless terminals on to the ends of the KC LED Light Bar red and black wires and on the ends of the wires you ran under the plastic roof trim.
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26. Connect the red wires together as well as the black wires together and wrap them in some electrical tape.
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27. Reinstall the driver side roof rack rail. You will need to make sure to snap in the rear end of it back into the plastic retaining clip next to the spoiler.
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28. Using a 5mm Allen Wrench, secure the roof rack rails to the top of your Renegade by tightening all 4 bolts.
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29. Reinstall all 4 bolt covers on top of the roof rack rails as shown and then remove the foam covering.
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Here's a shot of what the driver side Daystar bracket looks like installed along with the wiring passing under the roof rack rail under the rubber weather seal.
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30. Secure the KC LED Light Bar to the passenger side of the Daystar mount using the remaining rubber grommet and large Allen bolt that came with the kit. Adjust the position of the light bar to where you want it to be and then use the Allen Wrench provided with the kit to tighten it in place.
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31. Using the Allen Wrench provided with the kit, tighten the driver side bolt as well.
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32. Go to the back of your Renegade, open up the rear hatch and then use a trim stick to pry off the access panel on the driver side interior trim. NOTE: You will need to pry from the forward edge of the panel as shown.
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33. Looking inside the access port, you will see a large white wing screw with a spring attached to the body toward the back of your Renegade. Remove this screw by turning it counter-clockwise.
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34. You should now be able to pull the driver side rear tail lamp assembly away from the body of your Renegade.
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35. Reach behind the tail lamp assembly and unplug it from the wiring harness.
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36. Phish the red and black wires you installed previously down the rear quarter panel of your Renegade as shown.
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37. Use a phillips screwdriver to remove the 1 screw securing the fender liner to the bottom of the rear bumper and the 3 screws securing it to the side of it.
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38. Pull back the inner fender liner, locate the red and black wires you phished down in step #36 and then pull them through.
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39. Wrap your red and black wires with electrical conduit and leave a gap where the wires will need to feed behind the tail lamp assembly.
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40. Plug your tail lamp assembly back into the wiring harness.
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41. Reinstall your tail lamp assembly making sure that the red and black wires feed through the small slot in the gasket as shown.
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42. Secure the tail lamp assembly in place by reinstalling and tightening the large white wing screw with the spring attached. You will need to turn the screw clockwise to tighten it in place.
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43. Reinstall the access panel back on to the rear trim.
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44. Back under the driver side rear fender, remove the screw securing the fender liner to the rocker trim using a phillips screwdriver.
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45. Using a 10mm socket, remove the plastic nut securing the fender liner to the body of your Renegade just behind the rear door.
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46. Feed the red and black wire wrapped in conduit up and over the fender liner and then connect them to the KC LED Light Bar wiring that you cut back on step #23. While you can use solderless butt connectors to do this, I opted to solder them on and shrink wrap them to help ensure extra water protection.
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47. Feed the wiring down into the cavity behind the rocker trim and then secure the fender liner back in place by reinstalling the plastic nut and phillips head screw.
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48. Open the hood of your Renegade, take the wiring loom that comes with the KC LED Light Bar and feed the round plug end of it through the fender and toward the driver side door as shown. Push the plug through the black foam inserts that sit between the fender just in front of the door hinges. Note, there are multiple black foam inserts and you can slip the wiring between them.
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49. Open the driver side door and pull the wiring loom all the way through as shown.
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50. Under the driver side front wheel well, use a phillips screwdriver to remove the screw securing the fender liner to the base of the rocker trim.
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51. Pull back the fender liner, pull the wiring loom through and then feed it down into the cavity behind the rocker trim as shown.
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52. Reinstall the fender liner and use the factory phillips screw to secure it to the rocker trim.
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53. Pull the wiring loom through the back of the rocker trim, plug it in to the KC LED Light Bar lead and lock it in.
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54. Make sure all the wiring is tucked up and out of the way and then secure it in place by zip tying it to the holes on the rocker trim brackets as shown.
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55. Back under the hood, remove the plastic cover on top of your battery by pushing on the 2 tabs and lifting up.
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56. Connect the ring terminal of the black wire extending from the wiring loom onto the negative battery lead. You will need a 10mm socket to remove and reinstall the nut.
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57. Connect the ring terminal of the red wire extending from the wiring loom onto the positive lead. You will need a 10mm socket to remove and reinstall the nut.
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58. Reinstall the plastic cover on to your battery.
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59. Look underneath your dash and you will find a rubber plug on the firewall near the brake pedal. Use a flathead screwdriver to help you pry it off.
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60. Phish a straightened out metal coat hanger up through the firewall and up toward the battery.
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61. Tape the wiring loom to the coat hanger and then pull everything back into the cab of your Renegade.
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62. Cut a small slit into the rubber plug, feed the wiring loom through the slit and then reinstall the plug into the firewall.
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You will need to determine where you want to install your switch and the kit comes with a wiring diagram to show you how to hook it up. I haven't installed my switch as of yet as I'm still waiting for Daystar to release their A-Pillar switch pod as I plan to use it.
 
Here are a few shots of what the light bar looks like installed.
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And, here are a few shots of what they look like when turned on.
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Yes, it really is crazy bright!
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I hope you've found this write-up to be helpful to you. As I had mentioned earlier, this was just my solution to getting my Daystar 40" KC LED Light Bar installed and wired up without having to run anything down the windshield or drilling through the roof. Please let me know if you have any questions.
 
Glad you were able to find a way to install it without drilling into the roof!

LOL - me too!! I was hoping to make this a ZERO drill install but alas, I found the plastic trim on the roof to be glued in place. Still better than drilling a hole through the roof though :D
 
Wow. Great creative way to wire it. Looks like a lot of work. Light looks good. I like the darker trim inside of it, more of a smoked look.
 
Best install for roof lighting. It looks like you also replaced your headlights, drl and fogs. What bulbs did you use?
 
Wire protection

After step 18 the wires are dangling down, is there any sort of restraint you used to keep the wires from rubbing when you shut the trunk?

I can run my conduit up to about 3" from the top but after that it would just be pinched when I try to close the trunk.

The wires need to be tied back flush against the vehicle to prevent them from rubbing when I did the installation.
 
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