2014 TC Headliner Removal

[tp_connectic]

(NOTE: I need to come back and add the rest of the pics in, they're far too large and I ran out of space. When I have a few min to shrink them all down I will.)

Hello! About a month ago I put some rhino rack roof racks on my TC. Step 1 was removal of the headliner. I'll post the rest of my install separately but getting the liner info up first. 

 

I'll post in the order I think you *should* perform the headliner drop, not the order I actually performed it. (There were a few mistakes!)

 

1. Pop all your rear overhead lights out and disconnect. The lights all have a side that easily swivels down without a lot of force, then using a screwdriver or plastic pry bar you should be able to pop it off the semi-hinge in the headliner plastic that retains it. Gently lower the light and pull the plugs off the metal contacts in the lights. Each has two plugs on it. 

2. I placed the rear lights in the side magazine-type slots for safe keeping. Note you don't want to tug too much on the cables that run to the lights because they are (poorly) glued to the headliner.

3. Drop the forward light as much as possible and disconnect. I can't remember if you can access all the plugs, the front light is a bit more complicated. As long as you have a helper you can finish disconnecting once you drop the liner.

**Drop Forward Headliner**

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1. Pop off the A pillar plastic fairings toward the top (headliner). I don't think you need to completely remove them, but it takes a little abuse to pop the headliner out.

2. Remove the plastic pop-fasteners just behind the front seats that join the front and rear headliner portions. 

3. If you have GPS (I think) there is a plastic cover just under the mirror that you will want to pop off, and free the little GPS box (or whatever it is). I can't recall if you can actually disconnect it, but it's not particularly important either way.

4. Drop the overhead bins/map light/etc assembly. This is pretty straightforward, there are a bunch of screws that hold it up that are easy to find I think two are covered by plastic clips. You'll probably want a helper, this thing is awkward to support solo and disconnect all the wires, but it can be done. You will have to disconnect wires to pull it all the way out of the car, pretty straight forward.

5. Wiggle the headliner down, the pillar plastic trim will be holding it up, but it's fairly compliant so you can drop it. You will want to position the seats so that it does NOT drop all the way. There are some cables that you can't disconnect (or at least I didn't bother). Cable that I didn't disconnect shown below. 

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6. IMPORTANT! In the picture below I show a little disconnect that is on the passenger side of the car right where the headliners come together; it resides on the forward side of the body stiffener. This is the power connection from the front headliner to the rear headliner, and the reason you have to drop the front headliner first; you will want to pop it off the retaining clip and disconnect. You can also see part of the connector on the lower left side of the headliner pic.

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** Remove Rear Headliner**

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This is fairly straight forward other than the coat hooks with "AIRBAG" on them.

7. Pop off the rear door plastic cover on the ceiling that covers the latch points for the rear doors, it comes off easy.

8. Pop all the visible plastic pop-fasteners out.

9. Disconnect seat belt mounts, it's a torx 45 bit (if i remember correctly). Then remove or loosen all of the plastic pillar fairings as appropriate, careful with the rear-most ones, there are a few clips that are easy to snap off, just pull gently.

10. The absolute most maddening part is the coat hooks, they're simple but impossible to understand without knowing how they work. If you pry up the little plastic cover that says airbag with a screw driver you can slide the screw driver up into the body of the hook. The body of the hook can be pried out (don't worry that little flap can take a lot of abuse). It slides directly out and releases the retention arms grabbing the frame of the car. Once you pop the body out you can just twist the hook 90 degrees and it comes right out.

 

 

11. Assuming you properly disconnected the power cable, you should be good to drop the headliner! It takes a bit of flexing, you will have to pop it out from some of the black weather-stripping, but it's not too rough. Now that I think back... I guess you could have left the lights in the headliner for the rear part! I did not, probably safer to pop them out anyway.

 

Other notes: 

- The headliner is a fiberglass sandwich. If you are particularly sensitive probably wear gloves. The top and bottom are coated and will not bother you, but the edges are raw and will get you a little itchy.

- The glue that retains the power cables to the headliners is super crummy. I didn't want to get too creative and stain or bleed a chemical through the liner trying to reattach, so I just attempted to superglue the cables back to the original glue. Not an amazing idea, barely held together. I think the best plan would be a hot glue gun and just run a new strip of hot glue to retain the cable. Not really necessary though.

- I broke a few of the retention clips for the pillar plastics by prying aggressively; only one area is it notably loose, and I think it's only noticeable to me... oh well.

- Lights on the TC Titaniums seem to be done differently. If you have a titanium these instructions may not be perfect.

Edited May 28, 2019 by tp_connectic

[Fifty150]

Great tutorial

[tp_connectic]

A note in case you don’t need full access to the ceiling under the forward headliner. You could probably just drop the plastic bin assembly and the plastic pop fasteners that join the forward and rear headliner. It might give you just enough room to get to the power disconnect. It’s a crappy angle though, so hard to say for sure!

[Double Nickels]

Awesome photo.  That really helps.

[BSUPC]

This is a nice write up. Thank you for creating this for the community. 

[FamilyWagon]

Thanks for this write up! Very thorough, but I admit I'm still nervous to tackle the project.

[Russell]

Heya! Great writeup for exactly what I'm trying to do now: installing a Thule TracRac.  

 

Got a quick question: I'm unable to get the coat hooks out. I've levered a screwdriver up in there but there doesn't appear to be any give at all. If I force it any more I'll likely break the little flap - it's already askew from trying to get it out.

 

Seems like one of those things that's super easy once you know the trick. Any advice?

[Russell]

Just as a follow-up: Turns out I was able to get the hooks out with a pair of blunt pliers. A screwdriver might have worked, but the amount of levering it required was bending the plastic to the point where there's now a crease. The pliers made it easier just to pull it straight out.

[Fifty150]

You should film it. I want to see a video of what you had to do.

[Russell]

Will do!

 

Hey @tp_connectic, once you got the headliner down how did you access the holes from inside? The last set (in the rear) are easy enough to get to, but the others appear to be blocked either by the cross-members or the tracks for the sliding doors. 

 

Edit: Found this other thread that covers the same ground. Looks like the trick is to send the bolts up through the roof rather than down. This lets you use a hex key to hold the bolt in place instead of trying to get a socket or crescent up in there to hold the nut: 

 

Edited February 11, 2020 by Russell

[REI_Grande]

Update with pictures please

[Alexamh9]

Has anyone attempted this on the previous generation? I have a 2012 and a rack that needs installing.