diff --git a/pkg/render/logstorage/kibana/kibana.go b/pkg/render/logstorage/kibana/kibana.go
index 94b9111772..4a5d1fd357 100644
--- a/pkg/render/logstorage/kibana/kibana.go
+++ b/pkg/render/logstorage/kibana/kibana.go
@@ -237,7 +237,15 @@ func (k *kibana) kibanaCR() *kbv1.Kibana {
 	var initContainers []corev1.Container
 	var volumes []corev1.Volume
 	var automountToken bool
-	var volumeMounts []corev1.VolumeMount
+	volumeMounts := []corev1.VolumeMount{
+		{
+			// We need to override this mount and change the mountPath. Otherwise, ECK will mount an emptyDir in the
+			// original location (/usr/share/kibana/plugins), which would remove our custom theme resulting in
+			// crash-looping pods, because our custom config is unexpected.
+			Name:      "kibana-plugins",
+			MountPath: "/mnt/dummy-location/",
+		},
+	}
 	if k.cfg.Installation.CertificateManagement != nil {
 		config["elasticsearch.ssl.certificateAuthorities"] = []string{"/mnt/elastic-internal/http-certs/ca.crt"}
 		automountToken = true
diff --git a/pkg/render/logstorage/kibana/kibana_test.go b/pkg/render/logstorage/kibana/kibana_test.go
index e29deff178..0293e873bf 100644
--- a/pkg/render/logstorage/kibana/kibana_test.go
+++ b/pkg/render/logstorage/kibana/kibana_test.go
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ import (
 	kbv1 "github.com/elastic/cloud-on-k8s/v2/pkg/apis/kibana/v1"
 
 	v3 "github.com/tigera/api/pkg/apis/projectcalico/v3"
+
 	operatorv1 "github.com/tigera/operator/api/v1"
 	"github.com/tigera/operator/pkg/apis"
 	"github.com/tigera/operator/pkg/common"
@@ -132,11 +133,15 @@ var _ = Describe("Kibana rendering tests", func() {
 					Drop: []corev1.Capability{"ALL"},
 				},
 			))
+			Expect(kibanaCR.Spec.PodTemplate.Spec.Containers[0].VolumeMounts).To(ContainElement(corev1.VolumeMount{
+				Name:      "kibana-plugins",
+				MountPath: "/mnt/dummy-location/",
+			}))
+
 			Expect(kibanaCR.Spec.PodTemplate.Spec.Containers[0].SecurityContext.SeccompProfile).To(Equal(
 				&corev1.SeccompProfile{
 					Type: corev1.SeccompProfileTypeRuntimeDefault,
 				}))
-
 			resultKB := rtest.GetResource(createResources, kibana.CRName, kibana.Namespace,
 				"kibana.k8s.elastic.co", "v1", "Kibana").(*kbv1.Kibana)
 			Expect(resultKB.Spec.Config.Data["xpack.security.session.lifespan"]).To(Equal("8h"))