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Noisy roof rack on 2003 Honda CR-V

4K views 11 replies 5 participants last post by  Curlysback 
#1 ·
My daughter bought a 2003 Honda CR-V this week. I have spent the last couple days doing maintenance and getting to know it. So far, I like the car.

One issue the car has is a noisy roof rack. The cross members are loose so when you drive the car down the road, they make a lot of noise. I do not know if this is a factory roof rack or an aftermarket but I am guessing it came this way from the factory. Here are several pictures I took today.

Automotive exterior Roof Roof rack Vehicle Car


Roof Asphalt Road surface Daylighting Walkway


Roof Automotive exterior Vehicle door Roof rack Auto part


As you can see best in the third picture, the cross member fits loosely into the pieces that run up each side of the roof. There is a single T25 Torx screw at each end of the cross members. In the short amount of time I had before she needed to leave town, I could not get the screw to budge. That may or may not have helped tighten the cross member anyway.

Does anyone have any ideas on why the cross members are loose and how to tighten them? In a worse case scenario, I could probably use some caulk to tighten them up but it seems like there must be a more professional way to solve this issue.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions you may have.
 
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#6 ·
Those cross bars do come off...do not cut them! The end pieces pop off and there are two or three screws attaching each one to the roof rails.

Also..some of these create wind noise at highway speed. I wrapped a black cord around each crossbar. Look at the radio antenna to get an idea of how that would look.
 
#7 ·
Those cross bars do come off...do not cut them! The end pieces pop off and there are two or three screws attaching each one to the roof rails.

Also..some of these create wind noise at highway speed. I wrapped a black cord around each crossbar. Look at the radio antenna to get an idea of how that would look.
No, I definitely will not cut them off. My daughter wants to use them as part of her interest in camping. She is out of town right now but I expect to see her and the car again at the end of this month.

What are the end pieces that pop off? Are you referring to the pieces I circled in red below? Thanks.

Roof Automotive exterior Vehicle door Spoiler Auto part
 
#8 ·
138799


The endcaps pop off by inserting a flat blade under the cap. If you have a plastic trim tool or tape the end of a screwdriver, you can help prevent damaging the plastic.

You can also see how I wrapped the crossbars to eliminate windnoise.
 
#9 ·
View attachment 138799

The endcaps pop off by inserting a flat blade under the cap. If you have a plastic trim tool or tape the end of a screwdriver, you can help prevent damaging the plastic.

You can also see how I wrapped the crossbars to eliminate windnoise.
Thanks! I have a set of trim tools so I will try this when she is home again later this month.
 
#11 ·
The car is back so I had a chance to work on it yesterday. I tried to pry up with my trim tools but I felt like I was in danger of breaking something so I stopped. Since I will only have the vehicle briefly before my daughter goes back home again, I put very small shims in four places (each place a cross member meets the side pieces that run from front to back on the roof). I prefer to do factory correct fixes so I may come back to this in the future but in the meantime, the shims are keeping the cross members very solid and they no longer make noise going down the road. However, since the shims I used are made out of wood, they will eventually degrade and the problem will return.
 
#12 ·
The early Chrysler minivans had cross pieces that were directional ! One day I took them off, waxed the roof, and when I put them back on I didn’t see there are ARROWS on the underside. Went for a drive and it sounded like I suddenly had four bad wheel bearings, AND, Just like wheel bearings, it howled worse the faster you go.
It took a lot of head-scratching to figure out that the airfoil of the cross pieces had a leading edge and trailing edge.
 
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