Need advice on excessive noise from factory roof bars

[mini_e]

Looking for a little advice on how to handle this situaton. I bought my mini in Minnesota and I live in Seattle, Wa. The factory bars were installed by the dealer in MN and they whistle a lot. It's very noticable and annoying. I sent an email to my MA when I got back to Seattle with the car but she hasn't or won't respond. I have read other posts on this site about rack noise and it sounds like some bars are better than others but I dont' really understand how that could be the case on the same car. I like the bars but hate the noise and I'm wondering how I should deal with this. Ideally I would like to have a factory rack that didn't drive me nuts with whistling when I drive the car.

1) I could continue trying to hound the dealer in MN. I'm not really sure what a good outcome would be with this tact. I'm 2000 miles away. The MA was great about responding to mail until they got my check - well that might not be true as this is the only time I have tried contacting them post sale.

2) I could go down to the local dealer in Tacoma. I'm actually going by there on Wed. and am planning to drop in. Should I just ask them about the rack and if there is a fix? I'll be nice about it. Seems like it's a known issue and is better on some cars than others.

3) contact MiniUSA somehow. This seems like a last resort. It feels like complaining to someone's manager without really trying to work it out with them first.

4) others?

Thanks,

Erik

[scooperman_uk]

i think youre going to struggle to get any where. try any way. ive never has a set of roof bars on any vehicle that dont whistle. infact my last set of roof bars sounded very much like pan pipes

[ScottieCoop]

Do not know if this will help but the roof bars that we have on our SUV did whistle.

We slid the bars together a the rear of the roof rails locked them in position now no whistle.

Only put them back into position when carrying anything.

[HyperMINI]

I have aftermarket Yakima bars I use sometimes on my Cooper, and they whistle Dixie I'd say deal with it, or take them off when you're not using them

[mini_e]

I talked to the folks at NW Mini in Tacoma and they make customers sign a waiver before getting the factory bars installed. They have had that many complaints. I have had a lot of cars with roof racks but never had one that was this bad - it's really awful. I think Mini really designed a bad product here but I've stumbled across a solution.

I went to a rack specialist and they sold me an old yakima fairing. It is different than the current models and bolts on with some slotted steel rails. I used a 1" washer inside the bar and bolted the fairing on with 6MM bolts and nuts. Works great. I can barely hear the rack and I can live with it being on the car. The whole setup was less than $40. I have a big ugly Yakima fairing on the car but I can live with the looks because of the lack of whistle. I can post pics if anyone is interested.

Finally I also got a new bike mount from rockymounts.com (Noose SL). It bolts onto the factory bars (including the giganitc Mini ones). Works great and I think it much better than the Thule carrier. I had to get longer bolts but that was it.

Cheers,

E

[snid]

Remove the black rubber strip from the front load bar. The whistle will go away. Sounds crazy, but it's true. And, if it's not, it is easy to put the rubber strip back in.

The people who say "my roof rack doesn't whistle" are ones who have wide attachments on the front load bar, so they've removed most or all of the black rubber strip, hence no whistling.