Roof rack wind noise

[willawanca]

Hello everyone. I just got my brand new 2006 Vibe when I traded in the 06 Grand Prix I won in the hotbutton promotion. It's blue, and has everything i wanted on it.Theres just one problem: when i take it over 50mph I get a whistle from the rear. I took it into the body shop and had them look at it, and they discovered that it was the add-on roof rack that is causing the problem. Anybody have any tips on getting around this? I'd rather leave them on if i can, but am willing to take them off if i must.Thanks in advance for the advice.-Will

[ZubenElGenubi]

First of all, congats on winning a Vibe! Second, welcome to GenVibe! Neptune's a nice color...AFAIK, no one has ever reported that kind of wind noise (roof rack). Do you have the cross bars?Did you eliminate the antenna as a possible cause? That seems more likely.............Of course, a totally different possibility is that other driver's are whistling at you when you pass them by @ 50 mph...

[scherry2]

Quote, originally posted by ZubenElGenubi » congats on winning a Vibe! I think he won the Grand Prix.I thought I saw some aftermarket roof racks with air dams. just an Ideaoh yea, congrats on the hot button win. and welcome to Genvibe.

[joatmon]

congrats on winning the hotbutton thing, I didn't What kind of add-on roof rack thing do you have? I don't get any wind noise off mine, at least not that I have noticed.If you have the "standard" roof rack cross rails, they are apparenty directional, there is a small arrowhead on the top of the ends of the cross rails, supposed to point forward. Maybe if you have those rails, one of them got put on backwards, and that would explan why there is a little arrow head on them and what happens if they are backwards.Just guessing though. got any pics?welcome to genvibe

[ZubenElGenubi]

>> DOH!Okay, I'm asking for a refund on my speed reading course! I think you made the wise decision trading the Grand Prix for the Vibe, IMO.

[willawanca]

I have the roof rack that you would strap a canoe to. It was a $130 add-on. It mounts to the roof rails and stands above the roof a fair amount.When the body shop looked at it they discovered that when the rack was taken off that the whistle went away. Hopefully thats enough info for all the wise folks to work with.i'll try to get a pic posted soon.

[binary]

A basic rule of thumb for troubleshooting a noise issue - for a garage or dealer - is to remove ALL additional bits and parts before test driving.Once you do it once or twice, it's not too hard to get the OEM cross bars off. I've never seen the canoe rack (if it's different?).

[joatmon]

Quote, originally posted by willawanca »I have the roof rack that you would strap a canoe to. It was a $130 add-on. It mounts to the roof rails and stands above the roof a fair amount.When the body shop looked at it they discovered that when the rack was taken off that the whistle went away. Hopefully thats enough info for all the wise folks to work with.i'll try to get a pic posted soon.I would like to see a pic of that. I have carried a canoe on my Vibe, and the basic roof racks are a pain. Tied it on with a rope butthe basic roof rack and cross bars sot so close to the roof that it is a pian to deal with. I also wish the rack extended further forward on the roof. I have a long canoe, and the half roof length of the rack doesn't provide a good mounting base. I ended up putting the bars close together and using a pad under the front.Here's mine on the car. So please post a pic of your canoe rack. Also, even though you have a different rack, check to make sure that the cross rails are not directional, it could be that one of the is installed pointing the wring way. The cross bars on my 03 Vibe are such a pain to get off that I am not at risk of putting them on the wrong way, but I had a minivan with a roof rack that was easy to remove the cross rails, and when I put one of them on backwards once, wind noise from it went up a lot.