NewEngland

Hi all-
I want to remove the cross bars but I’ve afraid the two side rails would not strong enough to stand alone. It seems the rail look so weak to me.
Do you think the removal will help reduce the wind noise?

Thanks everyone.

Grumpa72

Cross bars? I assume you are talking about the luggage rack? If so, since the cross pieces move individually, I would assume that they are not an integral part of the structure. I suspect that if you remove the cross bars, the main part of the luggage rack would be just fine. Fwiw, there was a thread quite a while ago about how to remove the entire luggage rack and replace the rubber groove strips with a continuous piece, giving nice clean roof lines.

Gary
'05 330

salimshah

Structurally they distribute the sideways pull....
often times I step up on the rear tire by pulling my self up on the roof rack to wipe dry the roof.

For normal usage they do not provide any structural strength.

I have the eralier version of roof rack on rx300, and it USED TO make quite a bit of noise. Lexus techs finally figured out the exact location of the slats where they do not produce any annoying noise. They locaked the slats down at the pre-measured locaiton and turned the eyes so that they do not whistle.

Later models of RX and RX330+ have an improved roof rack. I would still mark the location of the slats before removing them (assuming the current location is the quitest)

Salim

mandyfig

Is there really a distinguishing noise because of the roof rack? Maybe I will pay attention better next time I drive.

The G Man

The side rail will be strong enough to stand alone if you dont pull on them too hard. If you just want to reduce wind noise, just move both rails all the way to the back.

NXOwner

Technically, that will not reduce wind noise. The noise is still there, and probably as bad as before. What this does do, however, is to shift the noise further away from you (the driver) so you don't hear it as much.


.

NewEngland

Yup, I did move them both to the far back but the noise still there. Anyway I will remove just the cross bars this weekend. I never use root rack before and i don't think i will use it in the future. I'll let you all know what is going on after the removal.

Thanks all for your suggestion.

4482

I removed my cross bars the first day I had my 05 RX. This was about 3 years ago. I had read on this forum that it decreased wind noise and drag.

No regrets !