Roof Rack For The Mazda5 Thread

[sherfield2002]

I don't plan on taking any of the bolts out when I take the rack off. I'll just cover the mounts with the provided covers when not in use.

Yes I opened the sunroof completely for the pics. I really just did it so others could see they would be able to use theirs if they kept the rack on all the time.

I'm happy with it so far, especially considering how much cheaper it is than other racks.

 

[flcruising]

I agree. We are riding with the covers now too. Looks OK, but I'm taking them off soon. The wind noise (whistle) was noticeable before the cargo box, then it was diminished but still there. I still haven't tried/figured out why a bungee cord supposedly works?

 

[Robotazky]

Do you guys hear whistling or more wind noise from your roof racks?

 

[flcruising]

Whistling. That's what I typed up ^ there, but I put them in parenthesis so it put an emoticon instead. Didn't mean to.

I think I read somewhere that someone put an airfoil on theirs and the noise was gone.

 

[southpawboston]

if your aftermarket rack load bars are the same shape as the OEM/thule load bars, then try to get a hold of those small lips that are provided with the OEM rack that pop onto the load bars. they stop all the whistling.

 

[flcruising]

lips? <- I tried googling that and came up with nothing.

 

[southpawboston]

lips? <- I tried googling that and came up with nothing.

the OEM rack is supplied with four pieces of 3-sided plastic channelling that snap onto the load bars. the channeling has a slight deflector built in (few millimeter rise on one end). the OEM rack instructions call for placing the four pieces in defined places to stop wind noise. nicer solution than a bulky wind fairing.

i'll try to take a picture of them on my car today and post it here.

 

[southpawboston]

okay, these are the "lips" that i was referring to:

somehow, mazda engineers determined that the three shorter pieces on the front bar, with the middle one upside down, and the larger piece centered on the rear bar, provides optimal results.

 

[flcruising]

And they work? Interesting.

I honestly can't think of any instance that I'll drive again with the rack on and nothing on it. We only did it last weekend to check out cargo boxes.

 

[southpawboston]

well, i haven't compared with and without the "lips", but i can say that with the rack installed as shown, there is no more wind noise than without the rack. i plan to keep the rack on permanently... i never know when i'm going to find something to throw up there (furniture, antiquing, etc)!

 

[jdwilson]

Rubber feet for Mazda5 OEM roof rack

I have lost one rubber foot for the OEM roof rack for my Mazda5. No one seems to have this part available without buying an entirely new roof rack!!! Can anyone advise me?

Thanks,
John

p.s. - If this has come up in the thread before, I apologize. I tried to search the thread but didn't have any luck. Seems to be an issue with the search, since I searched on "rubber" but came up with no hits.

 

[southpawboston]

I have lost one rubber foot for the OEM roof rack for my Mazda5. No one seems to have this part available without buying an entirely new roof rack!!! Can anyone advise me?

Thanks,
John

p.s. - If this has come up in the thread before, I apologize. I tried to search the thread but didn't have any luck. Seems to be an issue with the search, since I searched on "rubber" but came up with no hits.

that's a tough one. i doubt the mazda parts network lists this piece as a standalone part; you may have to go custom. if you are able to find a similar block of rubber, you could try to cut one to the approximate mirror image shape as the one on the other side. they are uniquely shaped, but not too far off from a plain rectangular block. it shouldn't be too hard to carve one. the tough part will be finding a suitable chunk of rubber from which to start.

 

[remarquian]

okay, these are the "lips" that i was referring to:

Mazda documentation calls them 'spoilers'.

I had an OEM rack, but sold it and am getting an INNO rack in a couple of days, and was wondering if I would need them.

I've been looking around the Web for them to no avail, so I guess they aren't *that* useful....

 

[Tsuru]

I have lost one rubber foot for the OEM roof rack for my Mazda5. No one seems to have this part available without buying an entirely new roof rack!!! Can anyone advise me?

Thanks,
John

The OEM rack is made by Thule. You should be able to just purchase another foot kit for the Thule rack ($60 -$70) and get your rack back up and working. I'm not sure which foot kit (3069 or 3088) you would want to get get although I guess you could just replace the rubber on all four corners if it were an issue. Anyone with an OEM/Thule rack want to chime in?

 

[jdwilson]

The OEM rack is made by Thule. You should be able to just purchase another foot kit for the Thule rack ($60 -$70) and get your rack back up and working. I'm not sure which foot kit (3069 or 3088) you would want to get get although I guess you could just replace the rubber on all four corners if it were an issue. Anyone with an OEM/Thule rack want to chime in?

Thanks. According to the Thule website the fit kit is the 3080; I found what appears to be a picture of the 3080 on a British vendor website. This looks quite different from the Mazda OEM roof rack rubber pad (or is it "spoiler"?).

Any other ideas? Hard to imagine carving one of these by hand ... I guess I may be in the market for a new roof rack but if so damned if I'll give Mazda more of my money. So if you want a used Mazda roof rack (sans one bit of rubber) let me know.

 

[Tsuru]

The 3080 was created as a replacement of the 3069. Since I imagine that the OEM rack was created back when the 5 was new the 3069 kit is probably going to be closer to what you currently have. I haven't managed to find any pictures of the 3069 kit.

 

[flcruising]

jdwilson - There's actually 2 discussions going on. The 'spoilers' comment was about the clip-on things that reduce wind noise, not the rubber feet you're talking about.

 

[jdwilson]

The 3080 was created as a replacement of the 3069. Since I imagine that the OEM rack was created back when the 5 was new the 3069 kit is probably going to be closer to what you currently have. I haven't managed to find any pictures of the 3069 kit.

I saw one earlier in the thread - the post was pointing out that the 3069 kit didn't have a good flush fit with the roofline. My guess is that the 4 pads were identical and not customized to the front/back/right/left differences.

While the racks may be made by Thule, I think the design of the feet is totally different than their branded counterparts.

Bottom line, unless someone has some rubber pads spare ... I'm SOL.

 

[southpawboston]

While the racks may be made by Thule, I think the design of the feet is totally different than their branded counterparts.

i tend to agree with this. the feet don't seem to appear anything like other thule-branded feet. they're also permanently riveted to the load bars. these were probably designed just for mazda, and not to be backward compatible with thule-branded replacement parts.

 

[DoubleT]

I couldn't put my friend's canoe on which was 37" at the beam. I should say it almost fit but was so close to the curve part of the bar I felt it was too risky. So 35" should be okay for the canoe. Might be better to get the non-dealer Thule rack which has wider bars. I got the dealer one because the wife, sigh, liked the look of the dealer one better. At least I can put my sea-kayak on no problem and easily.