I have the rack off my '07 SE to paint it. It seems to me the crossbars were installed upside down. They're arched and the high point obviously goes up, but the way the end caps are installed, putting the crossbars in that way exposes these screws to the weather and lets water pool in the threads. That makes no sense to me.



Three of the four screws were starting to rust (one reason I decided to paint the rack).

Can anyone with a tubular-style rack see if the end cap screws on their crossbars face up or down?

Thanks.

I've removed mine, but I recall they faced up because I thought, like you, that it was stupid. I actually still have my cross bars in the rafters of my garage.

Thanks. Good to know I'm not the only one wondering why they did it that way.

Have to say that I like the rackless look. It's clean.

So I don't have an se but I know for sure that my end caps have the bolts underneath not on top like that. And for the record it looks like they use the same crossbars on the se as they do for the regular rack

Trying to sort out what's what here has been a challenge. For example, this is from a 2007 FSM Service Bulletin that says the bars aren't installed until the vehicle reaches the dealer b/c of the paint protection film on the roof. It shows the alignment points on the side rails and orientation arrows on the crossbars. Note that the crossbar has two tightening knobs, one on each side.



As shown in the first post, my crossbar ends have one tightening knob and an attach point loop for nets/bungee cords etc. on the other side, no orientation arrows, and no side rail reference point that I can find. So I'm thinking that's the standard rack, not the tubular one.

I found a pic of a used rack on Amazon Japan that was unbolted off the truck in one piece and it's exactly what mine looks like - bolts facing up, knob/loop combo, no arrows. (I used the link so the pic can be zoomed by hovering over the image at left.)

The bolts facing up aren't why I'm looking into this more closely now. I can live with that, but I drove the truck last night after reinstalling the rack and something is howling like a banshee so I'm trying to figure out how to get it back to quiet. I looked at pics from before and I put my crossbars back where they were, so I'm not sure what's going on.

It's surprising and disappointing that Toyota's documentation looks to be so poor on this, and that the information and illustrations don't match what's on the vehicle.

It seems there's a very fine balance with our roof racks. When I got my Baja Rack, my friend and I removed my stock rack with the Rola Rack all in one piece. He then installed it, still in one piece, on his 4Runner. He called me from the road and asked how I lived with the howling. I never had ANY wind noise when the rack, the exact same rack, was on my 4Runner.

He eventually solved it by weaving a bungee cord through the bars of the Rola rack, but we have no idea why it howls on his 4Runner and was silent on mine.

I still have mine on and I use it regularly as I haul kayaks on it throughout the year. So I started to wonder why they were rusting as my bolts are all facing up where pools of water can sit. My plan was when the weather warms up I would take the bolts out and replace them with stainless steel as well as repaint them.

As to the noise question, I've been desensitized to the howling noise as I'm use to something on top of the car. I do know that many kayakers wrap rope/paracord around the metal crossbars as that reduces the noise. During the summer months I actually attach a Yakima / Thule crossbars as I need wider bars to carry more boats so I never really notice additional howling noise.

Have anyone reinstalled the crossbars with the bolts facing down? Will that even fit?

Not upside down, that’s how they came from the factory.

I just took mine off since I installed Thule crossbars for my kayaks. I didn’t purchase a wind deflector and don’t feel like one is needed, although you can def hear them a bit as soon as you hit 50mph or over.

My biggest concern is the racks vibrating the roof excessively and loosening the headliner. Wasn’t an issue with my 99 4R but it seems to vibrate more on the 07

Figured this out. What had me puzzled was why the crossbars' orientation would matter in terms of noise. It wouldn't, unless...(light bulb goes off)...they're shaped like an airfoil (wing). And they are - thicker at the front and tapering toward the rear edge.



The key is how air flows over such a shape:



When the crossbar is installed correctly (thick side toward front of truck), air flows smoothly and it's quiet. If it's backwards, with the thin sides toward the front, the air flow is very turbulent and it makes the howling noise. I reversed mine and just got back from a nice quiet test ride.

The one that goes in front has a 0 embossed on one end and a 1 on the other, and the one that goes in back has a 2 on one end and a 3 on the other. The thick side goes toward the front of the truck. You'll know it's right if the tightening knobs are all on the "outside" (on the front of the front bar and the back of the back bar).

Also, if anyone is considering repainting their rack, Rustoleum's Black Stainless Steel metallic looks great.