Roof rack rattling

[LoveMy4Runner]

My 2004 SR5 4Runner has been making this subtle but annoying little rattling sound around the roof rack since just a few months after I bought it in February of 2004. I've read the posts about the sunroof rattling but I don't think that's what it is. It's not a metal clanking sound....it sounds like 2 pieces of plastic sort of vibrating together. I hear it mainly on really windy days. Definitely not consistent. I've had Toyota look at it multiple times. They tighten down all the bolts on the roof rack which seems to fix it for a while, but it always comes back.

Has anybody else seen this??

Kim
LoveMy4Runner

 

[Baba Booey]

I had a similar problem with my roof rack. The rear crossbar was solid and wouldn't move no matter how I tried to flex it. However, if I grabbed the front crossbar and sort of torqued it, it would move around a little bit, and I figured this was what was causing my vibration/rattle. It didn't matter how much I tightened the thumb screws - it would still have some play.

I took a small piece of black closed-cell foam (about 1/8 or 1/16 inch thick) that I use for tying flies and a "needle" that is part of my fly tying tool collection, and I stuffed this foam into the bracket where the crossbar and rail meet. After stuffing in the foam (probably a piece less than two inches long and 1/4 inch wide), the crossbar did not move or flex and felt solid like the rear crossbar.

So far this foam shim has done the trick for several months and I haven't heard the noise again.

You could probably find something very similar in the craft section at Walmart.