xylodan wrote

Has anyone used the Thule aeroblade edge with the panoramic sunroof option? Thule says no good, but I wanted to make sure before I ordered the taller ones because the aeroblades are a little more to my liking.

Sorry if this was posted somewhere in the thread. I looked a bit, but 7 pages is a lot to read through.

Thanks for the help!

I picked up the Thule wingbar evo that sits on the flush rails for my 21 X3M40i. Pano roof works perfectly fine. In fact there's a lot of room in between the glass and the bars. Also very minimal wind noise

fndrplayer13 wrote

Im not sure what you're planning on putting on your rack, or if you already have accessories, but I like the Evo more than the aeroblade if you're starting fresh. It has a channel where you can slide screw-in accessories down, which makes adding and removing the thule accessories very easy.

Both the aeroblade Edge and the Evo WingBar use the same "T-track" mounting system so there's not a difference there.

Pewtinn wrote

I picked up the Thule wingbar evo that sits on the flush rails for my 21 X3M40i. Pano roof works perfectly fine. In fact there's a lot of room in between the glass and the bars. Also very minimal wind noise

Yes, it is known and stated in Thule's documentation that the Wingbar evo works fine with the X3 panoramic roof. What I want to know is if anyone has tried the Aeroblade Edge and what type of clearance there is there since it sits lower and is a little more aero.

xylodan wrote

Both the aeroblade Edge and the Evo WingBar use the same "T-track" mounting system so there's not a difference there.

Ah, hmm, I must have been misinformed in the store. Sorry for the bad info!

A couple of photos of Thule Evo Wingbar and Yakima Highroad. These are my first roof racks/bike rack and happy so far - definitely livable around city driving with roof open; at higher speeds (80-100km/h) it is quite loud with the roof open, but pretty quite with roof closed. I don't often drive with the roof open at 100km/h, so all good!
**Not sure why, but the interior photo of the bike keeps getting auto-rotated 180 degrees...

New owner of 2021 BMW X3. Ordered OEM cross bars/roof rack with car and since we picked it up, there is a noticeably loud high pitched whistling when we reach speeds above 25 mph. Has anyone else experienced this issue? We took in for service and even the dealership's head of service acknowledged that the sound was disturbing and something was wrong. Tried putting some teflon tape over the gaps in the end caps on each rail which briefly seemed to help but still have this really obnoxious whistling sound that we've narrowed down to being related to the crossbars. I know there is inevitable resistance/drag with any roof rack, but has anyone else experienced these issues before? It's intolerable enough that I'm taking the cross bars off and trying to return to dealership.

Curious if anyone has installed alternative roof racks on a new 2021 X3 and can confirm that they don't whistle/make crazy sounds?!

My Thule XL setup with locks. Quite happy with it!
Make sure to order the same key for both the the box and racks, otherwise you'll be unnecessarily dealing with 2 keys.

Jeepersjoey wrote

Re: The Notch...

Open driver door. Stand inside and look over the rail. On the back side, on the bottom segment of the rail, there is a imprinted notch/line. It just so happens that this notch is right where the middle of the rack foundation should be.

All four locations have this notch.

So...it must have been intentional by BMW.

(Again...it is on the inside edge of the rails, not the outside (which would have been better....but more noticeable).
Paul

Hi Paul, any chance you could post a photo of that notch? I could not find any on my rails today. Thanks in advance,.
Cheers, Andy

atrueb wrote

Hi Paul, any chance you could post a photo of that notch? I could not find any on my rails today. Thanks in advance,.
Cheers, Andy

It's a little subtle triangle. Run your finger along the rubber on the inside of where the rail meets the roof and you'll find it. One is above the passenger door towards the back portion of that door, and the other is aligned above the driver door toward the back portion of that door.

fndrplayer13 wrote

It's a little subtle triangle. Run your finger along the rubber on the inside of where the rail meets the roof and you'll find it. One is above the passenger door towards the back portion of that door, and the other is aligned above the driver door toward the back portion of that door.

Cool, many thanks. I found the tiny notches on the rubber. I thought they were in metal part, which explains why I didn't find them.

treade wrote

New owner of 2021 BMW X3. Ordered OEM cross bars/roof rack with car and since we picked it up, there is a noticeably loud high pitched whistling when we reach speeds above 25 mph. Has anyone else experienced this issue? We took in for service and even the dealership's head of service acknowledged that the sound was disturbing and something was wrong. Tried putting some teflon tape over the gaps in the end caps on each rail which briefly seemed to help but still have this really obnoxious whistling sound that we've narrowed down to being related to the crossbars. I know there is inevitable resistance/drag with any roof rack, but has anyone else experienced these issues before? It's intolerable enough that I'm taking the cross bars off and trying to return to dealership.

Curious if anyone has installed alternative roof racks on a new 2021 X3 and can confirm that they don't whistle/make crazy sounds?!

I have the OEM crossbars too and yes I experience the exact same high pitched whistling above 25 mph. At one point I was going to add a windshield / windscreen in front to see if it would help.. honestly I just got used to it instead. If you find some remedy please let us know!

Going to start traveling with a roof box and put on my Thule Aerobars for the first time. The whistling sound above 50 mph is really annoying and around 80 mph, it was really bad. Order the Thule Airscreen XT 44". I hope it helps. Going to fit the roof box on now and will try and push back the Aerobars as far back as possible so that I can still open the trunk.

Oh, I tried looking/feeling for those notches on the rails that people mentioned but can't find them. Where are they?

Mojobaggins wrote

Oh, I tried looking/feeling for those notches on the rails that people mentioned but can't find them. Where are they?

On my X4 they are about a full hand span forward of the B pillar, and about the same distance forward of the thin strip separating the two glass pieces on the rear door. At the vey base of the inside face of the rail.

The position markers look like this

Here is a more detailed picture of the location marker, taken from the other side of the car. The scale is mm.

Mojobaggins wrote

Going to start traveling with a roof box and put on my Thule Aerobars for the first time. The whistling sound above 50 mph is really annoying and around 80 mph, it was really bad. Order the Thule Airscreen XT 44". I hope it helps. Going to fit the roof box on now and will try and push back the Aerobars as far back as possible so that I can still open the trunk.

Oh, I tried looking/feeling for those notches on the rails that people mentioned but can't find them. Where are they?

For what it's worth, my OEM bars and roofbox had a goofy intermittent whistle (65-80) when I did a dry run back in the spring. Ironically enough, once that box was loaded up w/ toys and luggage, the noise went away!

JC210 wrote

Here is a more detailed picture of the location marker, taken from the other side of the car. The scale is mm.

Does the location marker denote where the middle of each bar should be located or is it a specific edge of each bar?

KL07RPH wrote

For what it's worth, my OEM bars and roofbox had a goofy intermittent whistle (65-80) when I did a dry run back in the spring. Ironically enough, once that box was loaded up w/ toys and luggage, the noise went away!

Update - the Airscreen totally cuts out the whistling sound. Very happy about that but the still sick to my stomach about the paint gouges.

Yeah, after I put on the roofbox, the whistling pretty much went away as the roofbox became the windscreen and the wind noise against the roofbox is totally tolerable.

I found the notches. The front one's were pretty much in the middle where I put the bars originally and the rear ones were much further up than where I placed mine. I prefer the further spread so I'm just going to leave them there.

Since I had already ordered it and sometimes I won't have the roofbox on, I put a Thule Airscreen XT 44" on



But I wasn't paying attention and scratched the top corner of the rear hatch with the roofbox. I'm so sad right now. Ugh!!!

My ROLA aero profile racks which I was able to transfer across from my X1 by sliding the feet out slightly to fit the wider rail track on the X4.

Bam226 wrote

Anyone have issues with the OEM racks leaving marks on the gloss black rails? Mine were on for about 2 weeks and when I removed them they appear discolored. Tried a number of safe cleaners and nothing with remove it.

FYI: For those with rubberized "marks" d/t the OEM racks, I was able to easily remove them with my cheapo DA orbital, MF pad, and Meguiar's D300 compound. I previously had no luck buffing the marks off by hand.

Do you know if for BMW roofrails a Thule key will work? I bought used rails without the key. The lock has a number on it.

mlurker wrote

Do you know if for BMW roofrails a Thule key will work? I bought used rails without the key. The lock has a number on it.

Yes, I have BMW roof bars, Thule 591s and a Exodus roof box, technically three different manufacturers. But read they are all made by Thule so bought a one key system from Thule and they are all the same for 12 locks.