Early this year, I installed yakima ski rack on our LR3 for a ski trip. The thing whistled like a stuck pig and was quite annoying, but since I had the whole rack on, I figured it was the nature of the beast. However, after I removed the ski rack and just left the landing pads, the whistle was still there, and did not change according to my ears. As I looked over the design, I decided the whistle was coming from the air rushing below these landing pads. So I went to my local hardware store and bought a stick of cheap pipe insulation:
When I got back home, I was too lazy to pull each bracket off, so I just cut a 1x1 square of the insulation off and shoved it under the landing pad with a screw driver. This DID NOT cure the noise, however, it was noticeably less. A few weeks went by and I forgot about the whistle as the LR3 is my wife's car. But on Saturday morning, I remembered I needed to try and fix this for good. I got some blue painters tape and used it to mark the location of each landing pad so I could get them back into the same spot. Then I removed each pad, and cut a 1" wide x 5" long piece of the insulation. 5" is a guess as I just matched the length of the landing pad. I stuffed the insulation into the roof rail and placed the threaded plates for the pad on top of this insulation. It is a tight fit, but you can muscle them in there. Finally, install the pad itself per the normal instructions.
We took a few drives over the weekend at varying speeds, including 85 mph, and I am happy to say that there is NO whistle. This weekend we have another ski trip and I am hoping that there is no whistle! I will report back.
Why the pipe insulation? Well mainly because it doesn't soak up water, so it should shed the moisture and keep any water corrosion to a minimum. I used approx 10" of the pipe insulation, so if I have to replace it by yearly, the one piece will last me a few years!
You could go out and buy that wind deflector, as it serves other purposes, but if you're like me, this was a cheap and easy fix!
J.D.
When I got back home, I was too lazy to pull each bracket off, so I just cut a 1x1 square of the insulation off and shoved it under the landing pad with a screw driver. This DID NOT cure the noise, however, it was noticeably less. A few weeks went by and I forgot about the whistle as the LR3 is my wife's car. But on Saturday morning, I remembered I needed to try and fix this for good. I got some blue painters tape and used it to mark the location of each landing pad so I could get them back into the same spot. Then I removed each pad, and cut a 1" wide x 5" long piece of the insulation. 5" is a guess as I just matched the length of the landing pad. I stuffed the insulation into the roof rail and placed the threaded plates for the pad on top of this insulation. It is a tight fit, but you can muscle them in there. Finally, install the pad itself per the normal instructions.
We took a few drives over the weekend at varying speeds, including 85 mph, and I am happy to say that there is NO whistle. This weekend we have another ski trip and I am hoping that there is no whistle! I will report back.
Why the pipe insulation? Well mainly because it doesn't soak up water, so it should shed the moisture and keep any water corrosion to a minimum. I used approx 10" of the pipe insulation, so if I have to replace it by yearly, the one piece will last me a few years!
You could go out and buy that wind deflector, as it serves other purposes, but if you're like me, this was a cheap and easy fix!
J.D.
