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850 sedan - Thule fit kit doesn't fit so well, and wind noise in doors 850

posted by  someone claiming to be BrianD on  Mon Nov 24 16:54 CST 2003 [RELATED]

Howdy all,
A few days ago I put our Thule rack on our 850 Sedan. Its a few years old, and came off our SAAB - both cars are '97s. I bought the Volvo 850 fit kit for the rack (clips and rubber pads). The towers and bars are the same for either car according to Thule. I really had to struggle to get it to fit right, and it still seems not quite right. The feet don't really contact the roof very evenly, no matter how much I tighten the clips. I spent a good 2 hours adjusting, tightening, loosening, adjusting, retightening..... I think my biggest complaint is wind noise from the door seals. It seems that the clips prevent the doors from closing and sealing tightly - you can see that there is a very small gap when the doors close. This is not wind noise from the bars - it is clearly coming from the door seals.

I was thinking about buying the OEM volvo load bars. Are they any better? Will I have the same wind noise problem with these?

Thanks for your input,
Brian
'97 850 Sedan, Orange!








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    850 sedan - Thule fit kit doesn't fit so well, and wind noise in doors 850

    posted by  acd483 on  Wed Nov 26 01:00 CST 2003
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    last visit: Sun Jun 3 02:06 CST 2001
    [RELATED]

    Thule makes the OEM Volvo racks. Volvo just puts its name on them. I'd bet they're the same.

    I've always owned Thule and find them to be excellent products. It's too bad that your's aren't fitting well.

    I do remember though that I had a set for my '91 Saab 900. When I got my first Volvo 240, they supposedly were the same gutter fit, but they didn't quite work on the 240. I had to go get a different model. Maybe this is the same situation.
    --
    '94 855 2.4 Sportwagon

    Jet Black/Beige Leather . 5-spd . 16" Meteors . E-code lamps & sidemarkers








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    850 sedan - Thule fit kit doesn't fit so well, and wind noise in doors 850

    posted by  someone claiming to be Ray N. on  Tue Nov 25 05:14 CST 2003 [RELATED]

    I have the OEM load bars and the wind noise from the rack is louder
    then from the door seals. The door seals work pretty good although
    one of the doors will actually leak water if it rains (with the rack in
    place). So it is not perfect. Also, I recall the instructions said
    not to leave it in place more the 24 hours to prevent deformation of
    the door seals.

    Be aware that the load bar mount points differ for the wagon and
    sedan. If you buy used, you need to get the correct one. They come
    with a sticker on them showing the profile of a wagon (and I presume,
    a sedan -- I have the wagon).







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