Oh, I take mine off at the end of the winter (no longer carrying skis on it) as it kills gas mileage.

 

And you plug the holes with the "sealing caps" w/o issue?

 

Yes.
But they are not "plugs", they are just "caps" that cover the slots. They don't seal or anything, but no water comes in.

 

We bought the Mini Racks when we bought the car last week:



We have two Kayaks so we purchased a Swiss Cargo 3 in 1 Multi Kayak carrier kit. They fit great on the OEM Racks.



So my questions are:

1. Where do you hook the front of the car and back of the car hold downs?

2. Does anyone use the tow hooks?

3. Do the covers over the tow hook holes snap back in place?


Andy

 

Got these tow hooks on eBay like 2 for 35 bucks. The covers do snap back in place no prob. Enjoy!

 

Has anyone used BMW OEM rack accessories with the MINI crossbars?

 

That's my boat (Forrest gump voice).

 

^NICE^

Here's mine:

 

Hey everyone, cant seem to find the appropriate place for this question but it is related to the roof box.
Do you guys know if I can use a BMW x1 roof box on our R56 roof rack system?
Thank you everyone.

 

BMW rack accessories will fit on the MINI racks. Manufactured by the same company for both. You should be able to find install directions online for the box.

Sent from my iPhone using NAMotoring

 

Sorry to revive this old post. Are those the RockyMount trays? And do you have any issue with being able to open the rear hatch w/the spoiler? Does it the spoiler hit the trays?

 

Since we are posting photos of boats on MINIs...

 

I'm using Rocky Mounts trays on MINI cross bars like in the picture. I cut about 2 inches off the ends of each so that the hatch door clears 100%. Otherwise, I had interference and that wouldn't have been good on the spoiler. I can't remember the exact amount I cut anymore. Rocky Mounts was of no help when I called to ask them how much. I can tell you the process I went through to get the amount that I cut off though if you want that.

 

Guys, I can't get the rack off and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I loosened the nut to the point where there's no tension on the feet. The rack is loose on the roof but it just won't lift off. I didn't install it, the dealer did last weekend when we bought the car, so unfortunately the only "reverse of removal" experience I have is whatever the manual shows. Help please!

 

Loosen the Allen head screws, 2 on each end. Do not unscrew them all the way. This will allow for a little rock to loosen the feet out of the slots.

 

I've read elsewhere on the forums not to fuss with the Allen bolts once they're installed and dialed in. Are you sure?

 

Just loosened the allens, still aren't coming out :/

 

Once you loosen the brass nut enough, the two halves should spread apart so you can get them out of the slot in the roof.

 

Good feedback, thanks! Yeah, they ended up coming out by just more time spent wiggling them out. I'm assuming that over time, the more they're used, they'll start becoming easier to remove, just due to wear, etc. One thing that helped was loosening the allens a bit to gain that extra bit of movement. Part of it too was just not loosening the brass nut quite enough.

Lesson learned: Though there is that rubber/plastic-y "buffer" between the paint and rack mechanism, there's still the opportunity for abrasion to occur. I definitely scuffed the clear coat a bit, but nothing that a small bit of polish won't cure. Next time I think I'm going to place a small bit of painter's tape on the roof while installing or removing.

 

I put my OEM rack on today. I'd like to thank everyone for all your insights - they really helped. I've read this entire thread (along with a bunch of other sites and videos) and without all that insight I probably would have just given up and gone to the dealer. I do have a few things to add during my learning experience, so here we go.

* Firstly, the first crossbar took me about 45 mins to an hour, the second one took maybe 10 minutes. I feel confident that while it's not easy and you have to be careful not to scratch your car, with one person you could probably remove or install the entire rack in 20 minutes once you've done it once. That does require that you understand how the "legs" work; you loosen the brass nut, squeeze the black "teeth" together, put them in the slot, and then let them open again (this is where the strength of the rack comes from). The silly tongs-looking lever piece they give you (which some posts/videos said was useless) was actually the tool that made the second bar easy for me. So follow the instructions carefully (except for the allen bolt part) and hopefully it'll be as easy for you as it was for me.

* The instructions (I think!) tell you to completely remove the allen bolts and take the rack apart so the crossbar is no longer connected to the "legs". I strongly suggest you not do this. I did it for the first one, and it was really hard to get them back in, because the square nuts they screw into are not stationary. For the second bar i just loosened them up and that gave them plenty of play to install.

I relied heavily on the great tutorial here: http://turn17.com/?p=261

I used painter's tape just like the tutorial above, and that worked great. On the other side, I just put a big clean blanket folded over a few times and that way I didn't have to take the whole thing apart and the other leg could just rest on the blanket. I expect my car to look "like new" all the time, so this was really important to me.

Finally - I bought my OEM rack off of ebay from Mini of Raleigh, NC for $200 shipped. The packing in the box was virtually nonexistent (not Mini of Raleigh's fault) but they arrived mostly unscathed anyway.

I hope this helps some folks. I'm a pretty handy guy and I hate paying dealers for things I could do myself if only I had practice, but thanks to this forum I succeeded. The whole thing took less than three innings of baseball.

Tomorrow I attempt to conquer the Yakima Highrollers...

 

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Thanks for the link to the replacement parts. I am in need of replacement nuts too. It seems they strip out pretty easily if they are backed out past the end of the stud where they "stake" it to keep the nut from being backed out too far. Problem is you almost have to take the nuts off to get the feet to come out of the slot.

 

I cut my rubber top profile covers to fit around my bike racks. When I put my ski rack on there was a gap in the rubber cover under the ski rack (Yakima). Apparently the ski rack funneled air into the gap because it whistled like a banshee. I have since adjusted the position of the rubber cover so that the gap is not under the ski rack and the whistling stopped. I ordered extra top profile covers here: http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/82720144045/ES196983/

I have also found that the air passing through the close gap between the rubber pieces that hold the skis in the ski rack can also make a nasty whistle. I found a few things that work:
1) Keep skis in the rack.
2) When there are no skis in the rack, don't close it tight. This will leave a bigger gap that may or may not whistle.
3) Put a piece of foam rod (or any other material really) between the rubber pieces to eliminate the gap.

 

Those with the OEM MINI roof rack, is there a gap between the roof and the rubberized portion of the rack or is the rubberized portion supposed to rest on the roof?

 

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