Do the Foam Pads on the Thule Fairing Need to be Flush to the Roof Line

Updated 10/01/2018 | Published 09/29/2018

Question:

Hello, I bought a SAAB OEM Roof Rack with the square bars, from what I am told is Thule made this for SAAB. The car is a 2008 9.3-2.0T Sedan. A friend of mine gave me this fairing kit when I was at his house it was the right width. I installed the square bar adapters then when to install the fairing and put the load bar car clip over the adapters and it broke, my luck of course! So I need to buy a new one. Also the rubbers spacer were installed with the openning down as instructed. To make a long story short after following the directions and finished, the fairing bracket with the foam pads on the bottom that touches the roof only the middle two are touching the two outer two are floating in the air. Am I doing something wrong? If I am can you please help me, thank you. Best regards,

asked by: Scott

Expert Reply:

It sounds like you are installing the part # 853-7362 correctly. However, in regards to the Square Bar Clips breaking, that is just part of the process as they are plastic pieces so hot and cold temperatures can cause them to become brittle so you will need to take caution when installing them the next go around. It would also help them if you were to heat them up with a hairdryer beforehand as that would allow the plastic to flex more without breaking.

In regards to the foam pads, they do not all need to be touching the surface of your roof. It will vary depending on the curvage of your roof line but they should still work fine if the screen was to flex.

expert reply by: Conner L