Roof rack noise OEM vs Thule
 

Hello Mazda5 people,

I have recently bought a Mazda5 and I am looking to put a rack on it to carry bikes. The strongest options seem to be either the OEM rack or the Thule 460 rack. I am leaning towards the Thule for a couple reasons: 1) I like that the Thule one extends past the podiums, giving you a bit more width, 2) I think the OEM one sit a little high off the car, and look a bit funny being so narrow and tall.

However, I am a bit concerned after having read some posts about wind noise, especially this post elsewhere on the forum:

https://www.mazdaforum.com/forum/maz...ght=rack+noise

In which the owner reports a loud howling with the Thule, after which she returned it and got the OEM rack and was said that the OEM one was virtually silent.

I wanted to get some more feedback on whether other people have had the same problems with wind noise with the Thule rack on their Mazda5. If you have any experience with this (good or bad) please let me know!

Thanks
--Mike

Interesting, i just bought the 460R Thule, but have yet to install it. Don't know if i will be able to hear the roof rack noise over the tire howling noise though!!!

My POS 2006 is loud, but when i install the racks, i'll let you know if i hear anything. I also don't like the look of the OEM rack, look super goofy.

I still have yet to make a decision on buying a rack, so I'd be interesting to hear how your experience with the Thule went.

The Thule Aerobars make a horrible whistling/howling noise if you don't use the rubber strips to fill in the gaps. It's the T-track on top that causes the noise. I bought 2 sets of rubber strips from Thule for £8. Now I have the original long strips for cushioning the roofbox and the new set which I cut up to fill in the gaps when using the bike racks.

Thanks for the reply
 

Thanks for the reply. What gaps are you speaking of? I have not installed a rack before so I'm not all that familiar. Is it the gap between the crossbar and what you are mounting on the crossbar that you are talking about?