HarmsWay

My dealer never mentioned anything about the crossbars so I was a little surprised to find them. I've always used Yakima racks for my bikes so I have a lot of Yak inventory. I carried as many as 5 bikes on my Pathfinder. Nice to hear the Q5 racks go on/off quickly. Who cares if they make noise then. The contribution of noise from the racks will be small compared to a couple of bikes. However given that the bars are not round, it looks like I'll either need new Audi bikes mounts or some kind of bar adapter to fit my Yak mounts. Anyone buy one of the Audi fork mount bike kits?

Coolieman1220

If i'm not mistaken, Thule makes Audi bars so any Thule equipment fits just fine.

Thules are round, Yaks are square.

rez

My yaks are round.

rez

Uh-oh - going skiing in Jasper weekend after next - 31/2 hour drive - oh well I guess this will mask the sound of the wind whistling through the door seals when passing speed exceeds 120 km (75 m) /hr. maybe Germans don't buy this car or they are much more tolerant of vehicles where door seals start to whistle at less than autobahn speeds (last time I was in Germany ppl were driving @ 130-140kmph on the A5).

kchao2000

A question about putting it on.. the wrench included to install cross bars suppose has some kind of torque sensing mechanism according to the instruction. Is it me been stupid, the instruction is kind of misprint, or my wrench is broken because I don't see how the wrench provides torque sensing ability.

mtberman

Looking at the t-shaped installation tool, find two triangle-shaped arrows embossed on it. Cinch the rack bolt and begin to tighten it. The arrows will begin to move toward one another as you twist to tighten. The correct torque is when you've twisted to where the arrows line up. It's a brilliant design and way better than using an Allen wrench and guessing when it's right.

Be sure to RTFM and tape the slots. If you're going to put equipment on, do that first and then cut the filler tape to fit the remaining open parts of the slots. Otherwise, just slip the tape in the slots and cut to fit. Any cross bars will generate some wind noise, but these will be particularly noisy if the slots are left open.

Keep in mind that Audi rack equipment is designed to be used when needed and not left on year 'round or for appearances. It's best to take the bars off when you're not using them. Fortunately they come off in about five minutes.

Edit: Also, this may seem obvious, but it helps to close the sun shade to minimize wind noise from the crossbars.

kchao2000

My problem is, when I take the T-shaped tool out for the first time, two arrows (white lines) are already aligned each other. They don't move while I am turning. Maybe something is wrong with the tool, I will bring it to my dealer tomorrow.

rez

Installed the cross bars today after carefully putting in the rubber insert into the groove on the top of each cross bar. Other than the rubber insert install (pita) putting the cross bars on the car was a snap and no issues with quality of the product - everything very precise and installed easily. Went for a quick test drive and was pleasantly surprised by the relatively low noise impact. Got a low whistling that started at around 90 kph (55mph) which did not increase in intensity very much as I took it up to 140 kph (just over 85 mph). Drive to Jasper with the snow boards may not be that bad!

MochiQ5

Is it possible to move the OEM roof racks? I was thinking about drilling new holes in the side mounts to move one of the crossbars back a bit. Is this possible? Need to make a bigger gap to fit a Yakima cargo box.

DennisMitchell

You should avoid moving the front bar. It has a third prong which activates the modification of the ESC stability control. FWIW.