Hello all. Let me preface this by saying that my husband and I are both engineering challenged, though quick learns. And feeling quite inept right now. We tried to put the Thule rack on our 2007 Fit today. The footpads wouldn't stay level in contact with the car roof, and yet the clips were still loose. It seemed like the tighter we screwed the clamps on, the more the footpads lifted off from their contact with the roof (specifically, the edge of the footpad away from the cardoor). Do we need to change the length of the bars? We tried to do the measurements all precise to what we read, but it didn't seem to make any difference. Any advise welcome, Thule is not available to call until Tuesday (and the trip is supposed to start Wednesday...).

 

this does seem like a mystery, mine went on in 30 min without a problem. If everything is measured correctly like you said it should be fine. I followed the directions to the T. What size bars do you have? If you bought it all together in a kit, the right size bars should be with it.

 

Ahhh...did it! DH left me alone with the car, and I realized that 3 of the 4 feet didn't have the clamps installed all the way (huzzah). Shortened the length between the feet on the front bar by 3/8 inch (I thought it would be too much), and that worked like a charm. Footpads Have Contact! (The rear bar might bear shortening by an 1/8 of an inch or so, to improve contact a little, but it looks really solid and I don't think really needs it.) The whole rack feels very solid. I still wish I'd gotten to test drive it for a few days before we leave with it all loaded up (cargo carrier, 110 lb, plan to fill it to the max!).

I have to say, Thule product support was nice, but in review they didn't help at all!

 

Oh, one last thing. I don't know if it matters, but our 2007 Honda Fit was bought in 2006, and came from Japan (they weren't making them here yet). I wonder if that made some tiny difference? Who knows.

 

not sure about the year difference. Did you get the front fairing with the kit? If not there is going to be some wind noise that gets a little obnoxious espically on the highway. When i finished putting mine in i just gave each bar a good tug to make sure it was secure.

 

Interestingly enough, the cargo carrier makes the noise less. With the cargo carrier in place, there is a little more wind sound than when I'm in the Fit with nothing on the roof, but it's pretty mild...yet with just the rack in place, it even whistles a little bit, definitely more noticeable! That is without the fairing - when I called Thule to find out what I needed, the fairing wasn't mentioned, and I figured that was significant. One poster said the sounds were WORSE with the fairing, so I wasn't feeling exploratory when I purchased the rooftop rack kit.