jikhead

I just wanted to provide everyone with some updated helpful information if you plan to purchase new OEM Audi crossbars. I had read on the forum here months ago about the rubber channel piece causing a lot of wind noise, and that many had suggested purchasing the Thule replacement channel; as it wasn't flat and had raised wind-diffusers molded into the rubber.
https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories...tails=.reviews

I ordered these along with the OEM Audi crossbars, which I installed this evening. The OEM Audi crossbars did not come with the flat rubber channels; it came with the exact Thule replacement channels I purchased from etrailer. The wind-diffusers on the Audi units were actually raised/thicker in height a tad bit more than the Thule units. Since everyone stated they saw reduced wind noise with the Thule's over the flat units, I decided to install the OEM units since they were raised more. My theory was thinking the higher those wind-diffusers, the more reduced wind noise? Anyway, I installed this evening and took for a drive. With the radio off, at 35 MPH I heard nothing. At about 50 MPH I could barely hear some noise. At 73 MPH highway speeds, I would get a very minor bit of wind noise that was noticeable. Any wind noise I could hear was coming from the front passenger side. If you have any music or the radio playing, then everything is unnoticeable except with the highway speeds being very tiny and minor.

Hope this helps anyone else. I guess Audi started including the newer Thule Wind-Diffuser style rubber channel on the newer base bars.

chiefmischief

Thanks, good to know. For what it's worth, I ended up going with the Thule Wingbar and have been pleasantly surprised by the near lack of wind noise. My personal and highly speculative theory is that crossbar positioning matters at least as much, if not more, as rubber channel style (textured vs non-) w/r/t wind noise (I mounted mine slightly towards the rear).

matt_20v

I'm not impressed with the quality of the Audi OEM bars. I've used OEM bars on 4 different Audis going back to the 90's, and always felt they were better quality than Thule/ Yakima/ etc. But not this time. First, that rubber strips don't fit tightly in the channels and pull loose at speed. Fortunately the bike rack kept them from flying away before I discovered this. Now I have scotch tape holding them in. Also, the locking mechanisms are cheap plastic and 2 corners no longer hold, popping loose while driving. Scotch tape again to the rescue, but not at all secure. One was kindof my own fault for torquing the key when the mechanism wasn't properly seated, but not the other one. I think the mechanical integrity of the bars and mounts is OK but these problems are annoying. If starting over I probably would have gone with Yakima as I could use the same key with my bike rack and roof box.

Clarke Rainey

Make sure you are installing the rubber strips correctly. I thought mine were loose as well, but they are designed to expand when you push down on them. If you lay them in, they are somewhat rounded, they are supposed to be flat. When you push down in the middle of the strip, it will flatten out and the part inside the bars with expand to the sides and sorta lock into place. When I did that, I could feel it sorta pop into place and they have been secure in my bars for about a month now with nothing holding them down.