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Excellent. I have an 1819 coming for mine with the 53" bars. I'm glad it's the right fit. I do wish Audi would transition to built-in roof mount points like Mercedes and BMW offer, though. I'm going to miss the benefits that they provide for quick install and removal combined without having to worry about protecting the clear coat. But giving that up is a small price to pay for a superior car
Yes 1819 kit.
Some tips:
Take your time to get the initial fit right: these things have a little bit of play in them and it is quite easy to clamp the towers to the crossbars slightly off-camber or off-toe, or half a mm too wide/narrow on the slider adjustment, any of which will affect the fit adversely. Clamp it as close as you can for the first time you set it on the roof, and then once it's placed unclamp everything and have someone take 15-20 minutes to help you dial it in and micro-adjust everything to line it up absolutely perfect. Then you can clamp everything back down once and for all and it's easy-on easy-off from that point forward.
Use the protective laminate that comes with the towers/fit kit. I cannot stress this enough. I had my clear bra installer throw 'em on for me; tried to give him $20 to do it but he refused to take my money because he's a super chill straight up bro and did it fo' free. I expect I'll have to replace these films annually...they do show surface marring from where the tower feet made contact. Better them than my paint.
The car does have a fitment hole along the top edge of each door sill that a post on the fit bracket for each tower fits into. Take a look with the door open and you'll see it. This makes it incredibly easy to line up the towers and makes it possible to install/remove both crossbars in 5 minutes without help. But I agree, bummer the towers have to touch the paint (or rather, a film).
Solution has been great so far. Since this photo was posted I've had the bars on and off the car at least 4 times, and for a week or two I had a Thule Circuit bike carrier on the bars to take my road bike to work. The roof box shown here was removed after these photos, it will go back on closer to ski season. When the box was a day old I gave it a coating of Meguir's Gold carnauba wax and will probably give it a second and maybe even a third before I re-install it, to protect the finish as best I can.
Agreed on both points. I am considering going the vinyl route. The only downside is that I don't usually keep the rack on my car for extended periods. I tend to throw it on for an afternoon or day trip here and there. I'm not sure I want to keep vinyl on my roof when it will be bare 95%+ of the time. And putting vinyl down each time is rather silly. Oh well. I'll figure something out.
Yeah. For the more frequent weekend bike excursions the rack is hard mounted on the A6. For the more rare long trips with the cargo box with the S4 I can always put down the vinyl, my guys cut me 40 pieces so I'm good for a bit
Full winter mode engaged... freshly washed, clayed, spot-polished a couple fine scratches by hand where needed, and waxed. Winter wheels treated with Drexler ceramic. The thing I like most about this setup is that the cargo box is low profile enough that the overall height of the car is a few inches lower than your generic large SUV (Suburban, Tahoe, etc) so it will fit in basically any parking ramp/garage with no drama whatsoever, and the box will still open easily. Wind noise is present, but overall noise at 75mph in this thing is still way less than your average Camry driving 55mph.
Bring it on, ski season! ...bonus shot with lurking S3 in background (a family member's / the original reason I started shopping Audi).
10-06-2017, 09:45 AM
