Wind noise from roof rack

[theonew]

I recently purchased a 1995 525 Touring and have noticed that at highway speeds or in windy conditions there is a whistling noise which sounds likes its coming from the roof rack. Its a factory installed roof rack with nothing attached to it. Has anyone else had this problem? Is there a remedy?

[Qsilver7]

in certain conditions, air current will create noise as it goes around the racks...it's inevitable...the remedy is to take the racks off if the sound becomes annoying...especially if you are not using the racks for anything. Hopefully they gave you the keys to unlock the clamps so you can access the bolts that secure the racks to the rails.

To remove the racks just lift the rubber cover and stick the key into the lock to free the clamp that covers the bolts that hold the racks to the rail...then take the 10mm wrench from the tailgate's toolkit and loosen the bolts. This allows the racks to be slid back to the opening in the rail and taken off easily (if you have the keys).

[theonew]

Thanks so much QSilver. I'm a real newbie and didn't know that the rack could be removed. I'll rarely if ever use it and I'm sure its also hurting gas mileage.
Thanks.

[Elekta]

Take it off then, and you'll probably find the rubber insert strips in RH cargo boot where your rear window washer fluid is.

There are great alternatives to the BMW racks. I use a modified Thule foot pack http://www.bimmer.info/bmw/ggil/modified%20foot%20pack.jpg that allows me to lower, snap and go my combi box
http://www.bimmer.info/bmw/ggil/1600.jpg or my windsurfers (yeah right)
http://www.bimmer.info/bmw/ggil/Thule%20Toys.jpg

Never use a wrench again. If you look in my sig pic, that I keep the 4 little footpacks hard mounted, and they don't make a sound, and my eye is totally used to seeing them now, so they don't look weird.

http://www.martyscycle.com/ is who sold me my modified footpack. I'm not sure if he still does this, but it really isn't that hard a mod, basically a carefully used belt sander to skinny up the footpack to slide into the BMW rail. He sold a complete set up with perfectly cut load bars for about $160. If you get $500 for your bmw bars, you could buy the Thule evolution 1600 for about $300.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/ggil-tx/bmw/4b841c27.jpg
I can't tell you how easy it was to lower the combi-box, load all the kidstuff into it, and take the wife (napigator), kid and leave the way back for the dog free to move around.
HTH