My 850 Wagon came with the euro rails and cross bars. It sounds like a wind tunnel at higher speeds so I find myself closing the sun shad and turning up the radio. Short of removing the rack, are there any mods I can make to reduce the howling noise?

Jeff,

I have Yakima crossbars which I remove as soon as possible. They hurt mileage by a couple of mpg, and as you have seen, are noisy. I assume you have the square Thule/Volvo crossbars, but there's not a big difference.

If I am going to leave the bars on for a while, I either leave the bike racks attached, which disrupts the airflow enough to stop the humming, or if I'm not using bike racks (ie kayak or ski racks), then I use the Windjammer (works fairly well, and is cheap) or the fairing (works great!) Be aware that grit caught under the fairing can scratch the paint if left on for long periods of time. I avoid that problem by rarely leaving it on for more than a week, and by mounting it so it contacts mainly the glass sunroof, not the paint. You shouldn't open the sunroof if you go that route. Hope this helps.

Jeff,

If it is the factory crossbars, it is manufactured by Thule.

Try these links...

Thule Fairing:

http://www.thuleracks.com/555.html

Yakima Windjammers:

http://www.yakima.com/products/dynamic/8001115_7.html

Yakima Fairing:

http://www.yakima.com/products/dynamic/8007046_7.html

BTW: I have no affiliation to Thule or Yakima.

Good luck.

It's the front bar that is whistling. Changing the air flow around the front load bar is crucial. One variable may be how far fore and aft you have your front horizontal load bar positioned (experiment with this one). Remember the air flows up and over the windscreen to hit the bar, and it will hit it differently in each position. Another variable is the section of your load bars (Yakima round, Thule square, some factory rails aero). Aero bars (thin section) like on my old Camry wagon are dead silent. Pretty weak, though. I'm using Thule on my new Volvo wagon. Very noisy at first, yes. I've put on two small accessories from Yakima that help quite a bit: Yakima Windjammers. Basically an airfoil that makes a little wing around the front load bar. Costs $6 (!) at a local bike shop (special order) and disrupts the air flow enough to help. The Windjammers would work better with a Yakima rack because they could be angled (horizontal only on square Thule bars). Fairings are the most certain cure, but I find them unsightly and have read they can damage the vehicle roof. I use rack systems frequently for ski and bike transport, and of course what you put on your rack whistles, too. Fairings cure that. Funny thing: when I would carry bikes in a fork mount on my old Camry using my same Thule system, they would whistle. But when I placed the read wheels flat on the roof between the bikes, nothing at all. Beautiful silence! Experiment freely. Small things can make a real difference. Best wishes.

As far as I know there's no fix, but perhaps someone here on the list has some creative solution.

Simply because the cross-bars are only meant to be used for short periods and removed when not in use. Saves quite a bit of fuel actually, which is a very good reason to remove them here in europe..

So the issue of wind noise with these installed is not very high on the list of priorities of the manufacturers of these bars.

Bye, Arno.