Just recently finished installing a yakima roof rack on my car so I figure I share my opinions/experience so people won't make the same mistakes I did.

Again this is for Yakima racks only and does not apply to Thule or any other brand.

What you need:
1. 4 Q Towers

2. 4 Q Clips (there are hundreds of these so make sure you get the one for your car.)

3. 2 Cross Bars.

4. Any attachments you want bike, snow. etc. I snowboard so I have snowboard attachments.

A lot of my friends had racks on their cars and were complaining about leaks, wind noise, doors not closing tight even. The number one cause for this problem is using the wrong q clips. I bought my rack of craigslist and even though he said it came off his 00 ej6 hatchback, it did not fit my 00 hatch at all because he was using the wrong q-clips. I had it on for about two weeks and it leaked like crazy everytime it rained. I finally called Yakima and realized that all I had to do was get 4 new q clips and reinstalled the rack with the new clips and the problem was solved.

Also if you buy your racks used and the previous owners don't have keys or you've lost your. All you have to do is go to a yakima dealer, ask for a "control key", remove your key core from the housing, find the number on the side of the key core and order a new key from yakima (888) 925-4621. This is A LOT cheaper than going out and buying a new key set.

Hope this will help somebody in the future and hopefully I put this in the right section. If anyone has any questions, feel free to pm me. These issues gave me problems for the past two months so hopefully this post will save someone a lot of time.

I have included a picture to clarify what all the parts are called.

 

I will post pictures of the rack on my car soon.

 

I want to see pics