RACE

On Monday we take posession of a beautiful, 04 Venture. It will be replacing our 97 Town and Country. It is in like-new condition and only has 70,000 miles on the clock. The best part is that it needs nothing done to it. I have never bought a car that was in this good condition at point of sale.

I am mostly happy to be going away from our Chrysler's mechanical issues. They did an excellent job making the interior comfortable and it drove very well I just could not put any more money into it.

In my opinion Chrysler did a poor job with their quality control, mostly in the areas of the drivetrain and thin sheet metal for the body. Basically they skimped on the things that you would not notice if you took a new one for a test drive. They also happen to be the things that could have made it a great vehicle in the long term if they had done it right. I will probably never buy one of their products again.

Anyway, I want to remove the cross bars on the roof rack of the Venture. Can anyone tell me if there is a trick to removing them please? They make noise at highway speed and it will probably cause a fuel mileage hit if they remain in the airflow.

Thanks

maxxman04

welcome to our forum!! glad ta have ya. as far as removal of the bars, can't really help there. but the little bit of air drag from the bars is not even noticeable at the pump. you might spend $5 more over 10 years, maybe. wouldn't worry about the affect on mileage.

RACE

Thank you.

The main reason that I want them off is that they make a lot of wind noise at speeds above 50.

ventureman

Loosen the little locks and slide the crossbars back. You may have to move them a couple times, but you will find a location that they create little or no noise.

RACE

GM had a TSB about my particular style of cross bars. The dealership that I use could not figure out how to remove them and could not find the answer in any of their databases.

I tried moving them but there was no quiet location and it was p*****g me off. After being in the van for over an hour this evening I decided that I was not going to listen to them again. I took the entire rack off of the car and disassembled it so that I could slide the cross bars off.

Once they were off and I could see it by itself I figured out how to do it the proper way. You unlock the end pieces but only pull them out far enough to allow them to spin. From there, you twist them and it acts like a vice opening. Basically it is a clamp. If you pull out the end piece you have removed your handle. Slid it back in and twist away. Your cross bars will be off in seconds.