Universal roof rack for Mondeo Mk3?

angelfire

Hi, at the weekend, we tried to fit a roof rack to the roof runners on our car. Pretty straightforward job normally but one of the screws has snapped in the fixing. We have asked around and been told it's possible to get the broken screw out and re-thread the hole, but that it would be costly.

The car is 8 years old now and has done 100k miles, the air-con has broken and various other niggly things so we'd rather not spend a fortune on it as we hope to change it in a year or so.

Therefore, we are looking for a universal roof rack that might fit our Mondeo - can anyone advise? I've rang Mont Blanc this morning and the lady said they have nothing that will fit. The man in Halfords was useless, and two seperate Ford garages have given conflicting advice - I'm at the end of my tether!

The reason we need the roof box is for a camping holiday next month where we need to pack in camping equipment for a week, two adults, two teenagers and a 3 year old in a baby seat!

all suggestions welcome!

P.S I have looked into the 'handirack' - the blow up rack, but because the car has curtain airbags it'd be no use to us...

AdrianHi

http://www.roofrackshop.com/
There is a vehicle check tool which will then show you what "universal" products are available for your car.
If you have an estate with roof bars built in it's down to getting roof bars the right length for the width of your car.
I bought this for my estate car, not a Mondeo, but it gives you an idea of costs and parts needed
1 x Thule Atlantis 780 Roof Box (480 Litres) (TH679) £244.00
1 x Thule 755 Rapid System Roof Rail Foot Pack (TH755) £56.00
1 x Thule 761 Rapid System Black Roof Bars (Pair - 120cm) (TH761 ) £23.00

angelfire

Hi, many thanks for your reply, but all the search functions on these sites do, is suggest the best rack and fixing kit for the runners that are on the car already - as that is the method they assume you will want to use. With this method unavailable to us, we need an alternative type, hence enquiring about a universal roof rack...

AdrianHi

Ah I miss-understood. The actual car roof rail screw has broken.
Assuming a google search does not turn anything up I'm afraid I cannot help.

goldspanners

forget the roof rack and buy a small trailer, you will get better fuel economy as well.

angelfire

goldspanners wrote: »

forget the roof rack and buy a small trailer, you will get better fuel economy as well.

We've looked into this option, but been quoted £300 to fit a towbar, then we'd have the trailer to buy on top - it'd turn our money saving camping holiday into the equivalent cost of a holiday abroad

Ah, well i'll keep looking for a solution!

Conor_3

!!!!!! wrote: »

Hi, at the weekend, we tried to fit a roof rack to the roof runners on our car. Pretty straightforward job normally but one of the screws has snapped in the fixing. We have asked around and been told it's possible to get the broken screw out and re-thread the hole, but that it would be costly.

Utter rubbish. It's an hours labour at most, two if you're really unlucky. Either a hole is drilled in the middle and a stud extractor used if it snapped flush or you drill it out to the size of the thread, gouge out the old bits then run a tap through it to make sure the threads are OK.

Take it to a proper garage with an old bloke with a beard called Trevor. Or Harold. Or Fred. Forget main dealers and national chains staffed by "kids" because they're bloody useless at this type of repair. It needs someone whose mechanical ability isn't limited by what the computer tells him.

AdrianHi

Conor wrote: »

Utter rubbish. It's an hours labour at most, two if you're really unlucky. Either a hole is drilled in the middle and a stud extractor used if it snapped flush or you drill it out to the size of the thread, gouge out the old bits then run a tap through it to make sure the threads are OK.

Take it to a proper garage with an old bloke with a beard called Trevor. Or Harold. Or Fred. Forget main dealers and national chains staffed by "kids" because they're bloody useless at this type of repair. It needs someone whose mechanical ability isn't limited by what the computer tells him.

This is a good point.
I can remember doing a job like this in my O Level mechanical engineering class at school inside one 45 minute lesson at the age of 15.
Re-focus on getting the roof rail repair done by "Trevor"
You could try looking for a general mechanical engineering firm who might be more likely to have the tools for a job like this.

angelfire

Thankyou to Adrian and Conor you have given me fresh hope so I'm off now to find a man called Dave, colin or Tony, to do my repair!

:beer: