Roof rack question on a 2006 LX470

[Da Hapa]

Hi guys -

I'm at work and I don't have access to my owner's manual so I thought I'd post up here and see if any of you know.

With gas prices soaring, I'm trying to eek every last bit of efficiency from our LX. Mercifully, we've been averaging about 15mpg in mixed driving in S. CA (91 unleaded) but I'd like to do what I can to help that.

I've already taken the third row seats and stored them in plastic in the garage.

I know the cross bars on the roof rack are movable but can they also be removed? I assume they creat drag and since I seriously doubt I'll ever use the roof rack, I'm thinking I can remove those and store those in the garage too!

Does anyone know if they simply unscrew and pop out or do you need to remove the entire roof rack?

Thank in advance,

Christian

 

[hoser]

Last time I looked, the entire rack has to be removed or at least one side before you can remove the crossbars. Otherwise, that would make it super easy (rather than just easy) for somebody to steal my snowboards.

If you are never going to use the rack, just remove it. Looks cleaner anyway.

How to Remove Roof Rack

 

[bsjoiner]

It is very labor intensive to remove the crossbars and i am not even sure if you would notice a difference in MPG. You have to remove both sides to get them off. If you are going to do something just take the whole rack off and sell it on eBay or keep it in the basement.

 

[SINCITY100]

I also dont see much of a mileage increase by just removing the cross bars, in fact I doubt you would notice any difference even if you yanked the whole rack off.

I would concentrate more on tire pressure and other weight reduction methods (maybe removing 2nd row seats ?) before removing the rack.

 

[Jim_Chow]

I slide both cross bars to the rear of the rack and together (well, as close as possible). I got 14.5 mpg on 87 octane, 17mpg on 91, mostly city driving, but also includes climbing a 8000 ft mountain. BTW, those numbers are running the A/C on low (manual mode) most of the time (except the mtn climb), but very slow and steady acceleration (we're talking like 0-35 in 10 sec), top speed of 60mph in the flats.

What would probably make more of a difference is if one installed one of those Bernie Blanks AHC adjuster CPU's and set the AHC to "low" while on the highway. The lower profile certainly wouldn't hurt fuel economy.

 

[SWUtah]

Forget the roof rack, and start running 87 octane gas if you want to save some $$$

 

[Da Hapa]

If you are going to do something just take the whole rack off and sell it on eBay or keep it in the basement.

Thanks guys. I checked the owners manual last night when I got home and it does appear that I would have to remove the entire roof rack rather than the cross bars and that would be fairly labor intensive. Besides, I actually like the look of the rack on the vehicle so it looks like it stays for now.

I did want to offer one comment... BASEMENT.... what the hell is that? I live in S. CA and we don't have no stikin' basements;p

 

[Da Hapa]

I also dont see much of a mileage increase by just removing the cross bars, in fact I doubt you would notice any difference even if you yanked the whole rack off.

I would concentrate more on tire pressure and other weight reduction methods (maybe removing 2nd row seats ?) before removing the rack.

I didn't figure I'd gain much but I also thought if it was easy, why not?

I keep an eye on tire pressure band we use the back seats so that won't work. As I said... I'm pretty happy getting 15 in mixed driving. I mean it is a huge, heavy, AWD sports ute. But I thought any small changes that were easy to re-do (like pulling the third row of seats) would be a snap.

 

[Da Hapa]

Forget the roof rack, and start running 87 octane gas if you want to save some $$$

My experience is just the opposite. I haven't done so in the LX but I know that in our LS as well as our old RX, fuel mileage was actually noticably better on 91 octane than mid-grade 89 or regular 87 (remember... I'm in CA and we don't get any higher octane than 91 w/o spending $7+/gallon for racing gas). And that experience isn't based on only one tank. It was several different tank loads over similar driving patterns.

 

[SWUtah]

My experience is just the opposite. I haven't done so in the LX but I know that in our LS as well as our old RX, fuel mileage was actually noticably better on 91 octane than mid-grade 89 or regular 87 (remember... I'm in CA and we don't get any higher octane than 91 w/o spending $7+/gallon for racing gas). And that experience isn't based on only one tank. It was several different tank loads over similar driving patterns.

Sounds like you are doing everything you can for good mpg. You didn't say what tire pressure you were running but 38-40 lbs.