The annual jaunt to the seaside is not too far off and I thought I would check that the bike carriers I have fitted on the roof bars. Annoyingly, the U bolts used to attach said carriers to said bars are about 2mm too small.

Has anyone else had this problem and is there an easy answer? I suspect that it may be a case of getting Fiat U bolts and then redrilling holes on the bike carriers to make them fit.

On another point, does anyone have a very annoying rattle in the passenger seat area that sounds like the electric seat motors constantly engaging and then turning off again? It's like a constant ticking sound and whilst not major (turning the stereo up helps) you know it's there and you always listen for it.

Any thoughts appreciated.

R

Ah, another Fiat special. I too was concerned about thickness of roof bars, but as yet not fitted a bike carrier! I presume the roofbox will be ok due to the nature of the fittings.

Unfortunately I don't have the electric pack, so can't help you. At least I am rattle free [well, in that area anyway].

New Fiat Ulysse 2.2JTD Eleganza, in silver, with options

Stu

Depends on the roofbox I guess - standard Halfords ones fit on standard Halfords bars which are, you guessed it, 2mm less diameter than Fiat ones!!

Rich

Cheers for that Rich,

I am actually after a Thule Evolution 700 - their mechanism seems to work on all cars! Will let you know. I would prefer the 900 model, but the width may be a problem; looking at the Ulysse roofbar setup, not a great deal to play with on the actual bars.

Stu

New Fiat Ulysse 2.2JTD Eleganza, in silver, with options

Right, just had a trip down to Halfrauds.

Their special offer on the Thule 700 is £305, even though you can buy it on net for £290 maximum.

BUT they looked at the fixing kit for it, because they said it won't fit the aero bars properly - £60 for the kit [:0] - can anyone else confirm this or not?

New Fiat Ulysse 2.2JTD Eleganza, in silver, with options

Ok, this seems to be the Standard Thule quick-snap system:

http://www.saveanddrive.co.uk/boxpics/thuledesc/quicksnap/quicksnap.htm

I can't see the 80mm being a problem, but reckon that device would totally wreck the aerobars. I presume that is what the fixing kit does, which should have 4 different feet in it.

Aaarghhhhh

Stu

New Fiat Ulysse 2.2JTD Eleganza, in silver, with options

Stu

Being of only average intelligence, I can't find the price for said articles, can you enlighten me?

R

Rich,

Amongst others, look on http://www.roofbox.co.uk/ Click on roof boxes, then the Thule logo. Then Evolution range. With this company you get a free hoist as well. The 700 model was just sold on eBay for about £255, and that was second hand [:0].

I may speak to Fiat about their fixings kit.

Stu

New Fiat Ulysse 2.2JTD Eleganza, in silver, with options

Can't comment on bicycle holders however I had the same problem when I tried to fit my roofbox. I bought a fitting kit for these type of bars from Halfords, £8 which included the wider U bolts, nuts, luggage straps and even 4 bits of sticky plastic to cover the unused holes after drilling the new ones.

Keggers

Thanks for the info Keggers, I'll pop down to Halfords and buy some. You don't happen to remember the item description do you?

R

Sorry R can't. I just explained to them what the problem was and they produced the kit, that said, like all these places it depends who you speak to.

Keggers.

Hmmm, interesting!

I was with a Halfords member of staff, they looked in the shop manual, looked for Ulysse '03 on, then Aerobars. The fixing kit was £60 for the Thule kit!!

Have the aerobars got holes in? I thought otherwise.

Stu

New Fiat Ulysse 2.2JTD Eleganza, in silver, with options

Stu

Keggers answer is correct and this works fine for the roofbox - Halfords sell the roofboxes with both standard (which won't fit) and longer fittings. The longer fittings are still u bolts with a bigger gap between the threaded ends.

Problem is from my perspective is that the loner version is too long for the bike carrier which has a limited amount of space to redrill the holes!!

I'll be talking to Fiat tomorrow but I'm not that hopeful at the mo. It's either new bike carriers (and I need 4!) or put them on the tailgate on the old bike carrier.

I think you'll be ok with your roofbox based on this information.

Rich

Ah, didn't realise about the holes. Will have a closer look.

One of the companies on the net sells these aero fixing kits for about £8. Will dig out the info and post on here!

Stu

New Fiat Ulysse 2.2JTD Eleganza, in silver, with options

Stu

That would be good as the time is drawing near for going away and I need to try and resolve this one

Rich

Rich,

Had a look and I can find no holes going through the roofbar, have I missed something.

I am going to email that company today and see what they say! They sell two fixing kits for aerobars, depending on car, but our model not mentioned. I will trust their advice more than Halfrauds.

Will get back to you all.

Stu

New Fiat Ulysse 2.2JTD Eleganza, in silver, with options

Rich, before I found out that Halfords supplied the kit I had looked at other options and one was pipe U bolts from a hardware store, can't remember exactly what size but I was able to get one that just about done the job. It might be worth trying this, you may be able to get something to fit even with slight modification to the U bolts. B+Q sell them complete with the nuts and bar.

Stu, I believe Rich is referring to holes in the bicycle carrier and not the roof bar on the car.

Keggers

Keggers,

Cheers for that; thought I was going mad. I have now emailed the Roof Box Company this morning, be interesting to see what solution they come up with.

Stu

New Fiat Ulysse 2.2JTD Eleganza, in silver, with options

I have managed to come up with a solution on this one. A visit to B & Q yielded 2 inch u bolts and also some nylon thread locking nuts to match.

These fit round the aero bars with a margin. Padding is via 22mm pipe lagging which are in 1 m lengths, about 50p each.

Wider holes need to be drilled in whatever is being fitted to enure the u bolts fit. Some of the threaded end can be cut off as not all of it is required.

Split the lagging lengthways so that it opens out and trim to fit the aero bar - this should then clip into the bottom half of the aero bar. Cut a second piece of lagging in half lengthways to cover the top of the bar. Offer the u bolts up from under the bar and fit into your roofbox/cycle carrier - screw the locking bolts on with the locking bar underneath and do up with spannr.

Hey presto, attached roof box/cycle carrier with aero bar protected.

Total cost - £2.50 ish per u bolt, £1 per pair of locking nuts and £1.50 for lagging.


Rich

Interesting tip there, Rich.

I still await a phonecall back from Fiat Motorvogue, my main dealer. They can't seem to find the part needed on their system. Apparentely, they had a Multipla owner in recently with the same problem.

I can't believe a roof-rack system of this calibre is unsupported, lol. Well, maybe I can. I tried to look underneath the rubber strip on the top of the bars, to see if there was a t-bar system in place. I wasn't too sure, tbh, so ended up putting it back.

I may be tempted to phone up the local Peugeot and Citroen dealers, to see if they have a ready-made solution.

Stu