Hi has anyone used the roof bars on their car yet as i am going on holiday soon and thought that I could just bang a suit case on it tied on with a ratchet strap, but on asking at halfords was told take the roof bars were more cosmetic then load bearing after pointing out what I would need it came to almost £250 pounds no way any ideas please. Also has anyone had problems with there rear sliding doors noticed the other day that mine have been catching at the top near the roof and has destroyed my paint work fiat say that it will be 2 weeks before they can take it in for repair lol.

So what did Halfords say you needed?

I am sure they are load-bearing - why wouldn't they be! Or have I missed something here as well.

Will check my sliding doors, but can't recall anything nasty.

Stu

Hi,

I think Halfords are talking cr*p. I used them to carry some wooden beams etc and they seemed very robust. I am sure that there is something in the manual about maximum roof weight.

They are certainly as robust or even more so than the Thule bars I have used on my other cars.

Mind you 250lb case is very heavy, I wouldn't want to lift that on the roof in a hurry.

Andy

Originally posted by poggy

Mind you 250lb case is very heavy, I wouldn't want to lift that on the roof in a hurry.

Click to expand...

250lb? Now I am confused - I think Halfords were trying to sc*ew him for £250!

Hi,

Sorry misread the posting, I thought he used the £ sign as abbreviation for weight.

In that case no problem at all for a normal suitcase or roofbox.

Can't see what they were hoping to sell for £250.00, seems a lot and how would you fit them.

Andy

I've had a roof box on mine a couple of times - not really paid much attention to the weight of what went in it, but certainly didn't have a problem. The only comment I would say is that the bars are relatively fat/wide, so watch the fittings of whatever you put on it.

I've also used them to transport some fence panels (tied on with rope) - no problems there either.

Regarding the paint, I remember something similar getting a mention somewhere else (not sure if it was on this forum or the EV2 forum), but I've not seen the problem myself. I wonder if this is a manual vs electric door thing - I've got electric doors?!

John

Hey, I remember reading that thread as well about the paint - I am sure it was to do with electric doors, because I made the comment at the time about only having manual ones [V]! Again!

I've had a (very full) roof box on mine without any problems.

John's right the bars are quite wide, my box was originally bought to fit Thule bars but I had to buy a new mounting kit when I got the Ulysse, had to drill a few extra holes in the box.

Keggers

Hi,

With regard to the paint, I am positive mine had a small respray on the driver side just where the doors open as there was some overspray on the trim. Fortunately it was in a place where it didn't show up and the colour match was perfect, but I was not impressed for a brand new car. I cleaned the excess off and now you can't tell. I suspect the paintwork got scratched when they tested the car and the doors were not adjusted properly. I do have the electric doors.

Andy

I think that halfords where trying to rip me of the bloke was going on that the roof bars I had fitted where Austrian which made any part I wanted fitting very expensive he said that they had to be replaced with after market ones or have a special roof box fitted at £250 pounds plus £40 for the v track fittings he even offered to help me strip my roof bars down cheeky git. Also a word of warning one of my front windows came down on its own last night been complaining for a while that it kept going down think there is a fault in the anti trap feature anyway some git took the opportunity to nip in and steal all the paperwork for the car v5 driving license the lot how unlucky can you get I only put it in there that night as I had to take it up to fiat the next day to organize a courtesy car for Monday they are going to cover the cost to replace thank god.

How about we all turn up en masse to this Halfords branch?

Austrian - wtf! Words fail me [well, nearly!]

Stu

Worrying about that window coming down on it's own and bummer about somebody taking advantage of the fact. Is this a known fault?

Not sure i think that the seal on my front window is not fitted properly the window seems to bind half way up and the anti trap opens it again just unlucky I guess but pi**ed off with fiat as have complained about it since I picked up the car but all they keep saying was that it would bed in “sure”. Also halfords where adamant that the fiat Ulysses was based on the Nissan tino platform even when I pointed out that it was a joint design between fiat, citroen and Peugeot he still instead that Nissan had supplied the platform. Last time I enter a halfords store lol.

Hi,

Not sure how old your car is, but there was a known software fault on the ealrier windows which made them come down by themselves.

I have had it once when the drivers window and the rear passenger window came down. When I got back to my car I thought it was odd.

It's a shame they got your driving licence as this could possibly be used to steal your identity. More likely is that they stole everything and then realised that it was worth nothing and dumped it. Can't understand why the alarm didn't go off, mine does if I leave the sunroofs on vent.


Andy

Guyz and galz,

I have just received a set of roof bars for my Ulysse that I bought of E-Bay for £37 + delivery and must say that I am rather pleasantly surprised. Took me whole 30 minutes to have them mounted [8D]
They are aftermarket bars and max recommended load is 75kg, but for the price they are not bad.
BTW...no affiliation with the seller whatsoever - except being a customer

Oh...if interested - seller's E-Bay ID is 'cooksmotorspares' - the ones I bought are on E-Bay auction no: 2465158852

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Gordan 'Ballistic' Bijelic
London, England

Hi Ballistic,

Looks like you got a bargain there!
The new Ulysse actually comes with roofbars as standard [although possibly an option on the Dynamique] - these tend to be pushed back towards the back of the car, to give a spoiler look. For roofbars, undo two clips and slide forward one bar and relock. Simple as that!

For Halfords to say they are just cosmetic is a joke.

Stu

Stu,

I'd say Halfords is a joke!



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Gordan 'Ballistic' Bijelic
London, England

I've had my roofbars fully loaded with 2 windsurfers, and a great long bag full of sails, wetsuits, and kit. (only just able to lift the bag on to the roof). The bars did creak in transit and I was worried that the locking mechanisms do seem a bit flimsy. But nothing fell off or broke.

The advantages:
- they can be adjusted front-back to spread the load (my mondeo ladder rack was fixed above the front and back windows,making things abit precarious)
- they are quick to set up

froggy

Yup, maybe Halfords want to sell you something.

I've just had a whopping railway sleeper put onto mine with a forklift, and they creaked a little but were fine. When I got home I found there was no way of getting it off the roof by myself (there was a dodgy moment while I was trying where Man Crushed by Sleeper headlines flashed to mind) and I had to enlist neighbour help.

I quite like the 'spoiler' look too, you can almost pretend you're Mr T off the A-Team rather than some boring suburbanite . .

felix

Hi

I have a pair of FIAT roof bars for my Ulysse, I thought for the quality they where expensive, the plastic moldings on the side that carry the locks are a terrible fit. BEWARE!!! of the little steel part that you have to slide into the channel, both sides of one of them completely sheared off leaving the bar basically resting on the channel. And before anyone says it was overloaded I can assure them it wasn't, I stress analyse steel gas pipes that hold upwards of 100barg and can recognise a weak component. FIAT had to change the whole set of roof bars because they do not keep the fitting kit separately.
I haven't had the problem with the doors as yet but they do tend to stick around the rubber and some folk have trouble opening them, you have to have the knack of snatching the handle.

If 'Ballistic' payed £37 plus PP he got a bargain.

Gordon