Roof Rack removal procedure
 

We bought a 2007 RX 400h earlier this year, and wanted to remove the roof rack. That's no big trick, but tracking down the parts needed to cover the holes was a major undertaking. I first ordered the covers, and discovered that there was no way to attach them. The parts manual did not show any attachment clips with the covers.

Darrel Diller at Sewell parts even asked Lexus Technical Support, who could not identify the needed parts. We both thought about it some more, and he finally came up with the missing clips. For some reason, Lexus put them in with the Roof parts instead of the Molding parts. (I asked Darrel if I could publicly credit him for solving this before publishing his name here).

Anyway, here are the parts you need, and a few pictures. Note the covers are different for the left and right sides. They are labelled inside so you know which side each goes on.
2 each 75595-48011 cover, roof drip
2 each 75596-48011 cover, roof drip
4 each 63185-42020 bracket, roof rack
8 each 90080-11724 bolt w/washer

Remove the plastic end caps by grabbing ahold around the middle and rocking sideways until you can pry them off. Note the picture showing the single yellow push-in attachment point. Be careful of little plastic tabs which fit into the metal part of the rack.

After removing the rear end caps you can remove the crossbars if you choose to. To do this you have to remove the sheet metal screw on each side which keeps them in place.

As you can see, the cover itself without the bracket isn't useful. The parts manual pictures show the long side of the bracket facing out, so that's how I installed them.

I messed up the order for the brackets and bolts and ordered only 4 bolts instead of 8. So the pictures show the real bolts (the black ones) and some 8mm-1.25 x 20mm bolts and 5/16 nylon washers I bought locally. The real bolts have a stiff rubber or plastic washer which would appear to be to keep water out. I strongly recommend buying the real bolts, although they are a bit pricey.

The molding cover has a metal clip at one end. Please note that should be towards the rear (picture 30A has it backward only because that picture was originally taken to show that there seemed to be something missing).

Nicely done. Do you have a pic that shows the car without the rack?

You can remove the entire roof rack. And install the Panoramic Sunroof plastic inserts.

This my 2007 RX. If you go to any Lexus dealer they can order the plastic rails.

Part Numbers: LH & RH
75551-48041
75552-48041

Looks good! How much did all the parts end up costing you?

Thanks for the info guys, exactly what I was going to do myself.

So the difference between the 2 setups is that the panoramic plastic insert is one long piece and not multi-piece like the other?

How easy/hard is it to remove the plastic inserts when changing to the panoramic insert?

Prices for the parts I used (after Sewell discount; check the vendor forum for the current code):
4 covers 18.56
4 brackets 11.24
8 bolts w/washers 16.64

By the way, the covers have a small arrow on the top indicating which way to push them to remove. They snap on and off easily, I'd guess not more than 20 minutes to put the roof rack back on if needed.

wow that is sharp looking! nicely done yall

Roof Rack
 

The Long panoramic insert strips are about 8 foot long and run 100 dollars each.

Thanks for the info. I guess the other option is more price friendly, especially since they're so high that no one really sees them.

out of curiosity are there any noticeable gas mileage improvements with this? the roof rack is fairly aerodynamic so i doubt it, but just wondering....

Great! This is awesome.

PS: I removed my cross bar, not it time to remove the whole thing!!!

Thanks for the DIY!

This is the 1st time that somebody found a cheaper way than the panoramic strips!

Thanks Kendig for the info. I ordered the exact part numbers in your first post. I'm going to attempt to install these parts on Monday and say bye bye to the roof rack for a cleaner look. I like KeyRX300s look with replacing the entire plastic drip rails however Kendigs option makes it quicker to put the roof rack back on and cheaper.

Can we just re-use the bolts? Are they different sizes?

Here are 3 pictures of the right front cover; the rest all look the same. When installed, they are below the sheet metal roofline, just not quite as far below it as the rubber molding.

I'd post my invoice, but I don't have just one. I first ordered the 4 covers, which I originally thought was all I needed. Then, after Darrel tracked down the page on the parts manual with the roof pieces, I ordered the 4 brackets and also 4 clips which we thought might be needed They turned out to apparently be what hold the part the bolts go into -- from the bottom, so they were not needed. And, as I indicated, I messed up and ordered only 4 bolts instead of 8.

You can't use the original roof rack bolts, as they are far too long. (Well, I suppose I could have tried ratcheting them in and in and in, but I didn't want to risk damaging something underneath).