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Today I installed the OEM crossbars. To be honest, I installed the crossbars for the Grand Highlander (PT738-48200) vs the Lexus ones (PT738-48220). I've been informed the fit is identical, however there may be a color (matte/shiny) difference.
I did the installation on the side of a busy street so didn't get many pictures. I've seen some other youtube vids that cover it pretty well, and to be fair the package came with some quite terrible instructions.
Here's the install in a nutshell.
use your fingers (that's all it takes) to pry off the quite-obvious-once-you-look 4x caps on the rails.
put the smaller cross bar on the back, slotting into the now-open spaces on the rails. Note, these are directional. The extra orange bit goes on the driver side.
put the larger one on the front, noting same directionality.
hand tighten the 4x bolts/washers
Use the provided allen key to torque them down to spec.
NOTE: The included allen key IS a torque wrench! The bendy-bar style, that is.
Loosen the orange "spacers"(?) on the drivers side, then torque down to spec using the 2nd provided allen key
NOTE: The included allen key IS a torque wrench! The bendy-bar style, that is
Pop on decorative covers. They have numbers on the bottom. I believe its 1 - driver side front, 2 - front passnger, 3 - driver side rear, 4 - passenger rear.
Done!
Total time for me on a busy street was about 15 minutes.
I'll include a couple of pictures. I'll also note that the sunroof does open without a problem with the crossbars installed. How they attack to the rails. Covers installed, hiding the single bolt.
How they look from a distance
Another shot
Last edited by Grinder34; Jun 5, 2024 at 12:20 PM.
Reason: line breaks
I did this several months ago, and the airflow noise from the crossbars was so annoying that we took them off. Our other SUV with crossbars doesn't have this problem. I even tried wrapping the front crossbar with paracord as other people have done but it didn't make a big difference. Tried to live with it but after a while I just took them off so I wouldn't have to hear my wife complain about it sounding like a wind tunnel.
I just installed my factory crossbars. I have some huge gaps where the front crossbar mounts on the passenger side. Can anyone with factory crossbars post a picture, or confirm if they have the gap? Specifically, it is the front-right side. I found a picture from the Grand Highlander forum.
OEM Crossbars - Easy DIY
