OEM Roof Rack Leak

I installed an OEM roof rack a few weeks ago and in the process messed up a couple of the mastic washers. Long story short after several weeks and several rain events I finally discovered a small leak on one side.

The dealership I bought the roof rack from was generous enough to send me five new mastic washers (one short). I've never been comfortable with just using the mastic washers for leak protection. Thus, I want to pull the roof rack off and re-install it with the new ones and some added protection.

Any suggestions on the added protection? I was thinking of putting some teflon tape on the screws and/or add some silicon sealant around the holes. Any better ideas?

 

Follow the torque specs on the install. Torque it down to hard and the mastic washers become useless.

 

put some silicone on the bolts.

 

Silicone is mildly corrosive and should never be used in autobody applications, it will also cause problems of epic proportions if the area should ever need repainting down the road. A bit of urethane sealant or anerobic sealant like loctite 518 would be much better.

 

Dip your screws in the silicone & slowly tighten up (too fast & you'll push too much sealant out) wipe off any excess, drive on knowing its not going to leak...done & done..

 

He maybe right , but....i've never had any problem sealing with it & having issues later, it always looks the same if i have to remove the sealed part...

I've never used a thread locking agent for a sealer, nor would i...

 

If you feel really strongly about the paint finish on the inside of the thread inserts, I guess you could just allow it to continue to leak.

 

I did the installation according to the specs. No problem there. Just had one of the mastic washers a little off center and messed it up while trying to thread the bolt. That is where the small leak is occurring.

Thanks though.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. Rather than pull the whole thing off and use the new mastic washers, I think I'm going to take one bolt off at a time, seal the threads, and put them back in. I'll see if that does the trick. If not, I'll take the whole thing off and install the new washers.

 

Not everything from loctite is a thread locker. 518 is a sealant.