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Unlucky day! Trying to fit C4 roof bars |
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MiniPaulo
 
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   Member No: #13367
Joined: Apr 18 2010Location: Swindon |
OK, nearly a year since I bought the car and 10 months since this all started, admittedly over the winter I couldn't be bothered, but now the weather is getting better I am wanting to take the bikes out. Over the last few months I have been to Citroen a fair few times and got the parts that the body shop needed (hopefully the bits I need). The mount is actually a rubberised plastic with a nutsert/rivnut in. so at a cost of 68p each (suppied in 4's) I bought some of these mounts, sourced on eBay some nutserts and a nutsert tool and have now got a mount ready to fit to the space where the original mount was grinded off. Hopefully I am not missing something vital and the mount is secured to the car using high strength adhesive as you cant weld plastic!! See pics below: mount & nutsert  inserting nutsert to mount  nutsert inserted  Bolt located in inserted nusert in mount  All the parts so far, cost about £25, Just need to fit to car 
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MiniPaulo
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Member No: #13367
Joined: Apr 18 2010Location: Swindon |
Hi All... I have made good progress today in my self repair of the roof rack mount. I have tapped out what remaining thread I could of the existing mount, and have the part made up above ready to be fitted to line up with the threads on the car. I was disappointed when I came home the other day to find the pink bit on the above had separated from the black plastic... however, today I found that the pink bit is actually the bonding bit!! RESULT! What I need to know now though, is how am I going be able to melt it so that it bonds the new mount in the correct position?? I am really hoping someone out there has the answer as I feel like I am so close to being able to put bikes on the roof and enjoy my summer properly! (ps. Cit dealers and mechanics not too wise at this point they "don't do body repairs, and the recommended garage hasn't been much help either) |
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Rich_Eason
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  Member No: #90
Joined: Jan 29 2007Location: Bristol |
MiniPaulo wrote ... What I need to know now though, is how am I going be able to melt it so that it bonds the new mount in the correct position?? What's the pink bit made from? Plastic?...what type? |
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MiniPaulo
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Member No: #13367
Joined: Apr 18 2010Location: Swindon |
Rich_Eason wrote ... MiniPaulo wrote ... What I need to know now though, is how am I going be able to melt it so that it bonds the new mount in the correct position?? What's the pink bit made from? Plastic?...what type? It is more rubber than plastic. The Black bit is plastic. I can see on the car (having grinded off the old mount) the melted residue from the old pink bit, but I am assuming it was heated in the factory prior to painting as the original mounts all have paint on them too, hence why I couldn't tell it was the pink bit that is the bond before. Obviously I don't want to go at it with a heat gun in case I do major damage to paint work. |
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Rich_Eason
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Member No: #90
Joined: Jan 29 2007Location: Bristol |
Good...if you have to use any adhesives on the black part then by the looks of things its made of Polythene which is a nightmare to stick anything to. You can do it, but its very hard to achieve reliable results, especially where vibration occurs. As for the rubber this makes things a lot easier, however there are two things niggling me... 1) The method of this being fixed to the car. Are they really stuck in? If they are then you will need to take back any paint metal to achieve a bond to the car, otherwise the bond will only be as strong as the paint to body. adhesive primer coats and following the system instructions will be key... I cant imagine just heating the pink bit is going to do anything but distort it or melt it... 2) Finding a suitable adhesive that will withstand and the elements, vibration shock and loadings. |
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MiniPaulo
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Member No: #13367
Joined: Apr 18 2010Location: Swindon |
The actual original mount seems to go through the roof gutter/body and the melted bubber and the black plastic above...so it would actually seem to me that the melted pink bit is more of a sealant than a secure bonding - and that is held in place by the original threaded part of the mount, but I have managed to get a few threads in the remains of the original mount but not willing to trust a roof rack on just a couple of threads. I can align my new part up with these 2 threads and if I can bond it to the car (by clearing back to the metal first) then all is good and I can enjoy the summer properly. If it doesnt work then I am not adverse to getting a metal plate welded in place and put a thread in that, then it WILL be solid!! But that would require a respray of the area too. |
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MiniPaulo
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Member No: #13367
Joined: Apr 18 2010Location: Swindon |
UPDATE: Body shops refuse to weld a bit in place as too much risk to paint and interior panels without full stripdown = pricey. However I found a chap who offered to rivet a new plate into position, but when he called me today he said he had a mate who used to work for Citroen who drilled out the mount to a larger size, then took one of my nutserts and "hammered" it into the hole. "rock solid", "he says hes done loads of these before", "common fault", "that'll have you sorted". Home I went happy... offered up the roofrack, aligned the bolts and did up to hand tight, went to notch them up tight and "pop" the nutsert came straight out with no effort at all... Back I go tomorrow morning to see if rivetting a plate in is a better option... Holiday delayed by a day... pub tonight! |
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MiniPaulo
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Member No: #13367
Joined: Apr 18 2010Location: Swindon |
UPDATE: 1 year on... I have given up on the roof rack completely. Without damage to the car and compromising the safety cell, it would seem my only option now is to get a roof rebuild on that side, which means huge job of seperating panels and taking out the offending section and replacement, I am not even going to enquire to the cost of that! So I have put in a nutsert into the hole that got drilled out, placed one of the black/pink mouldings over the top of it and stuck in place with body panel glue... looks like it should, thats the main thing. I am now moving my focus of bike carrying to the rear of the car and will be picking up a tow bar tomorrow then following the threads on towbar electrics and get a tow bar bike rack. Any one want to buy an OEM roofrack? |
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keith
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No one can say you didn't try. Frustrating after all the effort you put in! | ||||
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plymouthmad
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MiniPaulo wrote ... Having decided that today would be a good day to fit my roof bars for the first time, I went to my garage with all the enthusiasm in the world! I started to tap out the drivers side thread with the tool provided and after a couple of millimetres decided to give it a rest and tap the others a little. I then went back to the drivers side and continued to tap out the front and rear for the next 30 mins or so until my mate came over to help save my thumbs from getting too blistered. After he had been at it for about 20 mins we decided a break was in order and took a trip to Halfords to check out the roof bike racks for a laugh... Having had our laugh we popped in to the Range next door and got a set of slightly longer Allen keys as this would provide more leverage with the increasingly difficult tapping. (I have never known tapping to be so laborious) After about another 15 mins I managed to shear off the tapping tool in the hole above the drivers door, ****!!! "Not a problem", said I, "we shall go to B&Q and get the relevant extractor tool, drill bit and new tapper to continue." After a trip to B&Q to get the extractor tool (£9) a cheeseburger (£3) and Machine & Mart to get a tapping set (£17) ...as B&Q didn't have any in... we set back to work - my mate tapping out the other holes amazingly easily with the new tapper and myself drilling the old tapper to get the extractor tool in. He finished tapping the other holes just as I finished drilling the hole. Now more confident of getting the roof rack fitted before the sun went down, I set to with the extractor tool by hand.... SHEARED THE ****ING BLIGHTER OFF IN THE HOLE TOO!!!! unsurprisingly birds leapt from the trees several blocks away as I proceeded to let the whole neighbourhood know how I felt about this... a cigarette was thrust into my hand and promptly lit!!! I now have no idea what to do as the extractor bit is of a much hardened state than the previous tapping tool that I was trying to extract, and has dulled my 2 new drill bits! (more expletives here) Any advise will be greatly appreciated. I would like to mention that if anyone is going to fit a roof rack to a 4yr old car, then buy a proper 6m tapper or set before hand rather than use the Allen key tapper bolt provided, as it saves a lot of time, money and frustration! I tried taking a pic, but it didn't come out at all well. Sorry...but i had to laugh. Was quite ammused, as for helping you i can't as i dont have a C4 yet. 
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ajb2494
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  Member No: #29972
Joined: Mar 29 2013Location: UK |
Apologies for adding to an old thread but after reading this and other threads I found a local engineering shop who cut the threads for me in 5mins, it cost me £10 but I feel this is well worth the knowledge of knowing I haven't ruined it (despite considering myself a decent DIY'er). The cheapest tap and die kit I found locally was £9 and there was no guarantee that would have been up to it so I would throughly recommend anyone checking locally for s small engineering shop, you'll be supporting a local business too! Regards, Alex. |
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Cheeros
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  Member No: #56421
Joined: Jul 06 2020Location: Netherlands |
Currently trying to fit the OEM roof rack on my C4 Coupe. Actually I'm glad I found this topic. The (unofficial) bolts that came with the second hand roof rack were M6. However, the holes in the roof of the car are (rusty) M5. I'm considering to buy 10.9 strength M5x45mm and clean the holes, or otherwise drill/tap the holes to M6. Anyone an idea what the original bolt size should be? EDIT: holes were very rusty M6. Tapping them cleaned the thread. 40mm seemed to be the optimal replacement length. Thanks, Rick |
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