[Andy1184]

Hi all,

Quick question here.

Just been to halfords to enquire about roofbars, box etc and they showed me which ones fit my Sportage but they said to be exreemely careful when fitting as the panoramic sunroof can crack if roofbars are fitted too tight, anyone had any issues fittin roofbars/box to their sportage with a panoramic roof?

Cheers in advance!

 

[al_kaholik]

Plenty of scaremongering about. We have a pano roof on our XC40, which has factory fitted rails.

Good quality bars tend to have built in torque bolts OR come with a torque tool to prevent you from tightening too much. Thule (and consequently factory fit Volvo), Yakima and Atera bars have been fine and have torque stops/tools included. That said the Thule bars and Yakima are in my opinion worth the premium over Atera - I've had these fail in the mounting areas which could lead to over tightening.

Of course none of this applies to a Sportage, but it is genuine user experience of a car with panoramic roof and factory rails.

 

[BucketAY]

I have purchased the proper Sportage bars as my 68 plate '4' has an opening pano roof - not sure if yours has from post. Would not buy generic as there is typically no clearance to allow roof to be opened when fitted so worried that accidental operation of roof would smash the glass and meachanism. Otherwise would not worry about the fitting cracking the static glass. Got my OEM KIA bars second hand off ebay for £65 - perfect.

 

[BigJohn]

Hi
I don't think you need to be concerned.
I use the Kia OEM alloy bars with a large Kamei roof box. I can tilt or fully open the roof with the bars and box fitted.
Prior to this I had a Sorento using Thule alloy bars with the same large Kamei box again without any problem using the roof on tilt or fully open.
The Sorento had many long trips to France and Spain like this this.
The Sportage is just about to have its first long haul trip to Spain with the box on top.

 

[Andy1184]

Thanks for the reply guys. I have a 19 plate '4' so will be the same as some others. I'll stop worrying and look for some proper Sportage bars

 

[al_kaholik]

Massive crack around the perimeter of my moving panel this evening, fine this morning .
Whist it’s nice to have a glass roof, I expect it’s not a cheap habit going forwards…

Not roof bar related, nor a sportage, but something to keep in mind