2022 Toyota Roof Rack Install

After perusing the chats on different ways to carry bikes on our new Prius we decided to order the Toyota OEM rack. The install was pretty straight forward with a couple of ??????! So I thought I'd hopefully share a couple of our stumbling points to maybe help someone in the future.
First point is the instructions rely VERY heavily on pictures and as a result steered us wrong (or at least my interpretation of them did LOL). They showed a label on each bar with the label facing forward which I interpreted to mean "the labels go forward". WRONG. On ours they actually face the rear. Which may not seem all that important except they come fully assembled to the mounting feet and the feet are tapered. So I would suggest, ignore the labels and look at the base of the feet for the not too obvious "F" and "R". Other wise you will do as we did and begin to think "did they send us the wrong bars?" as they will appear to be too short. (Just in case "F" is "front" and "R" is "rear").
Second point is if you think they are too short and try to back out the adjustment screw and it starts to get tight, STOP. They aren't too short you probably have them turned around as we did! LOL If you get them out to far and they are tight you will need to use an adjustable wrench to get them started back in.
One more point: the rear is shorter than the front. And the black mounting clips replace the ones that are located roughly in the center at the top of the door frames. And they will come out easily enough with a thin plastic card. Don't waste your money running out to buy body panel clip tools. Unless you get lucky, the tools will be too thick.
All in all if you don't get them turned around the wrong way like we did, it should take you all of 10 minutes (including opening the box) to install them.
We felt a little foolish since we have remodeled 4 houses over our married life, restored a beautiful old trailer, and even installed roof mounted racks like these on 4 different vehicles. AND these simple things had us stumped!!! LOL

 

That is a good point. With out them the feet would probably move and mess up the paint. One of the advantages of the OEM racks. Thanks for pointing them out.

 

That “key” is a little plastic thing and you should have received 2 of them. I wonder if it would be safe to lube those latches? They were tighter than all get out!

 

Here’s a picture of the key. Check the glove box they may be in there. If the dealership did the install they owe you a new cover because it it had been installed correctly there is no way it would come off.

 

Mambo Dave I apologize for being a day late & a dollar short on some of this info but I hope you can take comfort in knowing that your misfortune caused me to take a closer look at my rack.
I just noticed that on the star thing on the cover is a number (82 on your picture). Mine are vertical when unlocked and horizontal in the locked position (as your picture shows). Additionally they only turn a quarter of a turn (basically, 12:00 to 3:00 positions).

 

I can’t help wondering if there isn’t a socket that fits these. To my uninformed mind, they look like the reverse of a torx driver. I think it is time to do a little search and see what turns up. The “keys” are too flimsy to withstand frequent use (again, to my uninformed mind).

 

They ARE torx!! My “79” key is between a T50 and a T55! Hopefully, next time I’m at the dealership I’ll remember to ask them what the numbers correspond to (or maybe one of our more informed members can enlighten me???????).