I just went outside and had a closer look. I did NOT take the tool out and look at it, there is a lot of stuff in the back of my car right now.
To move the rails to make the cross rails, no tools are needed, just unbolt the back of the driver’s side rail and the front of the pax side rail, rotate them and snap them into place.
The driver’s side rail is not adjustable, it falls into the open end of where the pax side rail was attached.
The pax rail is adjustable – it can be locked in place in the normal position, or you can unlock it, move it to the rear and push it back into place. There is a second hole on the driver’s side where it drips. This will give you extra distance between the front and rear cross rails if needed.
The tool is intended to unlock pax side rails.
Here’s where I think I see your problem: When you unlock the pax side rails, you have to move it to the rear position and lock it again. That rear position hole already has a bolt in it to cover it. It looks, visually, like the Torx bolt is a different size (slightly bigger maybe 0.5mm?) but – I realized it’s really nothing more than a plastic plug. It’s only finger tight and I just unscrew it by hand. After removing it, I saw that you can use a screwdriver to pry it out as well, but you’ll probably damage the “threads” on that plug if you do it that way. If you need to remove that bolt, grab and turn it, it’s plastic and should come right out. The manual says to use the tool to remove that cap – but it seems like the tool would be too small.
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Sorry, you can ignore what I just wrote:
I just re-read your original post. You don’t need to use the tool to remove the driver side strip, it’s only for the pax side. If it doesn’t fit on the driver’s side, it shouldn’t be a problem anyway.
I’ll go back out in a few hours and dig out that tool of mine and verify.
