Dare I suggest that pics of the rod, the rack and the wear - and how they currently interact - might be helpful?
I assume that it's a pannier where the hooks mount to a horizontal alloy rod, and a rack something like the
Tortec Expedition with a vertical bar closer to the midline of the bike than the bar the hooks clip to.
If so, and the rod on the pannier is clashing with the vertical strut, you might be able to twist the hooks slightly to move the pannier outwards and create a gap, but sacrificial helicopter tape or similar is probably more likely to work.
