Cracked Windscreen

[guest244]

I’ve only had the car a month (it’s two years old today). As we were driving along a noticed a “hair” on the windscreen starting at the bottom of the black part of the screen. As we drove along it got longer and windy.

The “hair” was obviously a crack and I had to have the windscreen replaced the following day - it was about 20 cms long by that time. There was no obvious impact damage such as a stone chip. I certainly hadn’t a stone or anything else hit the screen as I’d been driving it and the windscreen fitters couldn’t offer an explanation either.

Has this happened to anyone else?

[guest102]

Probably a fault in the glass brought out by thermal stress - problem is there is only one way to test glass - that often ends in a disaster so manufacurers are not keen..
I used to work with glass sun roofs - we used to test a couple from each batch - if they stood the test it was assumed that the rest were OK.
Good thing is that you only have to pay for the excess if insured, and it won’t affect your NCB. It would be impossible to prove a manufacturing fault.
You would have to be very unlucky for this to happen twice, so it falls into the category of ‘one of those things’.

[agent_paul]

Hi there jazzgirl. Yup the same happend to me, well not me as it was really my dad.

what happend was that he had his windscreen replaced during the winter and it was all good and fine. but then the following summer was really really hot. we got out one afternoon to find a large crack about 10 cm long starting from the black part of the windscreen.

my guess was that since the windscreen was fitted during really cold conditions, the windscreen was obviously not in the “standard shape” (contract or expanded) so when it came to summer, the heat changed expanded or contracted the windscreen therefore stressing it.

well thats my guess anyways. prob not the same thing happend to you.

[culzean]

The laminated windscreen on modern cars is a stressed member of the body, not just a piece of glass to keep the wind out of the car like it they to be.

As the bodywork flexes this raises stresses in the windscreen and can cause cracking - but they are much better than the old tempered glass screens (the ones that used to break into small pieces at the slightest excuse). At least if a laminated screen cracks you can still drive the car.

I remember looking out the window at my car around 1980 and thinking 'didn't realise we had a frost last night' - the tempered glass windscreen had just took upon itself to shatter during the night. The car was undriveable until a mobile screenfitter could be persuaded to come and fit a new one.

[RichardA]

I had a stone chip in the front windscreen a month back. The screen cracked when they tried to repair it so I had to have a new screen put in.

Technically speaking, if the replacement screen 'fails' then it should be covered by the screen fitter's warranty, but as said above, it will be hard to prove.