Leaving crack in windscreen

Presume you only have TPFT insurance on the vehicle? If so, may be worth getting a quote for Fully Comp. If fairly cheap (should be), then just pay the £50 windscreen excess. Additional insurance plus the £50 excess should still be way less than £150 to replace the windscreen (dependant on age, driving record etc)

In message , Robert writes

Check your insurance policy, some do glass cover with an excess of around £50, which doesn't affect no claims bonus. Failing that, try a scrappy for a used one? Whatever happens, get it fixed, "just in case"... :-)

Nothing drastic will happen but a fairly large crack is a) an MOT failure if across the drivers wiper-swept area (IIRC) and b) likely to reduce the strength of your car in an accident. There are reports of windscreens constituting up to 30% of the roll-over strength of cars, though im not sure how they found those values. Makes sense though, try to diagonally squash a square and it'll fold unless you fill the square with a flat panel - then its fairly stiff.

& you should be able to get one from a scrappy & get one of the mobile boys to fit it for wayless than that.

Should be able to get a new one for way less than that. if the screen is bonded then I doubt you'll be able to get one from a scrappy.

Nothing really will happen if you leave it. The whole affecting the strength of the car is is over-hyped. On most cars if you glue in a screen too strongly it'll crack. There aren't that many cars where the screen is relied upon for strength.

How do you glue a screen in too strongly? Its not relied on for strength, its just additional stiffness and i personally would rather have the extra there if i rolled FWIW. But then im considering a roll cage too :)

Most cars use a layer of "medium" flexible adhesive to bond the screen to the car. If the bond was too thin or too stiff then it wouldn't take up the slight flexes in the bodywork and the screen could crack. Having said that, yes I'm with you that the screen adds some stiffness in the event of a crash but it doesn't mean the car will flop about without one in.