windscreen shattered

Hi,

A friend of the family broke their rear windscreen - or should that be rear window - are windscreens only at the front? It was a hatchback and it shattered when he closed the boot. I would never have expected that. I thought you would need to bang it very hard. Perhaps it had already been weakened by something?

Anyway, this happened at 4pm on Saturday afternoon, so auto glass said sorry, they were closing at 5pm and would not have time to come out and he would have to wait until Monday.

Is there anything you can do in these circumstances? Other than tape some plastic over the hole to keep the rain out? If it was a new and expensive car, I'd be worried about someone trying to get in through the hole but I suppose it would be difficult to start it and drive it away, so perhaps all you can do is remove your valuables and wait?

I can understand a chip could wait over the weekend but aren't there people who will replace a broken car window 24 hours a day like there are for house and shop windows? But then I suppose all they do is board the window with plywood until the glazier opens in the morning.

Has anyone driven with a window missing? It must be particularly noisy. Do you avoid motorways and use A roads and drive slowly or buy earplugs?

TIA

Reply to
Fred
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I am amazed that you can't get glass replaced 24/7. driving with the tailgate open or glass at the back missing : the main problem used to be fumes being drawn in, but that was before cats and low emissions, so nowadays it will just be a bit unpleasant, rather than dangerous.

Reply to
Mrcheerful

The trouble is not the Autoglass/etc vans that come out, it's that the suppliers (who are normal parts supply companies) don't work weekends. Plus stock may not be in a local supplier - it may mean a substantial trip to pick it up (I've had them drive 100 miles collection round trip to find it was blowing a gale when they arrived and thus couldn't fit). That makes sense when you have early morning pickups of the screens for the day, but not on-the-spot repairs. Unlike the AA, keeping a stock of parts on the van doesn't work.

That's not to say they couldn't keep a stock of popular models in a depot, but 'we offer 24/7 service' doesn't work if it's 'we might offer 24/7 service but only if your vehicle's on our list'.

Theo

Reply to
Theo Markettos

Happened on my SD1. Caused by a fault in the heater element - localised overheating.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Autoglass have their own central warehouse. They may also use other companies, though. And I dunno what hours their warehouse keeps.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

That's about it.

The rear window in my Leon shattered, but stayed in place while it was in an outdoor airport car park: I had to knock it out before the drive home along the M42 and M6 toll. It *is* noisy, but not unbearably so. It's wise to open the front window a bit too, to avoid fumes being sucked in.

Reply to
Chris Bartram

About 10 years ago a friend reversed her Micra into the corner of a skip on a Saturday evening and smashed the rear screen. Autoglass in Aldershot (about 8 miles from where we lived then) said they were open all night but couldn't get a rear screen until Sunday so she brought it round and I locked it in my garage.

About 10pm her husband phoned to say Autoglass had called back to say the window was en route to them and could they bring it in? As they had small children I drove it down there and he brought me home in his car. They collected her car on Sunday morning. Driving it wasn't as bad as I thought, it was a cold dry night and whilst it was noisy it wasn't fumey. The Autoglass warehouse had about 3 guys working all night and a van had just arrived with glass on board from a central place. Don't know if they still offer that service in urban areas. I'm sure they don't where we live now in rural Worcestershire!

Reply to
Doctor D

Like a convertible, then?

Reply to
Nige

Not really, a convertible is open on all sides and above, so pressure can equalize: a hatchback with the window missing is a closed box with an area of low pressure at the rear. IIRC many owners manuals (used to?) warn against driving a hatchback with the hatch open for this reason.

Reply to
Chris Bartram

Front light and rear light as they were known.

It was a hatchback

Reply to
Rob

Use the time to contact someone other than Autoglass; the only time I contacted them they were up to three times the price of the competition

Reply to
newshound

Thanks for the replies - an interesting thread. Could this have happened to the front windscreen - I'm thinking of those movies where the police chase some bad guy and smash the remains of the window out with the end of their gun! Or is that just the movies?

Reply to
Fred

Front screens are laminated glass. That cracks easily - but much more difficult to make a hole in. Rear screens are toughened, which is much stronger, but shatters when broken.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

For completeness, toughened windscreens were used, and were arguably safer for occupants if seat belts were not used. The changeover to laminated screens happened much more slowly in the US, where general adoption of seatbelt wearing lagged behind Europe. As many of the movies the OP referred to were probably from the US, breaking the windscreen with a gun was a possibility.

(As an aside, Ford were at the forefront of laminated screen deployment; allegedly it was a personal desire of Henry.) Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan

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