Cracked windshield with wiper blade heaters?

Bruce Helms wrote: (clip) I have an appointment with the Subaru adjuster and I'd like some history to help me fight this battle! (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I suggest trying to enlist the help of your insurance company. If the dealer wins the argument, they will have a loss under your comprehensive coverage.

I am replacing windshield on my 2005 Outback next week. In my case it was a stone for sure. It hit right about the heater element. Crack split two way - sideways and down. $500 including labor and glass (my deductible is $500, hence no insurance claim here).

The glass guy said the new glass is more brittle compare to the old once ( I guess due to UV curing)

appointment

No experience, but I would suggest using a mini microscope or a loupe and checking the crack for impact (I know you said there is none, but just in case...). If there is no impact mark at all, then they are basically trying to defraud the insurance company IMO.

Good luck,

F.Plant

Hi,

I won't pretend to know what broke YOUR windshield, but I've had personal experiences where stone chips almost too tiny to see caused cracks. Standard drill seems to be get hit by a rock (doesn't have to be much of an impact sound-wise), not see anything, think I'm lucky, then when the windshield starts to warm up in the morning (sun, heater/defroster, whatever) a day or two later, mysteriously a crack appears. Currently I have one that almost requires a magnifying glass to see the actual impact "divot" in the glass, which is about 1/2" in from the edge.

Who knows what happened to yours? Since you work in this field, is thermal stress alone (without a physical "starting" point like a glass cutter would make) actually capable of breaking a windshield? We've all heard the cold water on hot glass or hot water on cold glass breakage stories, so maybe it is? I don't know.

Rick

I can say that I had a bad week for auto glass last week.... a neighborhood kid rode his bike into my WRX and messed it up to the tune of about $600 in paint and fender repair... on the way to the shop I got a rock chip. On the way home from the shop I got another rock, about the size of a cigarette lighter, that put a huge starburst in the damned center of the windshield. The first one wasn't big enough to seal, the second was. On the way home from the glass shop I got another rock and chip! ...and no I don't live on an unpaved road or near a construction zone! Least of all, I never caught the kid that damaged my car so I get to pay for that out of pocket too!

Either I really did something bad last week or I should stop believing in Karma!

Years ago when I worked at a Chevrolet dealer, cracks were evaluated for warranty by running the tip of a pencil or fine ball point pen along the crack. The tip would "catch" in the pit of a stone impact. Stress cracks would not cause the tip to catch.

Ed P

Mike wrote:

Sounds like you know a lot more than the average dealer service guy on this subject. Do that extra-close physical inspection and run with your results.

-John O

Don't forget: It also costs the insurance money to fight this out, so they will probably write it off and the dealer "wins".

Of course, it is not the insurance company but everyone who insures through them who are going to absorb the cost in the long run.

In addition, they will pay for your windshield to be "repaired" if the crack isn't too big.

Don't give up talking to the dealer just yet.

Florian /FFF/

I had a similar experience in March 2004. I have a 2002 Forester S, at that time it had about 18000 miles on the odometer. It was an icy morning and the wipers had been stuck down and I had the wipers heater on. A crack suddenly spread almost the full width of the windshield, varying between 2 and 3 inches above the bottom - I was driving in town in traffic- no dump trucks or other source of flying stones in sight.

Went straight to the dealer- was afraid the windshield might break up into two pieces while driving.

The service mgr at first claimed damage from a stone but could not find an impact site. I claimed improper original installation such that the windshield had excessive residual stress which eventually relieved itself by cracking.

The service mgr agreed to talk to the Subaru technical rep, which he did immediately by phone and came back with authorisation for a no charge replacement. Later I found that the replacement windshield differed from the original in that it did not have a heating element. Go figure. Maybe the thermal gradient through the glass was too great? maybe residual stress due to bending during installation? or some combination? anyway it did not seem to be a big surprise to the Subaru rep.

Hope this helps you or anyone else in a similar situation.

----- Original Message ----- From: "Bruce Helms" Newsgroups: alt.autos.subaru Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2005 9:27 PM Subject: Cracked windshield with wiper blade heaters?

original in that it did not have a heating element. Go figure. Maybe the thermal gradient through the glass was too great?

Very strange - I've just had the exact same problem.

How is a failed winshield related to AWD ? ?

If subaru can't obtain quality glass how I'm concerned of the quality of their other components.

Maybe something along the lines of "Gee, if they did one thing wrong, then they can't do anything, right!"??

Yeah, the radio is pretty cheesy too, so I guess the whole car is a POS.

It's a good thing NASA never used that rationale. They'd still be trying to get a Redstone to fly.

-John O

quality

Maybe to you. :-)

Supposing this is not rock damage, it's either a design defect in the glass, frame or heater, a manufacturing defect in either of the three, or an assembly defect. Considering the distance between the engineers (figurative and maybe literal) who design body and drivetrain (Japan?), and the glassmaker (Japan?) and the assembly line (Indiana), making a connection between the windshield and drivetrain is a major stretch. IMO it's an illogical stretch.

My OBW has a deflector, is that what it does? I really don't know why it is there, other than to protect the paint directly under the deflector, although where it touches the paint has rubbed off.

-John O

Hi,

You ought to commute on a couple of the freeways we use most in SoCal that also handle most of the gravel hauling business in the area! NOBODY has "quality" glass if you judge by the broken windshields I see on all makes... my '92 Toyota's due for its fourth windshield in 225k miles, my '90 Subie only its third in 357k miles--but then if I replaced them WHEN they broke instead of driving around with cracks and pits for a few years each time, those numbers would easily be doubled or tripled. I wouldn't judge the quality of a car by a broken windshield...

Rick