Cold wether cracking windshield

:eek: !!111 last night was the first really cold night here; 14f at most, so i let the car warm up...put all the defrosters on and the heat on auto for about 5-10min before i left...low and behold a crack starts to grow across my windshield about 1/2 way between the passengers side difroster and arcing up just over a foot and half way across the window...now i do a lot of highway driving so i am no stranger to replacing windows but that is ridiculous...anyone else have this problem or suggestion? I was just going to go to my dealer and what not they are usually good about.

did it just crack from the change in temp, i find that rather strange.

 

It got down to -15 last night by me, single digits by the time i started the car. It certainly didn't like me turning it over, but it started on the first turn no problems. I have a crack on my windshield from a few months ago. It was maybe 1-2 cm. So far i have not seen it move or spread an inch.

 

If anything i would say that maybe you had an existing crack or something which the significant change in temp caused it to split. Certainly something i am keeping an eye on in my case. However, i doubt highly that a normal windshield with no problems or cracks would just split like that. It wasn't THAT cold out.

absolutely just the change in temp...i check the car constantly for niks and i watched this thing crack right in front of me...it might have something to do with body flex in edition to the cold as the crack formed when i made a quick turn out of the driveway

It is possible that it would crack from thermal stress if the windshield was improperly mounted. However, it is more likely that you had a small stone chip somewhere. Look where the crack starts or end or anywhere it makes a sharp turn.

 

THis just happened to me. I had a stone chip so small it couldn't be seen unless you knew it was there. I found out about it when I jumped in the car one cold morning and found my windshield cracked from end-to-end. My dealer found the stone chip where the crack takes a 90 degree turn. It was barely large enough to fit the point of his pen into, no way I could have seen it in time to get it fixed.

 

My dealer agreed this was not a very good situation and they will replace the windshield for free, as soon as they can get one! I've been waiting two weeks already.

 

Just for fun I showed the windshield to someon I know in the car glass business. He said that car manufacturers have been making the windhields thinner to save on weight, but looking at the windshield on my OBXT, he felt that Subaru had perhaps gone a little too far and that this windshield was extremely thin. I think we can expect lots of cracked windshields on these cars, and with the wiper heating pads embedded in them, it won't be cheap.

 

Sly

i swear to you there is no stone chip....the crack did start at the end of the window and work its way up and across maybe it was installed improperly, i hope so i don't what to have to replace this thing all the time

Just replaced the "heated" windshield on our Forester and that was almost $600. Yikes! Hope this is not an issue with the Legacy.

 

SBT

!!111 last night was the first really cold night here; 14f at most, so i let the car warm up...put all the defrosters on and the heat on auto for about 5-10min before i left...low and behold a crack starts to grow across my windshield about 1/2 way between the passengers side difroster and arcing up just over a foot and half way across the window...now i do a lot of highway driving so i am no stranger to replacing windows but that is ridiculous...anyone else have this problem or suggestion?

 

I was just going to go to my dealer and what not they are usually good about.

 

Yup - it has happened to at least one other. Check http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5688

I wish i had a service department like that...so far mine has been horrible ordering wrong parts not returning calls scratching the car...I am still waiting on a part they were suppose to have ordered 4 months ago...if i don't hear back from them today i am writhing SOA...i know this is going to be a huge pan i my ass...but their is no way in hell i will be paying for this...there was no chip or damage of any kind and i watched this thing form right in front of me the crack is seamless and clean it started at the bottom of the window ware a rock could not even strike and it worked its way up. I am becoming progressively more aggravated as i wait for the call back...they had better hurry i am starting to breath fire!

dv8ingvector - If you don't mind me asking, which dealership have you been working with?? I am assuming it's the dealer where you bought the car?? I'm curious b/c I'll be looking to buy an LGT soon and am in the Boston/South Shore area.

 

Anyway, sorry to hear about your windshield problems.

Sorry if this is a repeat but I didn't read the rest of the posts...I know ..I know...I'm a bit lazy. It may have happened when you used the heated wipers or the defroster as soon as you got into the cold car?? I don't know if you did that or not. But when using the heated wipers and the defroster on a very cold day I believe you are to heat up the cabin of the car first to get the inner air warm and then you can use the defroster and heated wipers so that you get the windshield temp to match the interior temp. I think this will prevent the cracking. At least that is what I think. Sorry if I'm wrong or repeating myself.

That sounds reasonable to me, but there is no warning about that in the user's manual!

I can recall reading that Subie uses thinner glass for weight/money savings.

The wiper de-icer is there precisely to un-freeze the wipers in the event of a wiper "ice-down" against the windshield. Given their position and function, the glass must be sufficiently designed to withstand rapid increase in temperature (read: heat expansion in the area) as well as the application of a broad range of heating and cooling temps against the inside and outside of the glass.

 

Without an external impact point to start such a crack, one must logically conclude one of two possible reasons for the crack:

 

1) The glass was improperly installed which could lead to stress loads outside the glass' design threshhold or

2) The glass itself is not designed/manufacturued properly.

 

The dealer should resolve this quickly for you as it wasn't impact related.

 

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

SBT

^lol beat me too it

 

Originally Posted by Omen

It may have happened when you used the heated wipers or the defroster as soon as you got into the cold car?? I don't know if you did that or not. But when using the heated wipers and the defroster on a very cold day I believe you are to heat up the cabin of the car first to get the inner air warm and then you can use the defroster and heated wipers so that you get the windshield temp to match the interior temp.

 

that was what crossed my mind but if that is the case what is the point of the deicers...whent to the dealership and they said it was a stone but their is no way is was a stone ware they said it hit, it would have been under the passengers side wiper and would have damaged that as well...regardless their are still a few things i need them to do on the car before i tell them to piss off so i have the coverage and called my guy, i will be having it replaced in a few days and will let you know what he says...but keep an eye out for this!

 

LGTfan88 don't really want to drop names un till i get the rest of my parts put on but check your pm

keep us posted on how it goes. Also roughly how much the new windshield is.

This may be a little unrelated but I had a "bullet hole" about 5 inches down from the driver side headliner. Called Safelite, they came to my house within 2 hours and repaired it for $68. You can still see it a little but it's sure cheaper than buying a whole new whindsheild. From what I understand they can also patch cracks if it's not over a certain length. Next time anyone has something like this happen you may want to call them, especially if the dealer isn't springing for a new windsheild. www.safelite.com

there had to have been either something wrong w/ windshield, or you got hit.

 

I got into the car this am with frost on widshield...

 

flipped on defrost mode, hit windshield * wiper defrosters, and went on my merry way. No cracks...

i was staring at what they say is the stone hit but i can't figure out how a stone hit that low at a speed hard enough to break the window with out me noticing: it literally would have had to hit under the wiper which is also below the hood with out damaging either or getting my attention...i am the only person that drives this car. I constantly check the thing for such damage, as i do quit a bit of long distance driving...however i do admit i never did checked under the wipers figuring that would be statistical impassability...again will keep you all posted of final verdict and price for future reference

it is certianly possible.. When I was a kid, there was a house next door to a friends house we were outside playing at.

 

This glass panel in the door was perfectly sound... and a buddy threw a pebble... a VERY small rock..

 

threw is too fast a word.. under hand lob would be better. But the glass shattered and we were dumbfounded.

 

this glass took MUCH harder hits from tennis balls etc,.

 

 

it could be that a small rock or something hit on some sort of edge.. Unless you wipe you hand over the windshiled, you probably wouldn't have even felt it.

 

thats all it takes to get things started.. to weaken the integrity. especially if you follow the 'glass is just a slow moving liquid' argument

 

think of glass cutters. They score the glass in a VERY shallow manner... and it breaks erfectly on that line. Try the same line without scoring... impossible..

i was staring at what they say is the stone hit but i can't figure out how a stone hit that low at a speed hard enough to break the window with out me noticing: it literally would have had to hit under the wiper which is also below the hood with out damaging either or getting my attention...i am the only person that drives this car. I constantly check the thing for such damage, as i do quit a bit of long distance driving...however i do admit i never did checked under the wipers figuring that would be statistical impassability...again will keep you all posted of final verdict and price for future reference

That is exactly what happened to mine! I had a very tiny, almost invisible nick in the windshield in front of the driver's seat, and when you look at it from outside, it is actually behind the windshield wiper!

 

My dealer has agreed to replace my windshield though, so I'm not complaining.

heh that sounds like my luck...but i guess that is better then a problem will all of them

2000 LGT wagon @ 800 miles windshield cracked from under the passenger A pillar across to the center while the car was parked in the driveway on a 70-degree day. Crack originated from under the molding - installation stress not impact.

 

Same car @ 45,000 miles (4 days ago) cracked while we drove 20mph through a school zone with no other traffic, running the defroster (car was already warmed up from running errands in town). Origin was in the center. This time there may have been a pin sized shallow stone chip visible only with a magnifier...nothing we noticed that warranted repair. Crack spread full-width in minutes, on a very smooth city street. Temp setting for the defroster was only 75%, not full hot.

 

I'd say Subaru glass is very prone to thermal stress problems. The wiper heating element in our '05 LGT makes me nervous now. Good luck to you guys in gravel-y areas.

Maybe we should all "break in" our glass.. heat.. cool off.. heat.. cool off.. etc.

Would that be 30 cycles at about 40mph to 0 then repeat?

 

SBT

 

I'd say Subaru glass is very prone to thermal stress problems. The wiper heating element in our '05 LGT makes me nervous now. Good luck to you guys in gravel-y areas.

Yep just had my first windshield changed on my OBXT, it cracked at about 2000 miles from an almost invisible stone chip. I live at the end of a dirt trail, but the worst part is the 20 miles of country roads with lots of trucks.

 

I'm keeping my fingers crossed and I will probably have to check my windshield with a magnifying glass every time I hear a stone impact.